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I nominate Pete for 2015 Organiser. He just seems have a natural instinct

having had a total loss on my westfield and having had to claim through my policy with A-plan, they were more than helpful and filled in the gaps and followed up any issue that Liverpool Victoria were not clear on. so top service. From A plan As always i had the odd issue with LV not understanding what a westfield is and what it looks like at call centre level at the start of the process but as soon as I got past the guys and girls on the LV phone desks and got through to the correct department they quickly agreed to pay for the transportation back to the factory rather than the local tin top body shop. From then on in things progressed smoothly, it took a couple of weeks until A specialist insurance assessor could get down to the westfield factory to carry out a independent assessment of the damaged and confirm what Mark had already told me. The assessor was helpful and came across as a enthusiast of anything petrol powered with a good knowledge of seven type cars and I am pleased to Say he agreed with my sensible valuation from his agreement it was only a couple of days until I was paid out. During the process of the claim i had follow up calls from the A-Plan Thatcham office just to check I was ok and that things were progressing to my satisfaction, any issues I had they quickly followed up with LV . My impression is that the underwriters and their call centres are just script readers but that the guys and girls at A plan do have a real knowledge of specialist cars and offer a very proficient service hope this helps Alan

Following on from an idea used last year, name stickers to wear on your top at Stoneleigh have been printed up for all WSCC Members. The stickers are roughly business card sized and are laid out as follows: WSCC Club Logo Real Name Forum Name These will be available in the exterior marquee for collection, and are sorted by surname. Please pick yours up and wear it, as this helps make meeting, identifying and talking to other members simpler and creates a more friendly atmosphere. It also aids people like me, who are good at remembering names but lousy at remembering faces, and I have to associate more than 1200 names with faces (and often fail!). Thanks for your assistance!

This is a Ford Type E box which means that it was originally fitted to a very early Sierra: it’s a four speed synchromesh box with a three bolt gearstick fixing and large (1”, from memory) input and output shafts. Apparently the three bolt fixing overcomes the risk of an over-enthusiastic driver pulling the gear stick straight out of the box as occasionally happened with the original screw-in gearstick. I bought the box in 2001 and immediately gave it to Brian Hill at BGH Geartech who converted it to what he refers to as a “Sporting Close” ratio box. It’s still got helical gears and synchromesh, but new input shaft and matching cog on the lay gear, plus a needle roller race to absorb the axial thrust forces exerted on the lay gear because it’s helical. The ratios are 2.83, 1.81, 1.26 and 1.00 :1 As you can see the breather now has a 3/16" pipe brazed to it in order to feed to a catch tank: not that anything ever gets ejected! I used it in my Westfield for many years before replacing it with a 5 Speed alloy cased Quaife Type 9 box – but the four speed box is still the lighter of the two. When removed the box was still working fine, and a visual inspection shows no adverse chips or marking.I kept the four speed as a spare, but as the car may soon be up for sale then I'm clearing out the unused spares. It's got a mechnical speedo output and I may be able to find a transducer to fit if you need one. When fitted to the Westfield I needed the gearstick further back, so at Brian Hill’s suggestion, rather than use one of the those horrible bolt-on extender devices which I had in my first Westie, using Brian’s design I extended the selector shaft and made an add-on extension housing to support the extended shaft. This works really well and provides the perfect ‘feel’ that is lost when a bolt-on extender is used. It only takes ten minutes to remove the extended arrangement and revert it to standard, which is what I’ve now done for sale, but the extension kit is all still here, so if you’d prefer the longer version then I’ll happily re-convert for free. BGH Geartech now charge £955 + VAT for an exchange sporting close Type E gearbox like this, with a £250 + VAT surcharge if you’ve not got an exchange, so the thick end of £1500 all in. On that basis I think that £650 ono is a fair price. There's also a bog standard Rocket box sitting in the garage which is yours for £200 if you'd like it - or I'll do a deal on the pair. I might be able to deliver within Hampshire, Wiltshire or Surrey, but otherwise I'm afraid it's collection only as I know how good the box is and don't want the risk of damage by a courier with the inevitable recriminations. Please PM me if you're interested.

A dedicated and much loved teacher is murdered in her class in front of her pupils. Terrible and I can't express my true feelings. But I ask myself what have my generation (or even the next) done to our society to have such an obscene murder carried out. When I went to school and when my kids went to school we didn't have police on duty and metal detectors to stop knives (and guns?) being taken into school. We're all to blame, it's not just any one group. Although I would think that the politicians have failed to do the right thing we elected them to do. I'm not religious, do not believe in any gods, but hope we can find some understanding of the situation and trust the culprit will be helped rather than just punished. I think the teacher would have hoped for the same.

Wendz n Myself aiming for Stockport start.

Compared to the old WSCC forum the search engine on this one is excellent

Paul, they're one-time use, really...unless you use some serious adhesive. I'll be happy to write your name on your forehead with a marker pen if you like.

Well the best thing about it for me is you just start it recording in as you start to queue up and forget about it and it all works. The 1Hz (once per second GPS Position) really does restrict the data accuracy but for free its a great tool.

I'll be on my way to Glasgow to collect my new toy. Back late Friday night and then a big wash and polish on Saturday. (always do this to new cars as I then know where I start. Also do a mech inspect. See if I need to change oil and filters, brake pads etc. Sunday is horse racing at the local track so....Speak sometime next week Must admit I'm as excited as a excited thing. Having had a serious health scare I realise, even more than before, that I need to get all those boxes ticked. Next may be a series I or II landie.

The problem in a few words. There are so few boundries now, no effective punishment and anyone committing any kind of crime is generally treated extremely softly. ie, shoplifters with a record of over 100 offences still being just given a caution. Society is now so soft on crime, it's no-wonder it's getting worse. There is no fear of the punishment holding criminals back. I do wish that this was not the case, but it's the reality of what is happening, we ignore it at our peril, or rather our children's peril.

One incident and Daily Mail headlines like this hit forums across the land. Ohhh, back in the day ... the world was rosey, cops handed out a clip round the ear 'ole to miscreant kids, nobody murdered each other. Priests and celebrities didn't fiddle with kids in my day ... oh, hang on a minute ... Things are as bad as they always have been, we have always had terrible acts of violence, murder, kids robbing grown-ups in the street, torture in military prisons, just now we have a media to ram it down our throats until we're scared of the world we have always lived in.

He didn't have his light sabre out.

It is a terrible tragedy and I'm sure the thoughts of all of us are with those affected. What have we done to our society? I doubt we've done anything. People have been murdering each other since the beginning, and it wasn't seen as wrong back then, just survival of the fittest. We've moved on, but there will always be a small element of evil and violence in society, which you can try to reduce but can never completely eliminate. What makes me have faith in society is that this incident is being viewed with universal shock and sadness, not sadly accepted as an everyday risk. It hits home for Lady MemSec and I particularly, as her teaching career was ended 25 years ago when a ten-year-old child, whose mother was a prostitute on drugs and whose father was a drugs dealer and pimp, came to school and brutally assaulted my dear wife, kicking and punching her to the floor, and putting her in hospital for five weeks with severe nerve damage that left her partially paralysed down the right side. She's been on codeine, morphine, valium and frequently has to wear a neck brace since then, and can't work at all. But she's still an optimist, lives a full a life as possible, and is the joy of my life. When things like this happen, it rakes it up all over again, but she doesn't let the past run her future. We didn't blame the child, we blamed the parents and the system that put a child with a history of violence into a mainstream school rather than a specialist school, rather than society in general. Poor little sod never had a chance from the day he was born, and that's part of the tragedy here as well. I'm not prepared to over-react or blame society for what happened in Leeds yesterday until we know more about what happened and what drove this teenager to commit this horrible deed.

Hang on a minute....... Yes you're right. The sender was mounted on the pedal box and a plastic pipe went from the block to there. It was over 10 years ago so may I be forgiven? Please? Pretty please, Sir.

Just switched to A-Plan for my Westie and saved £30 on the renewal quote from elsewhere

A big thanks to A plan for sorting out my insurance for westie and my discovery yesterday. (They are a sponsor for the disco3 forum too.) Great to talk to folk who actually know the car that you are talking about. Many thanks

Hello all Well, you may be surprised to find this thread about car lifts moved from The Start Line to Sponsors & Traders. Let me explain. It started off innocently enough with opinions being sought on car lifts, but as happens on occasion, it started to morph into a possible bulk buy, this one organised by Norman. A decision was made that as he's a WSCC Trader, albeit primarily in holidays at his French gites, he's entitled to start an online offer for car lifts (and other accessories) as well, as long as it's in the Sponsors & Traders area. Being in this area prevents people from other forums joining us for 30 days / 50 posts to jump on the bandwagon, but not contributing anything to the club and causing the MemSec (me now, Mark Redpath in just over a week) lots of administration problems, as only full WSCC Members can see items in this area. It was thought easier (if slightly less elegant) to move the thread rather than cause confusion by asking Norman to start a new thread. (Obviously if he gets sufficient interest and wants to start a new thread, he can.) Hope that explains things - we now return you to your normal program already in progress.

Got my Westy and also just swapped my home insurance over to A-Plan. Great customer service!!