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Nice View from the Office Window Today


Simon Marks - North Oxfordshire AO

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The Eleven (based on the 1957 Lotus Eleven) was the first car kit manufactured by Westfield in 1983.  Following its introduction, customers asked for a similar evocation of the Lotus 7 and these have evolved into the SE variants that make up the bulk of the Westfield "fleet" today.  The Eleven is still produced (in batches of five kits at a time) - three or four batches annually, depending on demand from customers.

They are a rare sight on the road - I have only seen a couple despite knowing about them from the start of their production.  Look in the X Cars section of the forum for car builds.  The kit is MG Midget based and most of us settle for A series engines.  The support for Spridgets means that donor parts and service items are pretty straightforward to obtain, even now, over 40 years since the last 1275cc Midget was produced.

The Eleven is a real head turning car that attracts much attention from all sorts of people.  Not a car to shuffle about anonymously in!

Simon

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Hi Simon,

Lovely, just lovely.

Right time of year coming, you are going to have so much fun.

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Glad to see it is now well past the "Ugly Duckling" stage, Simon!

It looks great, and I hope that before this summer is over mine will look much the same.

edited to add:

And I hope that it doesn't rain in your neck of the woods today, as I see you haven't got a tonneau cover on.

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Simon,

The car looks fantastic.  I'm not sure which 'downs' roads you use but I live in Grove so will look out for you over the summer.  If I am out for a recreational blast it could be in Stephen H's old Westfield or on my Ducati 996....

Simon.

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Hi, Stephen,

There will be no issue with rain today - I will most probably be dispensing with the hoodie for the drive home.  I base my judgement on the Windfinder website that has proved most reliable when I have been responsible for hiring cranes (and not being winded/rained/snowed off) for the last eight years!

Hi, Simon,

It'll be the A338 tonight through Wantage and round the Grove bypass on the way home.  I often use this road so I'll keep an eye out for you, too.

Simon

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I once had a 1970 1275cc Midget and I seem to recall a gearbox weakness in first gear. It's easily crunched on the way from second to third because first is non-synchromesh. After a while it becomes intolerably noisy and needs a 'box rebuild. How much of the suspension is MIdget? Mine used more oil in the front dampers than in the engine!

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Hi,

As someone who shared a friend's "three-speed" 1970 Austin Healey Sprite (i.e. first had gone missing in action) in an Autotest many years ago, I know exactly from where you are coming regarding gearbox weakness!  It is worth mentioning that David and I still came first and second in class such was the torquey nature of the A series engine.  My Westfield has a Ford Type 9 gearbox which gives a useful overdrive top of 22mph per 1,000rpm, rather than 18mph with a four speed BMC 'box.

The Westfield Eleven only uses the Midget uprights and hubs with Wesfield supplied wishbones up front and the Midget axle, adapted to take four parallel arms and a Panhard Rod at the rear.  Coil-over shock absorbers do the damping so no lever arms spraying oil everywhere!  Replacing the standard Westland issue coil-overs with longer, slightly sofer, Protech units seems to be a worthwhile mod.  I have a set coming tomorrow (all being well) so will soon find out.

Simon

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So, Simon, the only remaining weakness is that nasty little bypass hose twixt block and head! BTW I thought it was 16mph/1000rpm on my Midget, but who's arguing!

Further thought - does it use the face commutator (axial) or the cylindrical/radial commutator on the starter motor? Mine had the face commutator where the commutator is a 'daisy' of segments facing out from the non-Bendix end and with brushes that act on along the principal axis of the armature. All fine thus far, but the two tri-lobed thread self-locking type screws (is it two?) that hold the end plate with the brushes on it against the end of the motor frame, kept coming loose and the brushes failed to make contact with the commutator. These screws, once lost, were virtually unobtainable even in 1972 when I had the problem, so I bodged up some others that were so bl**** tight I'd never have got the end off again!

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20 minutes ago, Man On The Clapham Omnibus said:

So, Simon, the only remaining weakness is that nasty little bypass hose twixt block and head! BTW I thought it was 16mph/1000rpm on my Midget, but who's arguing!

 

Depends which diff. you use. The earlier ones used a lower (numerically higher) ratio than the later ones. I think Simon may have one of the later, higher, ratio diffs. I certainly have for mine.

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Hi, Again,

My car has a diff from a 1973 Midget.  The 22mph comes from comparison with SatNav and my rally tripmeter and I worked back to 18mph.

Editing:  I've just looked it up and the 1973 car would have had a 3.9:1 ratio in the axle and earlier cars were 4.22:1.

I'm afraid I don't have any detailed knowledge regarding my starter motor.  When I tried the donor car before dismantling it, all was good so all I did was clean and paint the starter motor.

Simon

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow! That was my first reaction. That is a beautiful car! 

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