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Having sold my Fisher Fury (which gave me the bug for light cars with bike engines), I decided to take on a new project. This was something I have wanted to do for a while, and having done most of these jobs in isolation thought it was time to tackle them all in one project... building a car from scratch. The first stages revolved around a lot of thinking and some mocking up of a layout - see below. Once I confirmed everything would fit, it was time to nail down the suspension design. Quite a complex subject, but the main idea was to make the car fun and compliant to drive - pretty much like an MX-5 (hence the name, I'll come onto that later). Here's the geometry I decided on: http://tinyurl.com/phefzjt This led to more CAD, as I then knew where the load points would be on the chassis. Still very much a work in progress, but the basics are there... Here's the bits that will go within the bunch of tubes: GSXR 1000 K2 engine and bits, with thanks to David Birch (XTR2Turbo) for dropping these off at Silverstone this weekend while I was there. This is where the name comes from: MX-R1000 is a combination of MX-5 and GSX-R1000 MX-5 uprights, diff, driveshafts, hubs and brakes: Rod ends and spherical bearing for one front wishbone... this is the expensive bit of the build! Nice lightweight seat I had kicking about: And a lovely billet sump with swinging pickup for the engine: It will be chain drive, with the MX-5 diff converted for this purpose. Got a Mk2 Escort rack on the way, then the rest should take care of itself, hopefully... Will try and update every few weeks, wish me luck! Cheers, Adam

Back in July 2015 my Sport E electric Westfield was very badly damage due to a 'racing incident' at the Curborough sprint circuit. The car rolled three times and in the process ripped off or bent all four corners of the car. None of the wishbones, uprights or wheels escaped undamaged. In addition all the bodywork was broken in some way. On the face of it this was a total loss situation. However, amazingly all the electrical systems, motor and battery remained undamaged and in full working order. Fortunately I work for Potenza Technology. We had worked on a number of Westfield related design and development projects in the past. As a result Potenza were able to find a complete set of suspension parts and enough body panels to make the rebuild possible. The first job was to strip the car down to the chassis and check its condition. The main battery was hard mounted within the engine bay and so must have strengthened the chassis because it proved to be completely straight. On the other hand the wishbones and mounting clevises must have absorbed the crash forces. Also five suspension mounting clevises were either bent or ripped in some way and would need replacing. So with a bit of welding and a lot of kit building and the car could be back on the road again quite soon. But here's the problem - apart from my lack of driving skill, one of the reasons the car crashed in the first place must be to do with the unusual weight distribution. The engine bay battery weighs in at 160Kg. The motor, power controller, battery charger and cooling system were all mounted behind the rear bulkhead. Thus about 100Kg of weight was carried mostly behind and above the rear axle line. This weighty rear end made the car over steer and I found it quite difficult to control. Plan B. The original car carried batteries in both the engine bay and in an under tray beneath the car. The under tray weighed in at 200Kg so order to lighten the car for 2015 I removed these and reconfigured the remaining engine bay batteries to maintain power levels. Thus the car was 200Kg lighter - and faster - and unfortunately less stable! So for the 2016 car I will revert to the under tray battery, remount the differential in the correct orientation, fit a prop shaft and mount the motor and power controller etc into the engine bay. I calculate these changes will increase overall weight by 50Kgs to about 720Kg all up. This should result in a better balanced car that's easier for me to drive - and when people ask, where is the electric motor? - instead of pointing to the back of the car, I can open the bonnet and say 'in the engine bay'.