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Put me down for track day instruction again

This is the old roll bar, time to go.... old roll bar removed and holes made in bodywork for rear stays: MSA bar arrived and ready to fit :-) roll bar fitted easy compared to the real one!

I've always loved 7 based cars. For me they tick every box in owning a raw drivers car. They make no apologies for what they are, if you want comfort, and a radio.. Don't buy one. Everything fitted to the Westfield is fitted for a performance purpose and that I absolutely love! I started out building one, but due to work commitments and not much free time, over a 3 year period, not a lot got done. I had a fully track prepped Clio 172 that I used for trackdays. With around 10k poured into it, it wasn't a shy piece of equipment. I remember this like it was yesterday. We were at Bedford. My mate had just picked up his 1.6 sigma powered Caterham 7 and I was quietly confident my Clio was going to disappoint him. Especially with 120 more horse power! Ha no! I pulled about 5 car lengths down the back straight, he flew past me in the breaking zone and I never saw him again. 24hours later my Clio was in bits and for sale along with my rolling chassis and I decided it was time to buy something I could use and enjoy. My car was advertised on here, in the pictures it wasn't really the colour I was after, but it was a very very cared for example and around my budget. So I decided to it was worth a look. As soon as the guy I brought it off opened the garage door, I was in love. The chrome Yellow was awesome in the flesh. The spec wasn't ideal but it was certainly a great base. A deal was done and I was like a small child on Christmas Eve waiting the week to pick it up. The car was in Exeter and I lived in Staines so I couldn't wait for the drive home. I got the train down and drove it the 200+ miles home in the worse rain we'd had that year! Never the less I was a very very happy bunny. There were a couple of niggles on the way home that I didn't like, and even though I promised myself I wasn't going to get carried away and sink a load of money into this car, they were niggles I weren't really prepared to put up with. The engine felt lazy and the suspension was incredibly soft and squishy. I also had an LSD diff, better seats and some suspension from my old project, so I wasted no time getting to work.

Only sign written vans get charged at our local tip. Hope they throw the book at em though...dumping is just not on IMHO. Mart.

My first 3 cars, in order of ownership: 1937 MG TA (given away for free!); Austin Healey Sprite frogeye (sold for, IMSMC £150.); Austin Healey 3000 Mk. IIA (sold for £400.). The last one grieves me the most, as it was in mainly super condition, and was written off by the son of the buyer after about 3 weeks, having been purchased I believe as a 21st. birthday present for the son.

I have just driven back from Leeds in rain, sleet and lovely sunshine... Blooming frozen.

Now booked and paid. I will be travelling up on Thursday early evening and pitching the tent!

Which is where my career is now A small scale bespoke electronics company, run by engineers and not some muppet with a degree in media studies. It's been a VERY hard transition from having to keep my mouth shut and doing one single task, to actually having an opinion and juggling many jobs at once. Tinkering with the Westfield is proving to have been a very helpful experience in this job, one week i'm looking at SMT quality issues and reworking PCBs, the next i'm building a prototype CCTV system with customers on route to evaluate it and then after that i'm fabricating missing parts for a 3 axis adhesive dispensing robot and programming it to do 30 different tasks, then another day i'm designing gaskets on QCAD. There are lots of talented individuals out there who are forced into mediocrity by other peoples insecurities and it really boils my blood.

WRT camping. It's best to camp, from what I saw last year, as close to and to the right of the hangar (as you look at it with your back to the track). There is limited power to share for those that need it hanging off the hangar. The remaining areas will be staked out as a paddock at some stage so that all the different classes know where to park for the sprints - this is very important for the competitors and for us who will be calling them up for their timed runs and we should try not to get in their way. This also applies for the track day, if in doubt it's no biggie, you just might be asked to move. Sounds a bit anal but it's always best to get settled in in the right spot and then not have to worry. PLEASE keep the main gates closed behind you early morning and evenings, just to provide a little extra comfort and security. I recall the toilets and showers were open with hot water from Thursday afternoon but as said, the kitchens won't be but there are plenty of pubs and shops nearby.

No booking required.

I'm hoping to be there for full weekend and happy to help. Will confirm Asap.

We'll be there again as usual John. Andy Marcus Paul Ian I'll double check and let you know...

Wendz will help out as last year. My mate John will do a bit, I'll see what he's up for.

No but I am watching Predator on Film4

Now this is where I got a bit carried away! MoTeC have a nasty habit of making everything a paid add on. I needed to add VCT and a knock control which was a lot of money... So I decided to go for another ECU change. I decided to go for a LifeRacing F88RS with all features unlocked. Just looking at the mapping software, this I a serious serious ECU! In my opinion a serious ECU needs a serious dash. So along came a load more money! Carbon_NV supplied me with a fantastic carbon dash to replace my contour item. I really liked the contour dash but it really suit the style of car I was trying to built. I went for the Syvecs Plex. Syvecs and Life use the same Can addressing so the will instantly talk. The dash is awesome. I've finalised my sensor package for the ECU. For an NA ST170 engine I know this is more than overkill but it's the technical side of it and the mapping I really enjoy. So this is more of a technical exercise than a necessity! I've gone with Oil temp Oil pressure Gearbox oil temp Diff oil temp Front brake pressure Rear brake pressure Fuel pressure Knock sensor X4 EGT sensors All 4 wheel speed sensors Fuel level I was quite lucky. Will Pedley came back to help me and unpinned the MoTeC plugs and changed it to a bulkhead connector. We've started making the new loom, but we have decided to not use any original wiring. We are renewing all the relay powers, fuel pump wiring, level sensors etc. http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/mwmsport123/media/7E0BDA8C-2CF6-45BF-BE18-EF6A53F050CE_zpse4elcblk.jpg.html] http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/mwmsport123/media/DA371650-F5A4-4B24-A0AD-AA9C8D1D550D_zpsi0tqftg7.jpg.html]

The Westy was now driving awesomely after a full set up from bubble and kick racing. I was really really enjoying my Westfield ownership bar 2 things. One of the injectors was messing about causing an intermittent loss of power and a cough and splutter. The wheels were just offensive. They just weren't in with the style of car I was looking for. The wheels are easily sorted. I've always loved the Caterhan CSR wheels and there was a set fairly cheap on eBay. I also removed the spare wheel and rack, there was no point carring one odd wheel around. The next problem wasn't so fast to sort. I'm a bit of a secret ECU nerd. I enjoy the technical data, mapping side of things. I wasn't able to source a new injector so I knew the current MBE was going to need mapping, and if I going to go to all that effort, I was going to ditch the MBE and use something more modden. I did a deal on a MoTeC M800 which is a great little ECU. A good friend of mine, Will Pedley from WPR came down and helpped me build the loom. As far as technical features, it kept it quite thin on the ground. I only added fuel pressure and oil pressure monitoring as I always planned to swap the engine. After a full mapping session the little Scholar 1.8 was an absolute trooper. You really had to keep it on the boil but it was a great little engine.