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Tel's Tales 041– Ty Croes 4th & 5th Sept 2014 Well thats it......the season is over and unlike other years it did not all come down to the last weekend to see who had won! The weekend saw 19 entries on Saturday and 18 on Sunday so a good showing from the club. There was atrackday on the Friday and a few of us arrived early Friday afternoon to catch the back end of the action and prepare our cars and in a few cases our beds in the trailers for the night. And what a night it was with torrential rain and howling winds of almost gale force which lasted from 2300 – 0600 Sat morning so many people did not get much sleep. I stepped out to see I was surrounded by about 150mm (6” in real money) and the drain was blocked solid and my wood wheel chocks had floated about 30m down the paddock! It was certainly not a night to sleep in a tent! SATURDAY P1 started with a damp track so we had a few spinners including Mark Bishop but things were drying well in the strong wind ready for P2. It was not good news for Richard Kerr/Luke Algar as they broke the offside halfshaft and were looking like they were out until a knight in shining armour appeared in the form of ME! I looked in my spares and there was a brand new shaft waiting to be installed and they only missed one run. John Walters car was oversteering so we softened the rear shocks a bit and stiffened up the front ARB to improve things. Mark Anson was not a happy bunny either as he snapped his rear ARB in half so spent the rest of the weekend with no ARBs which is not easy. During the day Dave Cleaver had issues with a split exhaust, gearshift air leak and a split fuel hose but it did not slow him down. In the end we had 4 timed runs and some very close racing in all classes including the novices. In T1 Richard Kerr was so please to still have a car to run that he spun it at the hairpin just to show off a bit and Steve Everall's heavy right foot took over at Peel and he had a big slide to entertain the crowd. He swore he had not touched anything but the grass and the mud on his rear nearside arch suggested that he had so he quickly washed it off to destroy the evidence! In class F Dave Cleaver set a new record with 55.12secs destroying Barry Slingsby's 2010 time to win from Luke Algar, Richard Kerr and Paul Morcom. When asked what was the difference between Luke and Richard's performance Steve Everall answered for them with the comment “about 5 stones”! Good old paddock banter. In Class H Gary Bunn just beat Del Hodder with a new record of 53.00secs easily beating Matt Hillams 2010 time. Steve Everall won the class D battle with 58.77 secs, Stephen Herbert 59.37secs, Howard Gaskin 59.81secs, Mark Schlanker 62.75secs. In Class A Dave Richings beat John (panda) Williams who is contemplating changing his cars colour scheme to black and white so it matches his nickname. Lee Smith tok the honours in class B with 61.95 secs from John Walters and Simon Rossinelli in a close battle. Mark Bishop was on his own in class C and went well. Myself, Mark Anson and Tim Nunn fought it out in class G with Tim just beating me by 0.2 secs with a time of 54.45secs against 54.74secs and Mark's 55.92secs (not bad for no ARBs) In summary of the National B event 7 Westfields occupied the top 8 places only beaten by a very quick Jedi. The order was Gary Bunn, Derek Hodder, Tim Nunn, Terry Everall, Dave Cleaver, Luke Algar and Mark Anson. SUNDAY The wind was still blowing and Saturday night's banter in the bar had not left too many headaches as far as I could tell. Today it was the faster International circuit and the wind caused quite a bit of buffeting and did not help on certain parts of the track as it became a headwind. P1 was a cold start and clouds were building up. The timing gear played up and we did not get any times but apparently many drivers thought it was their best ever run.......in their dreams I think. P2 saw Tim Nunn spin at Rocket as he outbraked himself and a few other were now getting on the pace including Andy Lowe who was competing today in class B. For T1 was interested a s it had now decided to rain quite heavily so the slick guys all swapped to Wet tyres with Mark Anson having to borrow some. In my opinion wets are not quicker than a slick in the wet but much safer as they help prevent aquaplaning but we dont use them unless there is a lot of water on the track.....and there was ! I was quickest Westfield with 108.84 secs but even that was 19 secs slower than target time. Several people had spins including Steve Everall at the banking, Tim at the same place, Mark Anson at the first lefthander. John Walters broke his throttle cable but managed to get it repaired for the other runs. It was a good day for everyone and we had 3 timed runs with the last 2 being DRY! So times tumbled. Tim Nunn and I had a gentleman's agreement that we would let the other win but that didn't work. The classes ended as follows Class A:John Williams won it on his own and Mark Bishop won C Class B: Lee Smith only just won from John Walters with 101.56secs against 101.76secs. Andy Lowe chasing on 115.62secs Class D: Steve Everall won with 97.32secs, Howard Gaskin 98.63secs, Stephen Herbert identical time of 98.63secs, Mark Schlanker 103.09secs Class F: Dave Cleaver set a new record of 91.08 secs, Richard Kerr is shown as beatingL uke with 91.73secs, Luke Algar 91.73secs, Richard Kerr 94.52secs ( who spun on last run!) and Paul Morcom 96.21secs. Class G: Tim Nunn did the double with 90.44secs against my 91.47secs but I did get a box full of neutrals on the last bend and Mark Anson was pleased to record 93.01secs with the lack of ARBs. Class H: Gary Bunn took it with 89.07secs from Derek Hodder on 90.17 secs Once again Westfield had 6 drivers in the top 7 places and in order they were Gary Bunn, Derek Hodder, Tim Nunn, Dave Cleaver, Terry Everall, Luke Algar. A well run event by Longton and District Motor club and fantastic banter to end the year. There was talk of rule changes, fire extinguishers, engine upgrades, tyre choice etc and we cant wait for 2015. Terry Everall Speed Series Correspondent Class G competitor

regretably for sale: siew chassis mt75 tunnel, pro comp floor mounted pedal set, biased brake. front upper/lower wishbones westfield fabricated uprights alloy hubs n discs calipers mudguard brackets braided hoses steering rack upper n lower steering column x2 master cylinders 0.75 x2 light brackets x2 headlight units zetec loom and fixings 2.0 16v blacktop zetec 80k removed from mondeo estate by me. so i know its a good one. 7" lsd 4x4 drive shafts alloy rear uprights upper n lower rear wishbones rear hubs n discs rear calipers rac welded rollbar quick shift type 9 extension handbrake lever single grp seat build stands all of this needs building from bare chassis. there is prob stuff i have forgotten but mostly there. 80% of stuff new.best bit is i have v5 in my name so no iva required once finished!! just build ad you want to and mot!! not going to brake want gone in one lot.... located in cheltenham. £3800.00

I'd also think about a screen + wind deflectors. Contrary to popular opinion, it's a good combination.

cheers Filfan and thanks to Tigger for his time…. i've got no nails left…..

In 2005 mine jacked her Job to come to the USA to drive 4000miles in 3 weeks coast to coast, I think it's safe to say she's a fan and that's why I married her

I had a really high spec XE, in a car I'd spent nearly ten years developing. I sold it all on to start again with the Honda Mega S2000 kit. The kit has gone together like a dream so far, my only major issues were some delays in a small number of parts early on, which meant by the time I'd got them, it was the start of the summer and a mix of personal, club and work commitments meant I didn't have so much time free. (Oh and an easily resolved gearbox issue caused in transit - easily avoided if I'd collected it myself) As far as ease of building goes though, the Mega car is at least as easy, if not easier than a Zetec or Duratec. Why easier? Because you've got an engine and box designed to bolt together and be used in a rear wheel drive car, unlike the Zetec and Duratec installs where you're converting front wheel drive engines to rear drive use, take a look at the posts on water rails and pluming, along with clutch combinations, to make the set up work. Don't misunderstand me, both the Zetec and Duratec engines make fantastic cars, and all the extra work needed to use them in a rear drive set up has been done a thousand times before, so parts are available. But the Honda just fits, and works, simple. Oh and to get the performance level of the Honda will take some expensive engine mods and engine rebuilds with either Ford option. Don't forget, once you get away from the engine bay, the builds going to be virtually the same whatever engine choice you make anyway.

I've often thought about what engine I'd use if (when?) my XE goes awol - though hopefully not for a while yet. I've looked at all the threads on here and other build blogs, and although the Ford Duratec would make a nice choice with the likes of Cosworth and Burtons offering lots of tuning goodies, I've had a drive in the S2000 and the engine was just the sweetest thing I've ever driven.... So I suspect I'd ditch my standard type9 setup and go for the S2000 engine / gearbox combination and enjoy some Japanese engineering (ok, the Duratec may be part Masda but it still has a Ford badge on it). Honda for me next time...... But that engine from Troy looks very tempting if I had nearly £5.5k to spend

Glyn, The s2000 engine is really sweet. Don't discount it too early in your plans. Honda have a firm reputation for building bullet-proof engines and sourcing a really good second hand s2000 shouldn't be too difficult. Just my view......

Looks like the crane attack position out of the karate kid but without the legs LOL Terry

Well done to Tim Nunn for kicking my A*** both days!

looks smart that…..