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Albert the lab, our first dog. I’m shattered!!

I couldn't agree more Scotty. I started out in SS as a complete novice with a very standard narrow body car. As my times improved so did the car and my confidence. Even after 10+ years of competing and a fair bit of success I hand on heart still compete as I enjoy the crack. I have a very quick and well developed car, I have a reasonable amount of talent but am I going to win the Speed Series again? A very Probably Not, but am I going to stop competing, absolutely not! I think we are all getting very bogged down here with times for every eventuality, which is not feasible, manageble or necessary. Our brilliant Championship, (believe me it is) is blessed with not only some of the quickest cars in the country, but also some of the best drivers. There are also a number of ex SS drivers now doing very well in other disciplines, a testament to them but also to what they cut their teeth doing. Target times will never be everyone's clear cut system, but none are. They are as much as is possible based on FACT, and will always reward the quickest driver - driver/car combination, which is the only and right way. We are a Speed Championship! Whilst I agree that this debate is healthy, it's also in my opinion being stretched too far. Look at the results, they don't lie, the quickest competitors are winning, both against Westfields, and quite often against everything else they compete with. We need tweaks, not an overhaul. Get to an event, drive your socks off, enjoy a shandy, home! Kerr Out!!

Finally I can update this thread! Life has been doing what it does best, keeping me too busy to do want I really want to. But I have finally been able to get in the garage and get some work done restoring my Dad's pride and joy. I can't tell you how good it feels to have made some much needed progress. My Girlfriend was working nights all last week, so I took advantage of the situation. "Don't worry I'll stay out the house all day so I don't disturb you." In the few hours after work each day I was able to take out the engine and gearbox. Then I took apart the front suspension, what was left of it anyway After that it was windscreen, seats, dashboard, pedals, LPG tank and finally the wiring loom. She's looking sorry for herself at the minute but the light is beginning to get brighter I'll upload some photos later. Thanks for all the encouragement guys.

I personally think that the biggest hindrance to novices is the spec of the cars that the factory are turning out. ie They seem to sell more cars with simple hoop roll over bars which don't comply just so they can fit weather gear. If they came up with weather gear that fitted over MSA compliant ROPS, it would make things easier for new owners to make the leap. Perhaps have a word with someone at the factory?

Merry Christmas...

Hi I'm new to this forum, I've just purchased a 1998 SEiW project. This is my second westi, I owned an 11 (XI) previously, and I've owned a few Lotus cars. I'm looking at getting my teeth into this project. I've started a restore diary if anyone is interested? Thanks

Been to sunny Blackpool today to collect the new addition. Can't wait to get some dry weather to get it out for a run then get it ready for next season in the speed series.

here you go Barny 2010 in the Blade Car

49 today! who'd have thought it. Hope you've had a good one! @Howsafe Workwear and Safety Equipment

MHR's and hope you have a good one...

I am sure you will have found the bit of classic mini footage on Youtube. It just looked soooooo sloooowwwwwww

Is this a pre lit, before they were sued by the makers of chitty chitty bang bang?

As a non-competitor (complete novice) who is new to the westfield scene, I would say that entering such a series in the outset would be more for the fun factor rather than trying to be THE BEST. IMO promoting the SS and educating potential newcomers would get more entrants than messing about with the scoring system. The main decider for me would be cost and secondly the time available to attend enough events to accrue enough points to get some achievement factor.

Happy birthday Cleggy

Glad to hear you're able to make some progress. Keep up the good work. You'll know your car inside out out by the time you finish. Don't forget to take lots of photos, for that "where does this bit go" moment in the future! And to post on here of course

PM'd

Had it for quite a few months now and squeezed a trip to the Nordschliefe in it, so am fairly familiar with it, including that long trek which it despatched in comfort on motorways including a couple of blasts up to the 155 limit on the autobahn - the twisty bits around the surrounding areas of Spa (which we did on the way back) for instance were epic. The "not as wide as supercar tyres" are not noticed unless you are driving way faster than you should on the road! As you know large wide tyres on a daily are probably not that desirable to be honest with risk of aquaplaning and also replacement costs (although unsure as to the cost of the i8 tyres) Like I say a great all rounder - the only down sides as a daily are perhaps the size of it, so its not really a back laner - I dont find the headlights illuminate around tight corners at all well but are superb in other rspects - and the lack of cabin storage for bits n pieces is a bit of a pain (glove box very small, the two trays in the centre console are also small and the boot is adequate but not generous - you do have the back seats however which make it much more practical than most supercars (my kids fit in fine for short journies and we us the Outlander PHEV if its all five of us or for longer journies) If you ever consider one let me know and we can discuss

Exactly what I was saying, easy target are just as non-motivating as hard targets but as I said novices just need to adjust the personal goal to 98.5 rather than 100 points. If people want the actual times to challenge themselves against then I have proposed elsewhere a SS course records webpage specifically for novice and expert class records - giving course, name, time, date. This would give people the time to gauge their personal improvement/performance against. It is already widely acknowledged that the WSCC SS Regs offer Novices substantially more than other championships. There is always more that can be done and that's why SSOT spend significant time each year reviewing the outcomes of the previous year and looking for improvements. I agree with you, and have clearly stated in previous posts, that it is a combination of many things for an individual to consider when starting or continuing to compete. Significant amounts of analysis and SS marketing were undertaken last year and its effectiveness is always being monitored and efforts refocused as appropriate.

Really good choice as a company car Cleggy, and BIK on list is just another example of an unjust tax. By what logic can the Gov. say that the value is worth £104k when the market says its worth £58k because of age. In fact just look what BIK has done to the company car market. My first company car was a Ford Cortina and my last a Prius, not quite what you could call a progressive career path. But at least I had silly ones in between. No, I didn’t like the Prius one bit but it was so damn reliable, low BIK, and friends felt sorry for me because they thought I had been demoted. At least retirement was an easy decision.

And a whole lot safer for the driver and passenger too.

The HSA championship scoring is based upon awarding additional points for being within so many % of the class record. Perhaps this could be adopted in some way for novices? I know that in reality that is what you are doing with the draft regs above but if I were a novice it would somehow appear more attractive worded this way The HSA schema is below but could be re-jigged towards 1 extra point maximum and parts of instead of 10 -down to1 10 points within 1.25% of existing record 8 points within 2.5%of existing record 7 points within 3.75% of existing record 6 points within 5% of existing record 5 points within 7.5% of existing record 4 points within 10% of existing record 3 points within 12.5% of existing record 2 points within 15% of existing record 1 point for setting a time

Belated birthday wishes! Sounds like it was a good ‘un. All the best Cleggy.

MHR Clegster. Enjoy Blackpool.

That was a great looking car and seemed great value for money. Have fun with it!

Target times and the scoring system has been a bone of contention since they were introduced. Personally I have always been on the fence as to whether TTs was/is the right scoring system and still have reservations but I am more convinced it's the right thing after we evaluated different scoring systems this year. It confirmed that there is no perfect scoring system. Its a very difficult balance to achieve a system that attracts and retain novices whilst maintaining the interest of the established competitors who have supported the SS for many years. Over the years the SSOT have attempted to tweak the regs in an attempt to make it fair for everyone and have been criticised for changing the regs too often and using calculated target times where they were deemed too soft or difficult. The aim is to introduce some stability and to some extent simplicity's into the regs. You can't win, it seems. Making the TTs softer would be as others have said a PR exercise but playing devils advocate there's an argument that you could make the target times twice as hard in all classes but whatever you do the fastest people will still win their respective classes whether they are a novice or expert. In many ways the old 17pt for a class win scoring system was better in terms of attracting novices as you were scored on your place in your WSCC class on the day so a novice would feel like they had done well for example, when they came second in a class of three. The fact they could be 7secs behind the 1st place person was irrellevent. The problem was that it didn't reward the fastest driver overall ! An alternative system similar to what BARRY suggests was looked at where you could score points on your class place on the day but score a bonus point for breaking the class record. That was OK in theory but didn't get round the one person in class scenario who could score points for first place against no opposition and the tyre 1b 1c tyre situation didn't help either which threw up too many complications to make if work. I do think that the MSA and the initial costs are the biggest barrier to novices that the scoring system itself. The novice championship still remains and novices will still be rightly rewarded. Other clubs are having the same problem attracting new blood where the scoring system isn't an issue.

Hang on the mists might be clearing here,,, so lower the target times for all but put in place a bonus score of some kind for beating an established (or calculated) class record?? That way we have sense of achievement for achieving target as per Stu's comment but also reward for an exceptional day??? Thoughts??

Collected today kev will be back on the hill at the shelsley Walsh event.

Martin We are all passionate about the speed series and we do need more people to take part at all levels. In the past Paul Morcom and myself have run the sprint school at Blyton and I have certainly acted as a mentor to some newcomers. I think that a personal mentor could help people to make sure that their car is ok, car set up, PPE is appropriate, tyre selection, correct class entered, how to enter events including class on the day, MSA licence etc I am happy to offer this to anyone who wants to contact me and I am sure others will also help in the same way.

There is this....clicky Give ACW a shout as I am sure I remember a fantastic video he produced with his and Barry's videos run alongside each other.

Martin The 2% was not for novices it was for 1B tyres. Novices had a 1.5% allowance to TTs 2018 sees us do away with Novice times completely as it does not affect the opportunities they have to score against other Novices or people in the same class In classes C,D,E,F,G and H we have Target Times that have been developed over the last 7 years and the majority ( I estimate around 95%) are actually very hard to achieve class records!!!!. They are not times that even experienced drivers could achieve on a regular basis and I believe there is a misconception that they are achievable. They are RECORDS and some have stood for several years and were set by top drivers in extensively developed cars on the best tyres.

Did it twice this year and had great fun... And with all that power from your Duratec straights will be OK.. I would say worth a trip especially if a load of us there.. Plus of course it is in fabulous Norfolk....

Thanks guys - been up to Blackpool for a look around the tower and today to the imax to see Star Wars - a good one all in all

MHR mate

Happy Birthday Clarke.

Happy Birthday mate!!

Funeral today. Competition helmet on coffin. Very motorsport oriented send off. Current and ex-WSCC members present were Paul Pocklington, Paul Morcom, Chris, Guy, and me. So, good representation. Andy’s condolence card on behalf of all Club members was very well received. Thanks Andy, on behalf of Monica. thanks to all contributors for the messages on this thread, which I have passed on. David