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Dear Calum To say you were terrific in every respect at Stoneleigh is an understatement - everyone in the club thanks you for your efforts, enthusiasm, wit and kindness. Spending a long holiday weekend with a group of old petrolheads wouldn't be every teenager's idea of a great time, but you were amazing. I'm also aware of the sacrifices you've made as a family, as your dad has been working very hard on the show for a long time beforehand, which must have made an impact on you all. It's fair to say you've proven yourself above and beyond the call of duty in the great tradition of the WSCC, and we all want to buy you your first pint when you hit 18! However, it occurred to me during the show that a bit of an injustice has been done to you, one which I am happy to correct today. I am delighted to tell you that as of today, you are now an official Joint WSCC Member along with your dad, with your own forum account as well (if dad isn't afraid to let you use it so you can tell us what he's getting up to!). You're part of our family now too - because you've earned it. And most importantly, you'll have a proper printed name badge next year as well. Thanks buddy All the best to our newest member, Scott

Huge thanks to everyone who pitched up to help Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The usual faces were there and you know who you are. We also had a good number of new faces which was excellent and I hope everyone felt included and kept busy. Special thanks to those who gave over their cars on Monday for Hall 2 too. Thanks also to the committee for their support this year. For me, a number of AOs and Members put in extra effort. I won't embarrass you by naming you here, you know who you are and I'm grateful to you, saviours of my sanity. I tried to get to speak to everyone to thank them personally, if I missed you my apologies and thank you. So to everyone who helped or just stopped by to chat and offer words of encouragement... THANK YOU

Just wait until you see what you're sporting next year...

Hey all just a reminder about next Wednesdays (the 14th) evening meeting at The Old Ferry Boat - Holywel near St Ives https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir//Holywell+Front,+St+Ives,+Huntingdon,+Cambridgeshire+PE27+4TG/@52.3172541,-0.1004751,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x486add5ebeb81a4f:0xbef79e6da9b1108d!2m2!1d-0.031809!2d52.317274 Will be there from about 7ish - hopefully in the westy should It sail through its MOT Who shall be attending?

Well after a few weeks tinkering and two very long days I'm almost back on the road! The new engine is in on custom new mounts and oil system is all piped in (pending me finding a home for the catch tank). Just need to reroute and modify the bottom radiator hose as the oil tank blocks its previous route and need to replace my filter/regulator as of course when we came to test fire up the engine at the weekend we noticed it had developed a hairline crack and was leaking fuel.... Big thanks to all of you for your support and assistance over the last 6 weeks or so. I've gone from never having changed the oil in a car to having swapped out an engine (albeit it quite a simple one) which I wouldn't have imagined would have been possible. Darve - I'll get your hoist back to you as soon as I'm sure the engine isn't going to need to come out again Cheers, John

seriously have a look at Jeff Oakleys car in the cars for sale section and I'll take 5k commission

40 new members .. fantastic news!

All went well this morning, got to the dealer as they opened, was on my way in 15 minutes. Then went to get the oil but even though I'd looked on the map I couldn't find the place. I asked a few people but no one seemed to know where it was. After 1/2 hour search I decided to give up and go to another in Chateaubriant. So I went down the road towards the next junction on the d/c and, yes, you've guessed it, Norauto in a retail park by the road to the d/c. I'd identified the wrong exit and was one down, in both senses. Then, bank, post office, chemist, ride-on puncture repaired, put a notice in Super U, fill up and home by 1130. Phew. Oh, and I picked up a hitchhiker as I left Norauto. Well he had a sign saying Pouance and that's exactly were I was going.... I get home, open the garage and refit the ride-on wheel so I can take it out the garage. Wheel on (circlip) and start it, in reverse - nothing. Soon realise that the tyre fitter has dropped the woodruff key out of the wheel. Push it out and get the Mini in. Get it jacked up, one side first and axle stand under wishbone then the other side. Get an old coat to lay on and plan is to let hot oil drain whilst I have lunch. Problem 1. The sump plug has been rounded off! I try mole grips and a pipe wrench - no luck they just turn. I then try and hammer on a 12mm socket. Again no luck it just turns and twists off. I'm getting wragged by now. I give up for a minute and go in and get changed into working clothes. Try filing some flats but everything I use just wears the plug down as it twists off. I then file a bit more and hammer on a torx socket. It's not slipping but is tight, very tight. Eventually it comes undone with a 2 ft bar on the socket. Plug comes out with no further drama and, this makes a change, the oil drains directly into the drain tank. OK, leave the warmish (it was hot when I stared 3/4 hour ago) draining and have some lunch. After lunch I start getting the filter off. It's located at the right hand rear of the engine by the side of the exhaust. It is not a spin on canister but an old fashioned filter in a screw on case. It has a 36mm nut on it. No problem I have a set of large sockets. 36mm on a ratchet... Problem 2, the depth of the socket and ratchet is causing the end to hit the bulkhead panel. I try and try and try (OK, you all know I'm very trying). One problem is I've only one leadlight working at the moment and it's just like a chocolate fireguard. If the light isn't blinding me then it's facing the wrong way. When I did get it set to shine down the back at the filter I covered the beam when I put my hands on the filter/bar. I ask my everloving to help by holding the lamp. Eventually I realised that the panel is plastic so force the socket on with a crow bar. I have a plain Tee Bar on the socket but no matter how hard I push it will not come undone. I reckon that car designers should be made to work on the cars they design. That way they may not have the sharp edge of the welded flitch panel directly where you have to lean over the engine to reach down for the filter. To add to this the bl**dy lead lamp wire is constantly getting caught under my boots., worse is that the wire is getting pressed into the tread on the boot and won't come out easily. My temper is rising by the second, can nothing go right with this simple job. OK, time for the big guns, or better still the jack handle. With a 3ft jack handle over the Tee Bar handle and a strong push it comes undone. Before I take it off I move the oil tank under the filter. Filter screwed of and oil runs into drain tank. The filter is clearly marked 18 lb/ft, should be just nipped up then! Clean the canister and fit the filter into it. Then clean out the residual oil in the lower half of the canister. Another poor design in my mind. If the filter had been mounted the other way up it would be easy to get a socket on it from underneath and all the oil in the filter would drain out. OK, time to refit the filter. Now, I have the car jacked up high enough to deal with the errant sump plug. This is causing a problem insomuch that I'm not able to reach the filter easily. And that panel is cutting into me, I look like I've been run over by a small tank. Time to put the sump plug back on and lower the car a bit. Move the drain tank to one side in order to refit the plug. I've dressed the new Torx splines on the plug and the socket is a good fit. Executive board meeting with myself sees me putting 1/2 litre of fresh, expensive Castrol Edge through to flush out the last drops in the sump. Only problem is I moved the drain tank so the oil is now running out the sump plug and all over the floor. Heap of old cloths thrown on the oil. temper gauge rises a notch. Start refitting the filter. I've put the new seal on the canister so smear a dab of oil on it to stop it getting torn when done up. I can now reach over so start to do up the filter. It seems to need a hard push in to start the thread. I push and turn for about ten minutes but it seems to be cross threaded every time. At this point I try and turn it with an old shifting spanner. No, it's not cross threaded but is fairly tight. OK, all done up. Sump plug back on and 5 litres of Mobil something or other (don't they have fancy names these days) 5W-30. I then pull all the plug leads out of the coil and turn the engine over so the filter is refilled before starting. I reckon this job would be less than an hours work. I started at 1130. It's now 1730 and I had 3/4 hour break for lunch. (not the two hours the French take!). Luckily I'm not paying BMW rates for 5.25 hours. That would see me explode! The oil on the dipstick (the one in the engine, not the plonker doing the work) is so clean it's hard to see. I now may have another problem... hang on Problem 3. The oil warning light isn't working! Never noticed before as the myriad of warning lights all go out when the car is started I assumed the oil light also went out. But it doesn't come on. I probably wont be able to do much tomorrow as I'm due to have a tooth out in the morning, but on Wednesday I'll check the wires on the oil pressure switch and if they're OK I'll test the switch. Main fear is that it's been disconnected to hide the fact that it flickers at tick over (many reports on the Mini forum!). I've also got to change the air con filter which is located under the glove box so that's a best boots and gaiters on the parade ground job. Not working in my dirty clothes on the inside of the car. I'm waiting for BMW Mini in the UK to answer a query about the Ipod connection, I thought it came with the 6 cd changer but I've just found a post on the Mini forum which says you cannot have the Ipod connection if you have the 6 cd and/or the sat nav as they use the aux port. I have both cd changer and sat nav. Never mind, I'll manage with 7 cd's. Oh, and finally, just to see if you read this short story, I asked how much a spare key would cost. I only have the one and always like a spare, just in case I do lose the keys (never done so yet but....). First person who can guess the price can have 10% off a gite, this year or next. So could be worth a few bob for a good guess. Price is in Euros by the way.

Worth 10k all day long IMO

I'd go for that approach, there's got to be plenty of office workers who are bored of their current lanyard.

"Out with the old, in with the old!"

Welcome to the club! I'm the chap who frogmarched you and your missus over to Scott to join up after you asked me where you could get a half tonneau.....told you you'd get this sort of response and ^^^ here's your answer!! It's a great club and the Boardroom is the place to get all the info you'll ever need regarding Westfield ownership. Good to have you along!

It should be mounted on the bracket with a small rubber bobbin. If not the bracket maybe cracked or indeed the manifold may have a crack. Another source of the noise could be the inner pipe of the silencer broken. You need to carefully listen from manifold mounting down to the exhaust tip to find the source of noise, if not apparent dismantling the whole lot will be necessary.

Oh no, not Kryptonite please!

Thin end of the wedge, Gary, the future is so chromed, your gonna need shades...!

Great effort guys. I know Monday was quiet compared to Sunday, but the atmosphere in our tent was great, so much better than last year. Great to hear from Scott that nearly 40 new members were signed up. Well done to the team and everyone who turned up to support the club.

I did mean kev, thanks for help we drove it 280 miles home perfect.

Peter Osborne and Andrew Reeves have both done a cracking job on the flag and the new artwork.

Saw you leaving just as I was rocking up Gary... Had a different view of the show this year. I didn't have anything in particular to buy and had a mate with me who wanted to build a car that he could fit in. Saw just how many kits are there instead of concentrating on Westfield parts. Oh and I managed to spend some cash on something totally cosmetic at Aerodynamix. Then mentally spend a shed load more.

I didn't find Hall 2 until today. Missed it yesterday for some reason. Far better than all the other halls combined.

Excellent show and excellent Westie stand and great organization A good job done very well Best club and members ever :)

Excellent show this year for me, I really enjoyed it. We started with an 8 car blat, and stayed together all the way. I am very pleased I did a stint on the Autojumble, its nice to do a bit for the club and feel proud of it all. Excellent set up as usual, and a good bit of banter through the day, at the BBQ etc. A few pics from me A big thank you to Andy Banks for leading the organisation of the event, top job

Hi, and a big thank you to all staff & members who made today (4th) a great day out. I took my daughter and grandson up today and they both enjoyed as much as I did. Grandson (almost 15) had a go in the drift car and had the biggest grin on his face after he'd finished. Again, a big Thank You to you all. DerekJ

4 pot light weight calipers and discs for £260 at Rally Design And Julian had some very nice carbon deals Good job I left SWMBO at home