We, my wife, Jan or as she is better known "Sam" and I bought "Jenny" (The truth is this car had no printable name, for a long time.) a 1974 Jensen-Healey in May of 1991. Jenny had about 41k miles on her and she was a beauty (except for the "Saturn Gold" paint color, which neither of us really liked). "Sam" had owned both an A-H Sprite and a 3000 before, and very much wanted another sports car. I was much less "enthusiastic", (having never owned an open car, I didn't know how much fun they are) having owned a Triumph motorcycle, I knew how much trouble and how expensive British vehicles were to maintain. "Sam" enthusiasm eventually won out over my reluctance.

Well right away, Jenny needed new tires; her carbs rebuilt, points, plugs and wires naturally and unexpectedly a new water pump. The bad new$ was about nine hundred dollars. The water pump was $360 exchange. We then had two joyous, blissful, trouble free months of driving pleasure.

In August we planed to travel to Perry, OK for "Sam's" class reunion and thought it would be great to drive Jenny. It was at 3:00 am, in a downpour, at sixty five an hour, on I-35 near Turner Falls OK, that the headlight switch decided it to depart from this world. And did so, in a dramatic and pungent cloud of smoke! Leaving us in total darkness for a very long and terrifying second and a half! After a couple of "Oh S...s!!" and some fast thinking, although it didn't seem so fast at the time. I remembered that J-H's were equipped with the "European type" of "I'm gonna pass you now" headlight flashing feature, I pulled back on the turn signal arm and "THANK THE LORD!" we had headlights again. No taillights?, no problem!, we'll turn on the emergency flashers. After a short roadside stop to "regain our composure" we figured it would be an excellent time to find lodging for the remainder of the night. The nearest town was Davis about 15 miles away, so we headed there. About halfway to town, the emergency flasher switch, wanting not to be completely out "drama-ed" and there by, it's demise totally forgotten, made its own exit to "Lucas" heaven. Leaving us in another thick cloud smoke. Arriving in Davis, in such grand and auspicious style, we inquired at the first inn we came to. With our luck still running high, we were informed that this was the weekend of the annual National Baptist Encampment and there was not a room to be had for at least 50 miles in any direction. (Oh, Hallelujah!) Being highly resourceful, not to mention flexible, we "slept" in the J-H in the parking lot of the Davis Police Department building. Thankfully, Jenny has reclining seats and deep foot wells and the top (hood) was in good condition and "Sam's" 4'11" and 98 lb. frame allowed her plenty of room on the drivers side under the steering wheel. On the plus side; we did get invited to have coffee and donuts with the Police Dispatcher and Duty Officer about 6:30 AM, we did meet some very nice people and Jenny got us back home in the daylight with no more problems.

In an ad, in White Lady Magazine, we found a man in Plano TX. (our hometown) that had all the necessary parts and a lot of other unnecessary parts that we just had to buy anyway, to fix jenny right up. With Jenny back, on the road again, we enjoyed the fall weather and then we stored her for the winter. In the spring after another carburetor rebuild ($125) she was running again, in top condition, temporarily. One afternoon, I was returning home from a short drive across town, when suddenly and without warning, a great cloud of oil smoke started coming from the tailpipe. Then came a mist of oil, then a flood of oil, then the engine died. The autopsy reveled, not a hole in a piston as I expected, but a rather obvious "egg shaped" wearing of the cylinder bores, at this time the car only had 43k miles on the odometer. I once again contacted my parts man in Plano, having noted on our previous visit, he had an extra engine in his inventory. I bought the replacement engine (which was reputed to have only 5 k miles on it) and a transmission and clutch and some other parts. (Jenny's gear box had a habit of jumping out of second, when under heavy torque. Why the clutch and other parts? why not?). We got it all for $650, not too bad. After this surgery, Jenny developed over-heating problems that had never plagued her before and I was unable to cure them. In a very short and unhappy time the second engine also began to burn excessive amounts of oil and became undriveable.

For the next several years, Jenny was our "garage queen". "Sam" and I were very disappointed and angry with her! (ie, the unprintable names) "Sam" said, "I'm sorry I ever wanted it in the first place!" "Just sell it!" I'm sure she said "it". But I knew, I'd just be giving her away. In her infirmed condition no one would give us what she was worth, so there she sat, sad, covered up and gathering dust in garage.

Finally, I knew I had to either fix her or get rid of her! I also knew I didn't trust those aluminum Lotus engines. I wanted some reliable "American iron". I planed to put a Chevy Small Block V8 into her. But, I was talked out of that idea, by with the well known experts at John's Cars of Dallas. I determined that the best power plant and transmission for Jenny was the 4.3 L V6 and 700R4 from a Chevy truck. However, I soon found that the Fuel Injection unit was too tall to fit under the hood (bonnet) and there wasn't any room for the computer. Solution, convert to carburation with a low profile intake manifold. After being told by several "experts" that "the 4.3 engine

can not be converted to carburation" and "the factory HEI distributor from an earlier 229ci Chevy V6 wouldn't work in the 4.3" and several other "it can't be done's". The metamorphosis of Jenny into Jenny Mouse took about a year and a half to complete. It required a great deal of custom fabrication of cross members, engine mounts and brackets and modifications to the chassis, suspension and drive tunnel, a custom driveshaft and a lot of other changes too numerous to recount. The stock exhaust manifolds wouldn't clear the steering shaft, which also had to be modified, so a set of after-market tube headers were purchased and modified to fit. A complete exhaust system had to be fabricated; it has dual 2.5" pipes with Flowmaster's and a balance tube. Jenny now produces a wonderful "exhaust note" and the two tailpipes attract attention as well.

For those lacking the necessary familiarity with the slang terms, to make the connection, I'll explain. The slang term "Rat Motor" refers to the Chevrolet "Big Block" V8 engines. The terms "Mouse" or "Mouse Motor" refer to the "Small Block" Chevy V8 engines. So naturally, my demented logic dictates, that "Mini Mouse" would apply to the 4.3-liter and other 90-degree V6 Chevrolet engines. That brings to the "nom et premons" Jenny (Mini) Mouse.

The name wasn't the only thing to change with this transformation, the entire personality of the car changed. Jenny Mouse now has an attitude! And the power to back it up! She is a lot more fun to drive now (although, sometimes I miss the preciseness of the manual gearbox, but in Dallas' traffic it's that often) and the overdrive is a real asset the car still delivers 17 mpg in town and 21 on the road. She has lost some of her balance and agility but can easily hold her own in the everyday world. In my opinion, what she's gained in straight-line performance more than makes up for the loss. I discovered immediately that the 185/70x13 tires didn't have enough grip for the V6's torque and went in search of bigger rubber. Aware that there is a limited choice in 13" tires; I started by looking for 15" wheels. But, there is nothing made with a 4 on 4" bolt pattern. Opting for the least expensive wheels I could find, I bought P-R brand, 15"x 6.5" with a +40-mm offset. They came in a 4 on 100-mm bolt pattern, which I had re-machined to 4 on 4" the total cost was about $92 per wheel, that included the purchase price, tax, machine work and new lug nuts. Then I put 205VR50x15 on the front and 225HR15 on the rear. These tires made a noticeable difference in the traction and handling and in combination with the wheels a striking difference in the appearance. The 205/50x15 are 23.1" diameter the 185/70x13 were 23.2" and the 225/50x15 are only 0.66" taller than the 13's at 23.86"(*) that wouldn't have thrown the speedo off too much. If I had kept the original speedometer, but it wouldn't hookup to the 700R4, and the drive gearing would have been wrong anyway. So, I bought a VDO electronic programmable speedometer. Going from 4 to 6 cyls, I could have re-calibrated the tachometer, but opted to replace it with a VDO unit to match the new speedometer. This was a very easy swap in the J-H because the 80-mm. Smiths gauges are very close in size to the 3.125" VDO units and mount in a similar fashion. I said it was an "easy swap" and it would have been if I could have gotten my big mits in there to do it. Again "Sam" smallness came in "handy". She has slim hands with long fingers, (she can reach over an octave on a piano) this allowed her to get hands in there to do the installation for me. Like I said this was a "very easy swap"!

(*) This wheel and tire combination does not have any clearance problems on the front of the J-H. Even though the wheels are a 1" wider and the tires are 0.8" wider than stock. On the rear the only clearance problem for the 225/50x15 was caused by the location of the non-stock exhaust pipes. I had to fabricate a 3/8" standoff to give the rear tires more room. This wouldn't be necessary with the stock exhaust and 205 or 215/50x15. Also, I was told by the "experts", the ride quality would suffer "measurably" with "wide low profile tires". I haven't noticed any major difference. One other note about the wheels, the Jensen's wheel boss is 2" dia the wheels are made for 2.875" boss. On the front I machined a centering ring and fixed to the wheels. In the rear the design of the standoffs incorporates a centering ring.

The bottom line: I'm sure the purists will think I have ruined a perfectly good J-H. In answer to that I would say, I've had the car together and running for just over a year now and I've clocked 8,500 miles on it that’s over 4 times the miles I got out both Lotus engines. I haven't had to rebuild the carburetor once and if I did any Chevy mechanic could work on it and would have the parts on hand. It starts every time I turn the key and if I ever have to replace the water pump it won't cost $360.