This 1973 Jensen Healey MK1 is a limited production car and is said to be manufactured late in the build cycle. The seller is asking for $6,750 for this rare roadster. There are 98,500 miles on the odometer and the seller says there is a clean title. It is located near Los Alamitos, California. Thank you, Pat L, for the tip. You can view more about this car here on Craigslist.
Unfortunately, the seller does not have a whole lot of information or photos regarding the mechanical components of this car. What is listed, is that the engine powering this Jensen is an inline four-cylinder, Lotus 907 connected to an unspecified manual four-speed transmission. It runs and drives perfectly. Based on the photo of the engine, it looks to be in a well-maintained condition.
The seller only provides one photo of the interior as well, and very little information about it as well. It does look like it has been kept up wonderfully. The seller notes that it has a factory hardtop, that was apparently a rare feature, and it also comes with a soft top. One of the last details noted by the seller is that the bumper is a smaller bumper, not the larger that were installed from 1974 through 1976.
If this car is as rare as the seller says it is, then it might be worth the price that is being asked. The name alone already starts to set it apart from a Triumph or an MG. In the listing, the seller notes a number of early ’70s collector cars that have similar power to weight ratios and their current market values. Based on that chart, clearly, the seller is trying to communicate that this car is the best option out of all of them. At least you can compare and make your own decision.
An older guy buys a Jensen and is pushing it over a 100 on highway 99, when he sees red lights flashing behind him. He pushes it up to 130, but can’t loose the cop, so he decides to pull over. The cop asks him, “why did you do that?” He says, “My wife ran off with a highway patrolmen a few years ago and I was afraid you were trying to bring her back.”
I love Jensen-Healey’s. I came very close to buying one in 1974 (I bought a new Trans-Am instead for about $1500 less). They were fairly quick, but where they really excelled was handling. With a 50/50 weight balance and very low center of gravity, Jensen-Healey’s handle fantastic. Haffaker racing built a half dozen Healey’s for SCCA racing, that dominated in D-Production for years.
Being a limited production sports car, they were a hodge podge of parts, with engines coming from Lotus, and rears from Vauxall. Early car’s came with a Sunbeam 4 speed, while later ones got a Getrag 5 speed.
This car’s missing it’s center console, and I don’t care for the aftermarket body side moldings, but otherwise it looks like a pretty decent example of a Jensen-Healey. If it wasn’t 3000 miles away from me, I might be tempted to look at it.
Nice to see the miles on this one. Someone had some fun!
Unless my feeble eyes deceive me, looks like you have to remove the carb to change the oil filter?? Oy Vey. Looks like a typical Brit-tish nightmare to work on. Very unique and looks like a cool example. Good luck to the new owner!
Cheers
GPC
No, you don’t have to remove the carbs but taking off the air filter(easy) will make it simpler.
btw, the carb tops are rotated 90 degrees CCW?– Somebody didn’t know what they were doing.
As pointed out, the car is missing the cheap ’73 center console and the factory hardtop is missing the unobtanium S.S. side & rear trim.
The upgrade to the later engine is a big ++(they have a rear seal instead of the ’73 rope seal–a leaker).
Hvaing owned 26+ of them(& still have the last of the Huffaker factory cars) this isn’t a bad deal, but one NEEDS to know about rust on the floors and in the fender wells, 2 areas prone to rust unless treated with POR15, Mastercoat, or KBS.
If interested, please have the “seller” show these areas or have someone inspect them as the car is a monocoque and not a frame car, making repair of the body rather difficult.
While they definitely have a cult following, the JH is neither rare to find or desirable to the masses. There are 4 for sale in my local CL right now.
Always liked these cars, yet given that these are an interference engine there’s no way I’d be driving this without the timing cover, as meager as it might be.