Jensen Healey Take Four, or is it Five.....

Ron Earp

Ron Earp

Administrator
Jeff and I made the journey to Atlanta to pick up the Jensen with new motor from Judson Manning, our Lotus 907 engine guru. Judson rebuilt the motor after I did bad things to it outlined here:

http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/...topic=8202&st=0

Judson put this motor together and fixed a few of the issues with oiling, adapters, lines, etc. that caused the last failure. I think we'll be in business this time around, at least as far as the motor is concerned.

We were able to use Judson's GA tag from his road going Jensen to have a few spins around the block in the race car. In fact, I have some rather crude video of Jeff driving as well as some pictures I'll download off the camera and post.

Anyhow, with a street muffler setup the car drove very well! Motor was smooth, as smooth as a 907 is going to be which is to say it sort of sounds like a box of rocks at idle and low RPM - normal for anyone that has owned one of these or an Esprit.

Power is good I think. Pulls decently to about 4k, and then pulls really strongly from about 4.5k to around 6.5k-7k, at least strong for a 4V 2L. While I don't think it is nearly as powerful as a good Z, or RX7, it is lighter and might allow it to run with those cars. We hope to find out.

Anyhow, it has been a long road on this car, very long indeed. Jeff Young has put in countless hours on this car and I really appreciate his time and effort, it is as much his car as it is mine and we hope to run both these British cars in S for a year before building new cars for R. Hopefully 2007 will see a full season of this thing being on the track as it is basically done now - just some cosmetic things to sort out, spolier, etc. But no huge "issues" are pressing now.

I'll get some pics and the video up here tomorrow.

Ron
 
Image018.jpg


http://www.gt40s.com/images/jh.3gp

Here is a really bad picture, but, it is driving on the road, no kidding!!! The video link there, the 3gp file, will open in a recent version of QuickTime and you can watch Jeff drive off down the road.

Debut for this car will be CMP in Feb 2007. I'd love to take it to VIR this month, but it is simply too close to the Enduro and I don't have enough political capital with the Minster of Domestic Affairs to pull that off.

That's okay, while I think we could race it today if needed the off time will allow the fitting of a proper fuel cell, some good brake ducts, and cleaning up of various installed systems.

I really liked driving the car and felt the power was strong for an engine with no dyno tuning at all - no timing optimization, A/F fiddling, and wearing a restrictive street muffler. From the EGTs we know we're cool and rich, so there is some power there. Certainly some with timing adjustment, no doubt, and there are lots of little things to fiddle with.

In short, it'll be a never ending project but that is okay. If I can get it on track, learn to drive it, then I'll have a good time and it'll be a useful part of my racing career - but not the end for sure, plans are brewing for ITR cars already!
 
Hey Ron,

First Congratulations on finally getting it running right. Secondly, have you considered running as a vintage Production car? I'm sure you'd do well in small bore. It might even give you an excuse to take the month of August off and run the Montery Historics at Mazda Raceway, Laguna-Seca. Just a thought for life for your car after ITS.

James
 
Well, my thoughts exactly - it'll get a SVRA log book for sure so we can run some historical events like the Gold Cup at VIR. Only thing I don't like is Jeff was telling me you have to run old tires too - don't like the idea of paying $200 each for some crappy tires to run at a historic event. Jeff has run it before in the TR8 and did well. All those weekend guys racing historic don't flog their cars the way we do, and the lap times show it!

R
 
Cool! Can't tell if that's really Jeff or not....I can't see his loafers...but I'll take your word on it!

congrats!
 
Well, my thoughts exactly - it'll get a SVRA log book for sure so we can run some historical events like the Gold Cup at VIR. Only thing I don't like is Jeff was telling me you have to run old tires too - don't like the idea of paying $200 each for some crappy tires to run at a historic event. Jeff has run it before in the TR8 and did well. All those weekend guys racing historic don't flog their cars the way we do, and the lap times show it!

R
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Coker make a tire for that, I'm pretty sure, although you may get by with RA-1's depending on rules. As for the speed and competitiveness, I guess it depends on the organization. I know several guys who run with VARA, they also have a formula/sports racer group too, and I'd be hard pressed to say they don't flog their cars as hard as any SCCA racer does. During the SCCA vintage weekend at Laguna-Seca VARA guys were some of the top finishers in all the classes they ran in. Johnny Wilkins finished 2nd in his 240Z in big-bore production, and the Checkerd Flag spitfire's were right there in small bore. Sound like a good plan, I'm sure you'll have fun B)

James
 
You can barely tell it is JH the resolution is so bad!!

I should say some of those historic guys don't flog their cars. I'm sure some others get after it pretty hard. Jeff scared a few guys though since he's used to much closer positioning on the track than those fellows are used to doing. Hell, for that matter I imagine a lot of SCCA guys will scare the BMW and Porsche club guys too, SCCA is pretty much a full contact sport despite the fact it isn't suppose to be!
 
Hell, for that matter I imagine a lot of SCCA guys will scare the BMW and Porsche club guys too...[/b]
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Not a problem. Those P cars just bounce right off.

SCCA is pretty much a full contact sport despite the fact it isn't suppose to be!
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Now ya tell me. ;)
 
You can barely tell it is JH the resolution is so bad!!

I should say some of those historic guys don't flog their cars. I'm sure some others get after it pretty hard. Jeff scared a few guys though since he's used to much closer positioning on the track than those fellows are used to doing. Hell, for that matter I imagine a lot of SCCA guys will scare the BMW and Porsche club guys too, SCCA is pretty much a full contact sport despite the fact it isn't suppose to be!
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I've heard that about NASA in these parts. Some punk in a cheap-o Nissan comes up and spins you just because he can, and his car costs 1/8th of yours and he can find 1,000 for every one of yours in the salvage yard.

Please tell me that photo wasn't take on a cell phone?


James
 
Cell phone, all I had with me at the time. Older cell phone too, new ones have good resolution.

Here is another before we ripped around in it from the engine guy.

RonCar480.jpg
 
Those vintage guys ran hard I thought -- had fun running with them but couldn't use Hosiers. Had to buy Avons at the track, which put a damper on the weekend.

Jake, that's me, and it's wingtips, not loafers my friend....lol.....
 
Those vintage guys ran hard I thought --
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Maybe so, but I can't see flogging a car 100% that is of some value like some cars those guys have, compared to our IT race cars. I'd be sad if my IT race car got wadded into a ball, but that is what it is for, not showing or looking at. Flog away!

R
 
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