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First drive out today.

That is a quite repeating topic… that to be hones was solved in an experimental way once for all several years ago when a former sprint competitor and engineer, well known for some of us, took his caterham to MIRA’s wind tunnel. The session wasn’t quite enough to actually find the magical receipt for a seven shaped car, but drawn quite a lot the lines to follow in the future. To add up to Dave’ comments, From memory (I’m too lazy to search the link) those were the outcomes: There is only two ways to improve the aero of seven shaped car: Reduce front lift. Reduce overall drag. Guidelines for front lift limit: Reduce AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE the amount of air going straight under the nose: IE Splitter. CSR style front cycle wings were beneficial to reduce lift straight from the wheel. Front canards around the nose. In fact, some somehow big front wings were done… and at the same time were diverting the air off the turbulent area (wishbones and shocks) so it helped with the drag. Mudflaps should be avoided by all means to avoid front lift Gidelines to reduce Drag. Front cyclye wings as near as possible to the tyre. Side doors/half doors (depends if you are in windscreen or not) Windscreen off Reduce positive pressure in engine bay, wich it means flared sides, limited underside air entrance and NO V8 scoops… Full flat floor (includes sealing transmission tunnel and engine bay and rear tray) From memory too, I remember that a rear finn difusser didn’t make ANY difference on lift. It was tested in loads of different positions, heights and car rake… It was a reason for it that I can’t recall it… Probably the nature of the full turbulent air going through the car, doesn’t helps to have good quality air in the rear undertry. And if placed there with the wrong slope, or without being spaced, yes, it creates a parachute/balloon Then… going back to the original topic, Just put it there. You won’t notice it anyway… and carbon looks soooo sooo nice!!

The snow clearing lady was my post. I don’t know who censored the post as I have not been informed as to who removed it or why it was removed. If it caused offence to anyone then I apologise and would have removed it myself if asked. Blatman’s very seductive green lady must have passed the board of sensors, I’ll try and Photoshop the snow clearing lady to make her green. Or any other acceptable colour.

Have you made a trophy out of the timing gear ally tripod that you wiped out at the finish?? It was nice of Chris Winstanley from the timing guys to present it to you

Everyone seems to be going Gulf colours lately, go back to it's original livery.

I'm now having to explain to the wife what kind of forum this is... "Honestly, love, it is all about westfields... Mostly... ."

So, after breaking down on the way back from Shelsey Walsh a while back, and having just been made redundant and starting a new job, I'd left the westie in the garage not daring to see what had happened... after a few wild goose chases, the distributor was found to be siezed, causing the drive to shear... sump off and gave it a good checking over....rescuing all the bits of drive in the process. Cam looked unscathed, took off the oil pump housing to ensure all good there too. poured some cheap 10-40 down through the galleries and then cleaned it all up. Sump cleaned and refitted, along with inlet manifold and carbs. Distributor rebuilt by h & h ignition....can recommend those guys btw. new alternator, coil, and ignition module too. timed at 12 btdc and dizzy lined up with no1. a few turns with the plugs out to get the oil pressure up and then plugs in and she fired up on the 3rd spin, so well chuffed. Turned the dizzy round a few degrees to find the fastest idle once warmed up and jobs a goodun.....so far. need to get the timing checked at 5000rpm but relieved so far...only time will tell though. annoyed I missed all the nice weather but other things took priority. Also a shame as there's a new AO locally who is keen as by the looks of things. looking forwards to taking it out again...either this year or next spring. Mart.

Says it all really.

Don't go with the "mount your pistol drill in this" type that are not worth the effort as there is little likelihood it will drill straight. Have a look on FB or e of the Bay for a 2nd had one, seen a lot cheap on FB, or look in Lidl or Aldi

Loved it! Still grinning now, but I have been out again. Just had to turn the rear dampers up a couple of clicks, but all good other than that. Down side of fitting inner wings on the rear, had to take the boot box out to get at the dampers! Cheers Gary

That is, without doubt, my fave Westfield yet. Call me old-fashioned but it captures the true spirit of what these cars are all about. Love it!

I mounted mine with a 15mm gap at the rear end no so much to allow air to escape the fuel tank area but to bring the roof angle of the diffuser down a bit more into the acceptable range to maintain attached air flow. dave

I bought a bench mounted pillar drill from Axminster tools for woodworking a few years ago. It's been a really useful machine, used it quite a bit during my build and for all sorts of odd jobs. If you can find one at a reasonable price, would highly recommend one as well as a hand held drill. Not answered your question, but just my twopenneth

I bought a cheap pillar drill from Machine Mart and use it a lot. They also do drill stands if you are happy to do the swap overs. I wonder about using different drlll speeds. Could be awkward if you need to hold the piece you're drilling too.

@Gary Taylor - Scotland AO

It was too cold to leave her outside for soo long! I'm sure a moderator has provided her with their coat and offered to defrost her!

I use the forum in the same way, have this as a bookmark rather than the forum main page: https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/discover/unread/

Exactly that above

Reminds me of this story from Spain a few years ago https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-08-25/amateur-restoration-botches-jesus-painting-spain

I went to Interpro today for a geo set up and ECU remap from IVA friendly to road/track friendly. Took 7h and a good chunk of cash, but well worth it, the car is transformed. 2l blacktop zetec with Jenvey TB & AP con rods - 185 bhp and 200nm, I`m pretty pleased with that. Very responsive and so much more stable/controllable. Before was a bit scary on the motorway, on the way back briefly nearing 3 digits and still planted. Plenty of good advice from Dave. Highly recommended..

It looks a little lonely. I like the way you painted “Keep Clear” on the next parking spot, very protective.

Reminds me of this African newspaper front page. Obviously their reporting style is even more dramatic...

Reminds me of a strap line a mate of mine came up with when working at Berghaus. They had a range of rucksacks with the men’s version being the “Roc” and the Women’s the “Titan” the line was She’s got a Titan and he has a Roc on. Sadly they didn’t actually use it

my factory built car that I ordered at the show is finally ready for collection!!! Picking it up Wednesday - I'm sure some pictures will follow Not that I'm excited much

It can. The main approach people seem to take, if they do anything, is to either drill Speed holes () with a good size hole cutter in a row across the back of the tub, above the diffuser. (Mainly track nails, and outright competition cars, to be fair). Or, the really neat alternative I’ve seen a few do, is to space the rear of the diffuser down a little, so that there’s say a half inch gap between the bottom of the tub and the top of the diffuser. It looks discrete and neat, that way. To my mind, the better way, would be to give the under floor area the proper treatment, and panel in the tunnel from below, along with as much of the engine bay as possible, aiming for as flat a floor as the lowered floor pans, if you have them, allows. At the same time, you could borrow Caterham approach to heat managmenent in the tunnel, with the big Duratec engined CSR’s, and fit a closing plate either side of the tunnel entrance in the engine bay, that closed off much of the gap between gearbox and tunnel - they don’t have to be anything like a perfect fit to the box/bellhousing etc. you’re just aiming to limit the air getting past. That way, you avoid the balloon effect completely, and at the same time feed somewhat smoother airflow into the diffuser. One point I’d make though, is that the Seven shape is very prone to front end lift, in excess of rear end lift. (I’m not for one second saying with simple mods alone, you will achieve downforce, but you may well reduce lift!!) just be careful that you don’t make the proportion of lift front to rear worse than it already tends to be. Personally, I’d always want to add the front end splitter to the nose cone, before adding a rear diffuser, in the vague hope it might keep the balance, somewhat!