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I spotted the following on an insurance/bike site, while grabbing a coffee this morning, had quite a bit of relevant info in. (Though do bear in mind it’s from an insurance related site, So approaches things from that angle.) Non the less, I thought, as we’ve not done it for a year or two, it might be handy to cover this sort of stuff again, for new members etc. Riding skills: Why can riding in groups be so dangerous? The link to the article is here Please do read it, it makes a lot of very useful points, even for Westfields. Its also something that both the leader and those in the group need to take on board. One of the key things, that is just as relevant for us as bikers, is that once you’ve got more than three, maybe four cars, you get exactly the same speeding up at the rear situation. It’s the opposite of that braking “shockwave” effect you see on the motorway, where someone at the front of a busy, packed lane, brakes mildy and a mile or two back, the last cars end up stopping! When leading a group with a decent number of cars in, remember, as you get closer to the back, every time you accelerate, they have to accelerate harder and longer to keep up. If you’re averaging 50mph on a twisty road, they might be averaging 60 mph, or more. With a dozen plus, it’s easily possible for cars at the rear to have to travel at both licence losing speeds, and in a manor that will get them more than just a speeding ticket if caught, if the lead car is pressing on. The other consideration, is that a group of that many single make cars is very obvious. So if the rear cars get pulled, EXPECT busybodies and “concerned citizens” to be stopping and helpfully telling the police that you were all driving like maniacs etc. You may just find the BiB at the scene deciding to charge everyone with racing and let the courts sort it out! Be careful, be aware of what and who is around you. There are several things that encourage the clustering of the group, one of the “worst”, is worrying about getting lost/left behind, not only does it encourage keeping up at all costs, including some very marginal and downright blatant traffic light abuse(!) It also causes anxiety and reduces enjoyment of those following. What can be done, not everyone wants to know the detailed route, but make sure everyone knows the destination, or if it’s a long run, add waypoints, where the group can stop and reform. The club always recommends the buddy ahead system. Quite simply, always make sure you have the car behind in site, (doesn’t necessarily have to be immediately behind you, nor visible every second, after all, you need to concentrate ahead, too.) If, you loose site of the car following you, slow, and allow them to catch up. If the convoy turns off the road you’ve been travelling on, try and wait either just before, or just after the turn, so that they will see you as they travel along. (It should go without saying, pick somewhere safe for both you and other traffic.) Once they catch up, carry on with the turn. The car ahead of you, should have seen you slow, so in turn, you slow the whole convoy ahead of you, untill you’ve all caught up. If the car behind doesn’t show up at all, try and hang on till the whole convoy has actually stopped, and the organiser sent a car back to find out what’s going on. Only then go looking for the missing person, they may have broken down, but they may have taken a wrong turning, in which case you can’t do much but carry on till the next way point. And that’s it. The simple system above, while not perfect, will cope well with most potential issues. The main places it falls down are in exceptionally heavy traffic, and going through bigger town/city centres. If a run makes these things unavoidable, and you have lots of vehicles. Consider breaking the whole group down into fours or so, and meeting up at waypoints either side of the problem areas. Make sure each group knows the intended route, but it’s not the end of the world if they have to skip bits, as long as they reach the waypoint. Overtaking (within the group).. A tricky one, on the whole, it’s not advisable, particularly if using the buddy in front system, as people loose track of which cars they should be seeing, even without the risks it can bring. However, as long as you’re sure the car ahead knows you’re going to pass, and there is lots of room, and you’re sure the cars around you know the route, then it can be OK. One point I would make though, is that to pretty much any bistander or other motorist, Westfields in a big group that’s traveling briskly, even if “legally”, that are also changing places a lot will look like racing! Im not aware of anyone ever getting a pull for that, but bear in mind if you do, the friends you overtook are likely to get pulled too, even if completely innocent. As said earlier, Bear in mind who else is around you when you decide to not just travel convoy style

We normally do this for Stoneleigh so why not for Blyton. I'll start us all off. I'm no David Bailey so apologies for the quality. I have a few of people attempting to cross the finish line.

well it was my first time sprinting this weekend at blyton, and i really enjoyed it great group of folks all very friendly, a nice bit of banter and very welcoming even thou i was not competing in a westfield i was giving my arion its first taste of competition first thing i realised is i had the wrong tyres , slicks but track compound not soft sprint compound , set up for track use is not ideal for sprinting , and getting the start right is the most important thing , still times came down every session both days , starts improved , i thnk its a bit like golf , you never feel you have cracked it, every run theres things to improve on but thats whats makes it great fun its just you against the clock i would like yo thank all those involed for running the 3 days , for the my fellow of class 3l for making me and mrs H welcome to terry for his advise and keeping a eye on me work diary permitting i hope to be out again some time this year

Afternoon, The last cars are about to leave the line... and I will go and hibernate for a week or two; but we do want your feedback both +'ve and -'ve; if -'ve please suggest how I can fix it for next year. Booking for 2019 and it should be the weekend of 12th/13th/14th July 2019. Many thanks John

Big thanks to Mark from @carbon-nv... DRLs and side indicators will be re-fitted in the winter

Sorry to read you had troubles, but I can see the issue in your photo. Durarecs don’t like Schweppes. Hope it’s sorted soon!

I made it home. I should have learnt that when taking the wife, a 3yr old and a 9 week old might delay the journey home. The only problem I have is I can't stop smiling. There I am with my support car I keep forgetting about my indicators at the moment Ohhhh I put down sun tan lotion on, but too late. I got burnt on the way home.. lesson learnt there. I'm away on holiday Tuesday. Bit gutted I am going to miss 10 days of good driving weather now Just a big shout-out to Josh who gave me all the details and info I needed to ensure his car was the right one for me..

Hi everyone joined the club earlier this week thought I would introduce myself! I used to own a westfield about 20 years ago, an SEi (I think) with a Vulcan 135bhp crossflow on twin dellortos, which was a pretty decent specification back then! Had the car a couple of years but ownership co-incided with a house move and subsequent renovation project which meant the car was barely used. I did quite a few bits to the car over the period I owned - upgraded the engine, added a brushed aluminium dashboard and new chrome toggle switches, chrome roll bar etc etc. Then sold it on to a guy from Germany. Have had quite a few nice cars over the years - a 911 Carrera 3.2 replaced the westfield, followed by a Ferrari 308, Alfa 3.0 GTV and 147GTA, then a Maserati 3200GT. Pretty sure most of those are now worth a lot more than I sold them for thats for sure! Other priorities meant I had to leave nice cars to one side for a while, and these days I have just an Abarth 500, which I think is a great little car. Have always felt that Westfield ownership was rather unfinished business as it wasnt used much, so have just agreed a deal for another. Though I like the look of the zetec and vauxhall specifications, I've decided to stick with what I know, and I owned a LOT of ford cars in the 80s and 90's, so the incoming car is an SE wide with 2.0 Pinto power, of course with twin carbs - webers this time. Really looking forward to collecting the car in about a week's time. In the meantime here are a couple of pictures of my previous Westfield - bit of a period piece with the swept wings and Ferrari style wheels!

Hi All I recently signed up to the club after purchasing my very own Westfield Megablade. Its very early days yet but the car seems to be in good condition however there are one or two little snags that need attention like a faulty oil pressure gauge/sender (they seem to be an issue with the BEC cars). However i know very little about the car so if anyone on here knows anything about it that would be most helpful. I'm based in the Liverpool area and hoping to meet fellow Westfield owners (hopefully some BEC owners as well) at the local area meet across the water in the Wirral whenever the next one is. Also the car came with a hood and side screens but they have never been fitted to the car, im not sure i have the skill in order to get the fitment how id want it does any body know of a professional fitter in the north west region? Thanks and hello to all Alex

Late night cooking with @Ian Tolfree (tolf) - North London AO @Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO @Robin (Red Spider) - Yorkshire AO

We had a run out over the lecht, corgarf and glenshiel to glenshee got there about 11.15 and met Jim and Jean along with Brad and Diane ( takes me a while with names so apologies if wrong Did remember their lovely black westy though !!!! ) and Ally came down from Aberdeen From here we headed back the way we came to corgarf for lunch and blether, Ally said goodbye and headed home via strathdon whilst we went up and over the lecht, tomintoul, brig’o’broon , nethybridge, coylumbridge to aviemore for fuel . Here we said goodbye and headed north towards home while everyone else headed south . In all we’ve had a great day out with good friends, good roads and a mix of weather, Thankyou all for coming out to play

Very good engine. Reading the specs it is similar to mine (I have cribbed a few notes tho) good luck with the sale from a fellow 180hp 1.8 Zetec Owner!

Track day ...All positives Good briefing , quick sign on, siting laps for only the new trackdayers ...or those who wanted siting laps. Plenty of track time Not too crowded ...... I'm sure I was on my own at one point.. Evening event very good All well organised and a very enjoyable day. Thanks to @John Williams - WSCC Competition Secretary , @graham frankland... and anyone else I missed who helped... Thanks NEXT YEAR.....We just need to organise another hours spannering on Chris' car after the track closes next year. Without the alternator fixing diversion, I would drank all my beer before the pub.

It's looking better than when I checked earlier in Anglesey,so hopefully you get a mainly dry day But not so good for where I live and the route to Anglesey

I would have thought yes. there's certainly electrical sockets on the wall.

Just a quick thank you to all those at Blyton yesterday who offered a hand with trying to help/diagnose the coolant pressurisation issue with my car. After turning up in the morning with a car that wouldn’t start at all, getting it started was a victory in itself, then to be dogged with the pressurisation issue was a bit of a b*******. Thank you again to all those that helped or just came for a chat, it made the 5 half laps I managed reasonably enjoyable! Well all apart form the sunburn I have on my neck now! So today I worked further on my car and it seems it is a head gasket issue, not great for an engine with less than 20 hours on it! Ah well. I do love fixing it!

Might be a bit of a grey start, but looking good for later in the day... he optimistically says..

My first experience of a WSCC day out and what a fabulous day it was. Had a few teething issues but everyone was amazingly helpful and every issue was fixed to allow more time on track or even to limp home safely and the end of the day courtesy of a clothes peg . Met some great people and overall I was very impressed with the organisation of the event. Well done and big thank you to all and I’m looking forward to the next one!

My day at Blyton...

I had a brilliant, relaxed day. Music was really great fun with diesel and steam trains running in the background. Here are a few pictures.

My sincere thanks to everyone who posted. Makes me very proud. chris

Just to strike a balance. I wouldn't be without my indoor cover. My garage has rafters and lots of stuff stored above, painting the walls and floor simply doesn't help. I bought my new stormforce (kitcar) cover off Ebay for £20. You just need to be lucky with your timing.

Big step today , building bridges, lunch with my daughter and she’s maybe going to come to Bo’ness with me

5 litres of fuel in a jerry can, until you know the fuel gauge accuracy.

Ear plugs!