Jensen Healey

Interview with Paul Stanforth on the partnership with Jensen and Tony Marshall on what went wrong with the Jensen Healey.

Paul Stanforth was an apprentice mechanic and part of Healey Le Mans team and Tony Marshall was sales manager for Jensen Motors.

Transcript

Paul Stanforth: Jensen had been building various sort of top-end cars, CV8 Jensen Interceptors in those days, so I think they wanted something that was commercial and I think Healey, having broken away from the MC Austin Healey, were looking for a new partner and Jensen looked like a possibility.

Tony Marshall: Well, the Jensen Healey was one of those misfortunes. The concept was absolutely right, the idea was right, the timing in terms of replacing the Austin Healey 3000 of course was right, bearing in mind that Jensen built all the bodies for the Austin Healey 3000 under contract and, therefore, when the Austin Healey went at the end of 1967, there was a big hole in the factory, a big hole in the finances. The problem with the Jensen Healey was that it was under-developed and the company needed the cash flow and the car had to go down the production line before it was ready to do so and that is a disaster. There were other aspects as well which caused problems, engine supplies from Lotus and so on and so forth but anybody who has got a Jensen Healey now, one which has been properly sorted, they are an amazing motor car, even now, forty odd years on, they are an amazing vehicle motor car. Brilliant!