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I'm am no longer a lurking imposter but the proud owner of a 2l zetec wide bodied westie! Just as ordered it is touring friendly and a very lovely entry into this mad world of yours. Our first 24 hours of Westfield ownership was however was more drama than we bargained for as I'll explain. Apologies for the lengthy post. Firstly I must extend my gratitude to clansman who replied within 15 minutes to my plea for an independent appraisal for a car over 600 miles from my home town. He went way out of his way to view the car, check it thoroughly and advise me through the purchase. Thank you Sir. You are a gent. My wife and I had an uneventful journey up to Aberdeen on Thursday. Traveling on Virgin first class meant we were plied with gin and cake at virtually every hour! Scenery was spectacular and we enjoyed the added luxury of reclining seats and a quiet cab, full in the knowledge that the return journey might not be quite so salubrious - how little did we know. We stayed at the Caledonian where we met clansman for the first time in person. We chatted cars over a pint but called it a night early so we could get up to Newburgh in the morning to view and hopefully collect a lovely blue and yellow factory build car. We caught a bus and arrived at the sellers house with the car all as described. We gave the car another thorough check and blasted it up the road, then exchanged cash and we were on our way - simple. We had planned to split the journey into two parts. 5 hours plus a couple of stops would get us to the Yorkshire Dales and a beautiful country inn, however about an hour after setting off our fortunes changed. The weather started to set in and rain began to fall. We found though at 40 mph no rain was entering the cockpit so we pressed on. Soon after this, disaster struck. The clutch cable snapped. We were on a busy A road in the rain with an all but dead car, 600 miles from home with conformation from the insurance company that our breakdown cover started 24 hours after the start of the policy (1 hour previous only). Fortunately the cable went just as we passed the only house on the stretch of road so pushed her into the driveway whilst we figured out what to do. My wife googled local garages and the first one we called took sympathy on us, dropped everything and came out with a recovery truck. After about 40 minutes they managed to load the car on but they were nervous minutes for me as they kept fouling the tow hook on the nose cone, jamming their winch and a whole host of other issues that weren't doing my blood pressure any good. Bear in mind for the majority of this time I was pointing at the sky with my handbrake on thinking who the hell are these guys !? We did finally get the car on the truck and back to the garage so that problem solving could begin. Clansman yet again was supporting from the wings, both practically by texting part numbers from Westfield and also by providing encouragement and emotional support! It became clear however we were not going to source a part. So a collective decision was made to A-team the sh*t of this issue - basically we needed a bodge. After some rummaging we found a couple of clutch cables knocking about in his garage off goodness knows what. We took the longest one and cut the pedal end nipple off. We then attached the clutch end first and fed it through the bulkhead offering it up to the pedal. The guys then found a bolt with an eye which they bored out to take the cable and screwed on bolts either end very tightly to sandwich grip the cable. Another pin assembly in place meant it rested neatly and securely on the clutch pedal. A quick test and tighten and we were in business. They had literally dropped everything for us and our new westie. Their regular customers kept calling in for their cars and they kept telling them they they had 'run into problems' so they could have their cars next week. I did feel quite guilty but was reassured that these customers would be fine waiting - who was I to argue anyway! Although the final fix was simple it took a long time to get there. The garage were supposed to close at 4pm but we rolled out of there at 6:30 - five hours after clutch snappage. This meant our hotel arrival time had been set back by the amount of time it was supposed to take to get there. It also meant we would be traveling at night and a storm was coming in. After a quick and dirty burger stop we got back on the road but after about another 30 minutes the 4 horses of the apocalypse managed to catch us up and they brought rain, a lot of rain. We got the wet weather gear on and quickly learnt its usefulness. I have slept in leaker tents but none that spray your face at 70 mph and immerse your right arm I a bucket of water. Visibility dropped to 100 metres and there was standing water everywhere. Night came and the whole experience intensified. One of our wipers was engaging with the glass, the other just waived around in the air. We had to slow to 40 or 50 mph and stay in the lane with the least water - mostly the middle. By this time it was 1 am so there was at least little or no traffic. We stopped every 45 minutes or so to rest, grab coffee and try and unjangle our nerves. Finally we pulled off the motorway, which we thought would relax matters, ohhhh no. The motorway was a breeze in comparison. It turns out our hotel is in the Shire and we would have to drive through Mordoor to get there. Immediately we got fog and if that wasn't bad enough there were enormous pot holes scattered everywhere like land mines. Fallen branches from the storm we strewn at every corner and flooded dips broached the entire width of the road. If that wasn't enough we had to contend with suicidal sheep running out of the fog into the road. You couldn't make it up. By now it is nearly 3 am and we are both exhausted. You can imagine our elation therefore when the sat nav sent us completely the wrong way and we had to back track for a couple of miles. We did eventually make it to the hotel of course but I have never concentrated so intensely for so long on anything. But all is well that ends well and the next morning was glorious. We had a superb breakfast and negotiated a late check out so we could have a restful morning. On setting off for leg two the sun was out. Having acquired more confidence in the bodged cable I was able to explore the car a little more and had a splendid drive out of the dales to join the motorway to bring our new toy home. We encountered no traffic and the sun shone almost all of the way. Never have I had such an enjoyable run on the M6! So we are official Westfield owners and there are many to thank for getting us here; the old chap who took us under his wing when the cable first broke, the good guys at the garage in Montrose who scraped us off the road and brought our car back to life and the hotelier who let us in at gone 3am and put rescue wine in our room. But if it hadn't been for the sage and sensible advice of the members of this club we might not have ended up with the right car for us. In particular though Clansman has earned the very highest of our gratitude for going way way beyond the call of duty. We are now looking forward to tinkering, driving and planning for a euro tour. Here starteth the real journey and lots of numpty questions from us! Paul and Amy

Thank you for the welcoming words. Awesome day today with the car. Popped out for a hair cut. 4 hours later and a tank of fuel and I still need a hair cut!

Wow! First leg sounds miserable but at least the second leg appears to have restored your faith! I was fortunate enough to drive my latest purchase 500 miles home in glorious sunshine. Although with delays on the road I didn't get home till 12.30 at night. I think owners should get extra points for jumping in at the deep end and driving home Dave

Spot on Adam! Trackdays explained. The wrong way to do a trackday: Book your lonely self onto some random trackday, find yourself the only se7en on track in a sea of hatchbacks.. after a couple of sessions passing hatches by the score, get bored. The right way: Lets say, discounting engine fragility issues, slicks that go off after 500m, fuel tanks borrowed from lawn mowers etc etc... Terry, Tim Nunn, Delboy, Scottish fella and anyone else that fancies it, get together and book into a trackday at Oulton park. It's a quiet day probably run by MSV, so there's no trouble getting all the cars out on track together. By the end of the day, having chased each other, and been chased, you will know who has the quickest combination, you're knowledge of Oulton park and driving ability will be increased, but above all, you will have thoroughly enjoyed it! That is how we do it! Trackdays, boring? I think not.

Hi gang If you missed the chance to get tickets for the Silverstone Classic, I've got good news for you. In the organisers infinitive wisdom, in the exhibitors pack we just received, there are 3 sets of complimentary tickets for all three days of the show. This was a complete surprise to us backstage to be sure! However, the policy of the club is that the club officers do not get any outside freebies and enjoy the same level of benefit that non-club officers do, i.e. we paid for our tickets just like everyone else. So here's what we're going to do. These three day tickets for two people sell for £99 per set (retail non-club price is double that). If you want a set, you can buy them from us for £99 per set including postage, and all the money raised will be contributed to the club's charity. First come, first served basis by replying below. We will raise an invoice here in the forums you can pay online, so nice and easy. Lord Banks has the comps and will post them to you in due course. Let's raise £300 for charity, folks!

First races done! See the blog "My Lawnmower Runs on Super". Mike

Yep, but I'll need Silverstone Classic organisers OK for that, question has been asked...

They even knew that yellow and black were the best colours in the olden days. Can tell its from Kingsters area as it has no windscreen.

Might struggle to find some low profile tyres for those wire wheels. Change them for minilites.

Reverting to the original topic, I'd say that much more important for having enjoyable trackdays in something like a Westie is to get the gearing and the suspension sorted out. The suspension is easy, just take the car to one of the specialists who know our type of car and have the knowledge and kit to do it. We know who they are, it depends where in the Country you are, personally I went to Procomp Motorsport on the north side of Brum., because that was convenient for me to get to, but we know where you can go if you are elsewhere in the Country. Oh, and get some decent tyres. As to the gearing, most Westfields are far too highly geared for serious track use. If you want to be able to use top gear, a 3.92 crown wheel and pinnion is far to high if you have a 5 speed gearbox. Decide realistically what top speed you might achieve with a following wind and work out what gearing you need in top to reach that at a safe max. revs on your engine and you will be very surprised how low a diff ratio (numerically high) you need. In the early days of owning my old car I had 192 (or was it 193?) bhp, and a 3.92 diff., and 5th. gear was a wast of time on track. At the other extreme, when I finished with the car it had 272bhp, and an engine that would rev happily to 8,950rpm, and on 13" 215/55 tyres I didn't run out of revs in top on any track I went to, including Aintree crossing the line at 134mph once, and that was with a 4.44 diff.! Now with the 4.44 diff, it did accelerate in 5th. With a 3.92 diff and 15" wheels, it didn't accelerate very strongly in 4th. let alone 5th.

bl**** hell that makes my pick up story sound feeble Well done for sticking with it and what a great bunch of muggles and WSCC wizards you had to help you on your way

Well done Paul and Amy, and no more thanks for oor Campbell (clansman) - his heid will never fit back in his Westy! Well done to him though, really! Glad to hear that your baptism hasn't put you off ownership. So many buy the 'romantic ideal' of a Seven and then lambast them at the first sign of trouble .. embrace the angst, lol!

Congratulations and a particular well done to Amy, if she is still going to co-pilot after that lot!

Well, we ended up doing the Northern route as the weather was fine either way. Not a bad turn out with 4x Westies, 2x Tigers and an MK. Everyone liked my detour around my favourite local biking roads and we didn't suffer too many "peletons" that can gather in the area! However, as we approached Otterburn, it was apparent we were missing a few cars - they didn't arrive within a few mins so I turned back to look for them. One of the Tigers suffered a brake pipe leak - which was nipped up, but he didn't want to push it until he'd had a proper check and test so decided it was time to head back home with his uncle in the MK going with him. Then one of the Westies (Mick's S2000) who had pulled over with them discovered that his brake pedal was on the floor too! Odd coincidence, but he too decided to go back in "limp mode". The rest of us carried on - but it wasn't long before we had to stop, bang on the border on the A68. Nothing was moving and it seemed that the road was closed with no detour other than an about turn. So we decided to head back (via coffee stop) and call it a day - and the roads back were just as much fun in reverse! Sadly it turned out to be a fatality between a car and a bike that closed the road. Grim reminder of how dangerous it can get out there - so take care folks!

There here http://www.newton-equipment.com/o-ring-seals.html

Not sure if you're serious Terry... That's exactly where not to lift A round at Cadwell would be mega I'm going to throw a grenade in here then leg it... Haha... Those who find track days boring, is it because you're not driving hard enough? Nearly falling off the track at every corner for 15-20 mins (or more) at a time is pretty exciting for me!

We hope to have a double header weekend sprint at Cadwell next year