How the 907 engine got me to Santa Barbara, California in 1983


If you're a fan of vintage British sports cars, you've probably heard of a Jensen-Healey. No, I don't mean an Austin-Healey, although they're related. I mean a British sports car that used the Lotus 907 engine. And of course you know about Lotus, right? And it was the 907 engine that got me to Santa Barbara, but not the way that you think - I never had a Jensen, or a Lotus, I had a Midget.

Time-travel with me back to 1977, when I had just moved to Phoenix at age 19, in a 1965 MG Midget that was held together with scotch tape, baling wire, and bubble gum. And it was always in need of repairs!

Back then there were a lot of British cars on the road, and all you had to do was to look for a building that had a Union Jack painted on it. You know, the British flag. These shops tended to do all British cars, except of course Rolls Royce, and they would often turn away Jaguars. And the shop that I had found was fairly new, and their goal was to be a repair shop that specialized in Jensen-Healeys, as the company, and the dealerships, had recently folded, leaving Jensen people stranded. But they quickly realized that the demand wasn't just local, Jensen owners all over the country were desperate for parts, and that's where I came in.

I was studying commercial art at the time, and one day when my Midget was getting some repairs, the owners of the shop approached me to see if I could do a catalog design for them. Of course I could! I did it in exchange for a new clutch, and the company, called Delta Motorsports, was in the mail order business. I was happy to be paid for my efforts, pleased to see that I was studying something that could make me a living when I graduated, and I went on my merry way, graduating from ASU and moving to Los Angeles.

LA proved too much for this man, and I couldn't make it, and I was dyin' on the vine. LA is a terrible place to be looking for a job! After a few months of nothing, the owners of Delta Motorsports asked me if I'd talk to someone that they had been purchasing parts from, in Santa Barbara. Yes, it was a Lotus place. See the connection now?

The success of Delta Motorsports in mail order really had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with their hard work, but I got the credit, anyway. I was asked if I could do the same thing for these Lotus people in Santa Barbara that I had done for the Jensen-Healey people in Phoenix, and of course I could.

I worked on the Lotus catalog for a couple of years and then decided that it was time to go back to LA and see if I could get that big job that I'd always dreamed about, so in 1986 I gave my notice, and headed back to the big city, older and hopefully wiser. I had learned a lot about Lotus engines, but mostly I had learned that your reputation is everything, and mine was sterling. And whenever I see the numbers 907, I smile.

Image at the top of this post: A 907 engine in a Jensen-Healey.

At Delta Motorsports in 1989.
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