> Jensen Healey & Jensen GT Tech > Miscellaneous > Fortson Article in the July/Aug issue of the Standard |
> Jensen Healey & Jensen GT Tech > Miscellaneous > Fortson Article in the July/Aug issue of the Standard |
| Moderated by: Greg Fletcher | ||
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noomg Member
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I'm curious has anybody else driven their stock J-H to 130mph? As I recall original J-H road tests mentioned a top end of somewhere around 105 to 108mph. Once just to see what it would do I took my J-H up to around 104/5mph, I had some pedal left but not much, certainly not enough to get to 130mph. Also I don't think the original tires were rated for that kind of speed. |
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Brett Gibson JH5 20497 Member
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I squeezed 110 mph out of mine, still with a bit of pedal left before I ran out of road, 130 mph out of a stock engine I can only think it was a downward grade. |
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redracer Member
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Back in the summer of '76 when I first got my J-H, I put on about 1000 miles on it before taking it up to the Gainseville connector(just north of Atlanta) and got it up to 125 on a very slight downhill and then leveled off with a the speedo showing 121. I know Frank had the engine rebuilt and even rebuilding the engine back to stock will be better the the unbalanced and poorly assembled original, so 130 MAY be possible? |
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Greg Fletcher Administrator 
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That's a good question about the original tire rating. Most all Jensen Healeys would have come with the Pirelli Cinturato 185 70 HR 13 (or Dunlop 185 70 HR 13) when new. I believe that the English equivalent speed for H-rated tires at that time was 130 mph. Pirelli is making this Cinturato style tire again (sold by tire rack and other places), but it's a modern tire in an vintage package. The Cinturato 185/70VR13 CN6 V is now rated to 149mph. |
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redracer Member
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Interesting you mentioned the CN36s; last year I got a set for my GT(the late Joe Mazurk's black one, purchased in November 2013) and my friend Craig Wolfe did as well. I would like to get a set of wheels machined and powder coated to look like new; there is place very near me that may be able to do this, but as of yet I still have not visited them. If the shop does high quality work, I'll post the name and the results for everyone well, off to the St. Louis Nationals soon--looks like a big turnout, bruce |
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Greg Fletcher Administrator
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Years ago, I had my wheels polished and painted by some wheel shop. They used an auto quality paint and clear coated the wheels. They did an amazing job, but it ending up costing a fortune and they asked me not to bring them any more wheels. Attachment: JHwheels-copy.jpg (Downloaded 35 times) |
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redracer Member
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we've had wheels polished as well, and it was expensive, but this is a shop that has a machine to simulate the cut grooves that were in the wheel after they had painted it. I would imagine this is going to be more expensive than the paint& polish |
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