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Tel's Tales 027 – Easter Monday at Croft 21 April 2014 Following the 3 Sisters sprint a few people had repairs to make. Matt Turner had discovered the correct way to fit a clutch to his R1 and was back in action and I had a completely rebuilt Flatshifter fitted after it failed to provide ignition cut last time out, making gear shift slow. There were 18 WSCC drivers so a good turnout and the weather was a bit nippy but dry and at times sunny and after the earlier forecasts during the week, which suggested rain, we were all well pleased. Before the event started Richard Kerr and partner in crime Luke Algar had not been able to finish the supercharged duratec car so Richard was kindly offered a double drive with Paul Aspden ans Luke was doubling with Nick in the turbo charged Force. For those with an early start on Monday morning we drove through sunshine and rain and apparently, when half way there, Lee Smith ( car on trailer) realised that he had left the car keys at home so as John Williams was in convoy with him he did Lee a big big favour and tear arsed it back in his Westfield to get the keys! Before I get into the detail I have to say that everyone really enjoyed the day and were buzzing at the technicalities and commitment required to be fast through some of the bends. There could have been an extra run if the single seater boys could have avoided spinning so often or breaking down. Also there was no time display for competitors or spectators and we had to wait up to 30 mins after our runs to get the times so we used this as “wind up time”. Most of us had either walked the track or borrowed bikes to cycle round and remind ourselves of the layout and some of the tricky corners we had to tackle. Practice runs saw Steve Everall spin off at high speed attacking Barcroft too hard, the electric car of John Roberts silently cruised around, John Hoyle broke the class record in P1 by over 2 seconds but decided to swop his 4.44 diff to his 3.92, or is it a 4.1,? as he was topping out down the straight to Tower ( it took about 35 mins with help from Justin!!!! pretty impressive). Phil Nicholls was going well in his modified engined car which has more grunt now. It was good to see Paul Aspden back out in class E but an oil leak from the crankcase breather needed a slight modification (new part fabricating and fitting) but he was on the pace against Richard Kerr and Andy Hargreaves in the R1 who was also going well.In G, Matt Turner, “Tiny Tim” Nunn and I were doing battle and Matt was a little concerned about his possible lack of power on this high speed track. Nick Nad Luke in the Force had a miserable day as the car was not producing the anticipated power and also broke a rose joint on the rear suspension so Luke drove home and back to get that fixed in time for a final run late in the day. We had 2 practices and 3 timed runs and Jason Brown took the points in class A from John Williams. Class B saw Lee Smith demolish the timing gear in his efforts to catch Phil Nicholls and newcomer Simon Rossinelli but Phil was quickest with Lee's last run being a Fail. John Hoyle, until the last T3 runs was the quickest Westfield out there never mind the fact that he eventually destroyed the record in class D reducing it by nearly 6 seconds to 81.90 secs form a Target of 87.73 secs with Steve trying hard but not improving on his T1 time and finishing with 91.59 secs. Class E was so close but Andy Hargreaves finished with 87.03 secs beating Paul on 87.06 secs by 0.03secs and both beat the Target Time so that was great driving. Richard Kerr was happy to get a drive and bag the points for class F with 88.81 secs but the double drive ended as Paul decided that the oil pressure was dropping too low and needed sorting out. Matt scored well on class G with his T2 time of 83.51 secs and Tim and I battled it out to the end as we pushed harder all day long and fed off the paddock craic and the adrenalin. T1 saw Tim quickest with 82.68 secs but in T2 and T3 I reduced the time to 81.59 secs against Tim's best of 82.32 secs (beating Target) so I bagged the trophy and the points as well as being the quickest Westfield on the day. Class H saw our mates Del Hodder and Gary Bunn at it again with very similar times with both their last runs being there quickest with Del on 82.19 secs and Gary just pipping him on 81.75 secs but they were not challenging the Target Time. The Electric car managed a best of 99.75 secs and we would like to see it out again. So those beating target and scoring more than 100 points were: Terry Everall Tim Nunn Paul Aspden Andy Hargreaves John Hoyle The Yorkshire Mafia team stole the majority of the points, are dangerous and are not to be approached unless you are offering a bribe or a beer...!!! So there you have it, the bike engines stood up well against the big power cars even on a big circuit, the Novices are now well integrated into the Westfield paddock scene and are putting in good times already and we are all looking forward to next years event on Easter Monday... Hope to see some of you at the Harewood weekend and hoping for more good weather! Terry.everall@virgin.net Speed Series Correspondent Class G competitor

Well it happened - I raced my electric Westfield in a proper, MSA approved, sprint race. Although other electric cars have appeared at various race events, I think that this might have been the first time in the UK that an electric car has officially competed in an approved series. It's thank's to the WSCC that I've been able to do this. The car is one of seven cars developed 3 years ago. It has a 120KW motor (that's about 130bhp at the wheels), one gear and weighs 900Kg !!! The motor generates about 300 ft lb from zero speed - even so, being geared to do 115mph with no gearbox means she's slow of the line. Power rises from zero to 120KW at 50mph - after that is a constant 120KW up to 110mph. Without a power band as such and no gear changing means the power sensation is more like thrust. Although not fast by Westfield standards, the car was still faster than some of the other cars - not a bad start particularly as both me and the car had never been on the track before. So, now I have to sort out the suspension (too soft), put the car on a diet, boost the power and find some talent - normal racing problems I guess. Cheers John

First ever sprint in the Busa. I dont have a trailer for the Busa so i'm keeping the events I do fairly local in and around Essex, the 1st event of the year was at Northweald only 20 mins drive from home, as anyone who has raced there knows, has its own weather system but fortunately for all of us the weather was excellent. Except for giving it some welly in a straight line the Busa is so bl**dy fast that you really cant get anywhere near the limit on the road, so first practice run was really the first time i had ever been able to throw it around. Heart pounding on the start line waiting for the green light (no other sport gives you that sort of feeling) 4k rpm drop the clutch and wheel spin away from the line, 2nd gear, 3rd gear, wow this sequential box is awesome think I'll go for 4th gear, BRAKE, there's the corner why isn't this thing turning, both front wheels must be locked up as I sail straight past the corner, quick doughnut round and carry on round the rest of the lap locking up in almost every single braking zone. Not the best first lap but a still a huge amount of fun! The rest of the event was pretty much the same, I only managed to post one official time with the rest of my with me struggling to slow the thing down, mainly caused by myself not realising just how fast i'm going but also I think down to the Medium compound A048s on the front. Next event i'll have a set of soft compound A048s on the front to match the rears which should hopefully help me make up the huge 5 seconds deficit to the other guys in my class!!! Next event North Weald with Green Belt motor club 20th April

The last even at North Weald I left feeling a bit frustrated by the huge margin by which the others had beaten my by plus my struggle to actually put a clean lap in! I was hoping for more sun shine but the weather forecast was for rain all day, never having driven the Busa in the wet i knew this would be an interesting day should it rain. The morning was actually nice and dry for the cruise over to the event how ever as is typical 2mins before the 1st practice run the rain started... for some reason the marshals wouldn't let me drive round holding the brolly! Watching the other competitors slip and slide round the airfield it was with some trepidation that I lined up to the start line, especially with my braking troubles in the dry at the previous events. The track was incredibly slippery even in 5th gear i was unable to use full throttle as the rears would just spin up, but I made it round both practice laps without incident and only 1 second off the other guys in my class so was quite happy with that. Green Belt managed to fit in 1 timed run before lunch in order to try and get a lap in before the weather worsened, i took this as an opportunity to bank a clean lap in knocking 5 seconds off my best practice run however so did the other guys leaving me trailing by 1.2 seconds.Still I was happy with that performance in the challenging conditions so treated my self to a Greasy Cheese Burger from the catering van :-) After lunch the conditions hadn't really changed so some more slippery fun was in order, putting in my best lap of the day giving my 2nd in class 0.9 seconds ahead of 3rd place and 9th overall. The class winner was another westfield who was a whole 4 seconds faster... though my racing driver excuse is that he did have traction control which would have been handy in those conditions!!! Looking forwards to the next event Hethel 4th May

So over the last few weeks I've been doing bits and bobs to the car. First up was to test fit the box to the engine. I ended up having to modify the new bellhousing to make the clutch fork fit, which was a bit annoying as it should just be a bolt together job. I then slung the engine and 'box into the car to see how things fit. So, I can move the engine back further than the old XFlow, this helps with a bunch of stuff. It brings my shifter out from under the dash and moves the weight further in board (well behind the front axle). It will also help with the engine mounting, pulling the new mounts over the current mounting plates: The other side will require more work but should be straight forward enough. Along side this I've also started work on the fuel system, I pulled the tank out today as it will need modified for a fuel return and while there I also pulled the roll bar off to get powder coated, although I'm not sure on colour yet... I've also got most the required bits now, plus some cycle wings to get rid of the old fashioned look

I'd have both if I were you…

before you part company why not go to a club meeting or two, join other members for a group blat, do a track day or two then make your mind up these days I would say 90% of my driving is with other club members and the social always makes it worthwhile failing that just go and by the Porsche

Fantastic pictures Andrew. As Terry said, great day, good banter,and I have to say big thanks to Richard & John for fixing the car, Gom for the pats to fix it, Tel for the tools to fix it, and guess who supervised Great fun though, and that's why we do it, well done to Gom for the class win, last run and just 0.03 faster I'll try & make it a bit more reliable!

So, about 6 months ago I bought my '91 SEi, although for 5 and a half months I did nothing with it, I didn't even remove it from the previous owners unit... I bought it to replace my Fiesta track car (that ended up seeing little track use) as its rust issues got too bad for me to warrant repairing. I had always planned on moving into a kit car eventually so I had built up a Sigma in my Fiesta to take onto the next project, which brings me to my SEi. I bought a Westfield with an engine that didn't run brilliantly as I intended to remove it for the Sigma. I'm not a fan of carbs, I've grown up with EFI and find it much easier to work on and I already have a good engine and management. I know not everyone will agree with what I'm doing. So, this is how it started off: So, a couple of weeks back I started taking it apart to size up how the Sigma will fit. So, out with the old: And in with my manky old test engine: I've yet to sit it in with a 'box on it, that's the next thing to do. This will allow me to see where the mounts need to go. Every thing seems to fit nicely so far, the only issue is exhaust. I have a Tony Law system that may fit if I modify the frame, but I have an uncertainty of whether or not the steering column will clear even if I do this. So, because of this I'm thinking about getting a custom manifold made to go out the bonnet, this allows me to keep the frame original and have decent flow. Oh, and yes, it looks a bit tired, I do plan on tidying it up as I go.

Yes I'm looking for a 2 bedroom house with garaging for 10 cars and a couple of acres so my drive would be good for road testing ;-)

This is the one piece of the jigsaw we've been light on on information on, I vaguely recall someone else saying they'd had to claim for something and it had all been nice and smooth. So while I'm sorry you had to claim, it's great to hear the experience was OK. (Whilst hoping I never need to find out!)

You might be interested to know that I've recently had to claim for a windscreen through them (still in the process) and they seem to be just as good on that side of things as selling insurance. It's always been my worry that a broker might be fine at taking your money but not so good at helping when the boot is on the other foot, but my worries are unfounded here.

So...what's the advantage if these then? Makes your wallet lighter, thus faster?