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Collected the car from the factory last Wednesday afternoon - but forgot to take any pictures at the factory (too keen to get driving)!! Managed to take a few over the next couple of days in between the bouts of heavy rain. The rain certainly made for an "interesting" couple of hundred miles trip on Friday from Northants up to Lancaster ready for the ferry crossing on Saturday to IoM. In its new home Saturday night: Final photos from a quick run out to the Laxey wheel this evening.

...or maybe not, it might be a good thing to discuss the matter here before. I'm looking for a prelit / early SE. What I would Really, Really want : Flared / Clamshell wings, windshield obviously. Pushrod engine (well, crossflow or period-related powertrain). Big analog clocks. Lots of. Twin carbs. Running. Old. What would be nice to have but might be pushing it too far. Green or any dark color would be nice. Minilite-looking or steel rims. 5 speed gearbox. Benchy flatty seats. Sidescreens and wet weather gear (but maybe sourcing / making should not be that hard). For a weird reason I crave the bulge shaped front turn signal mounting posts, on the nosecone, like on this picture. Diagonal belts (pushing it too far, I know). No holes for letting air filters through. Maybe the best (even if terribly wrong) words to describe what i'm looking for would be a stock, vintage Westfield. Like an old seven but with no alloy panelling. Even writing it seems wrong. Some of these things I can change with ease, some less so.

When I bought my Westie (2-litre Zetec Silvertop, Sierra SDV, Type 9, Aeroscreen, composite seats, no heater), I was told it weighed "500 and something..." Just got it back from Matt at Procomp today and the car (a bit like its current owner) seems to have put on a few pounds. It's now 696kg with me in it, or more accurately, 614kg without me on board. If I'm honest, I was hoping for the figure to be rather less than that. However, it has made up my mind on one thing - I'm not putting the car on a diet - getting the weight down to the point where it would be noticeable would cost a fortune - I imagine just getting it below 600kg would involve changing quite a lot of stuff, so I'm just going to spend the money on fuel and just drive it whenever I can. I fancy a couple of carbon bits purely for the bling value (cycle wings and diffuser), but other than that, I think it'll stay as it is Alternatively, I could always try for more power, but I have a feeling that could be a slippery slope too...

To be fair, it's mostly just the neons and subs though

And you may be a bit heavier than you think, because most people who weigh themselves "in the privacy of their own bathroom" tend to do so more or less naked, whereas I imagine you went to Matt at Procomp you were fully clothed? And in my, admittedly limited, experience, to get a road legal wide body car engined Westfield on standard chassis and bodywork, and IRS, down to anywhere near 500 kg is not realistic. My old car, which started life as a road going 2008 car, with duratec engine (light by 2 litre standards) and type 9 'box, no carpet, carbon nose, wings and aeroscreen, and light weight wheels, with full cage, and shell seats weighed around the 565kg. mark.

Hi Everyone, I am going up to the Westfield factory on the 9th Oct 2018 to pick up my FW kit. If any members local to the Portsmouth / Southampton area need anything picked up just let me know. Steve C.

Hi all After reading that average Caterham owners don't often modify their cars, or keep them them for very long I thought you might like a look at this link found by one of my mates at work: https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/forever-cars/seven-heaven-the-teenage-dream-that-never-died/?utm_source=c12w2fccaterhamsevenlink&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=c12w2 Perhaps I'd get out in the sunshine this week... Gary

Fack sake... heavy cars around essex... Regarding catering vans (previous comment)... none of the weight what they say. they are muuuuch heavier. at least none of the ones i had the oportunity to weight.

Just enjoy it! There's a few salesmen that like to imply S2000 Westies are circa 500kg and they certainly aren't. Doesn't stop them being fun!

Will sort some out next time I go. With wider rear tyres and a softer compound all round I feel a <1:02 is doable. My 1:06.7 was not a tidy lap at all!

Booked through MSV website with BEMZMSVT code. I`m a novice and £125 for Donnington seems like a good deal! Anyone else going?

Thanks Dave, corrected the link now.

Let's try again ..weather looks ok for Wednesday evening 26th it's giving a possible shower up to lunch time but I think it will be ok (my pine cone is saying yes) so the plan is to meet up at the Tickled Trout services for 6.45pm for a 7.00pm dart down the M55 to Kirkham off at Kirkham turn off, through Wrea Green to Lytham for fish and chips at Welans chippy then through the Illuminations. Steve

Weather forecast is looking quite good. I might pop over in the morning, just to say hello, but don't put me on the reserve list as I have appointments in the afternoon, sio wouldn't be able to stay long anyway. But if you find on the day that you have less than 15 turn up, I might "pay up" on the day and have a few quick (ish!) laps in the XI. Either way, have a good day.

Can be repaired permanently and / or invisibly using epoxy resin . Use a suitable pigment paste to colour match if required , hese are available in the full RAL colour range from somewhere like CFS fiberglass CFS catalogue 4U

No problem .. I always book at the last minute to ensure its dry. There are 2 westfields going from Derby..so I will not be alone. Thanks Trevor

Interesting that I have a very similar spect to your old Duratec (bar the cage), but my Zetec is 50kg heavier - I don't have carpets either, but my nosecone, cycle wings and aero screen are all OE fibreglass - maybe 10kg to be saved with a screen and wings, but I don't fancy extending the mortgage for a carbon nose I jumped on one of the corner weight scales at proComp - 81.5kg fully clothed (with extra clothes too, 'cos it was a bit fresh yesterday, so I'm probably still on the right side of 80kg in the buff..) Matt was saying that it is extremely difficult to get any Westie below 500kg, with live axle narrow being the closest. He said that a wide IRS is always going to be in the mid 500s as a minimum. To be honest, now I'm over the intial disappointment of owning a lardy kit, I'm not that bothered. With 'only' 170bhp, it was never going to be setting laptimes to beat, but its plenty quick enough for everyday road use. In fact I'm rather enjoying wringing its neck, feeling like my face is being ripped off and then looking down to find I'm still only doing 60mph Matt was telling me that there are some Wilwood calipers that fit straight onto the Sierra uprights - if any pop up for sale, I'd probably have them, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy driving it and tinkering with it during the long winter evenings (for the first time in 30 years, I have a heater in the garage AND a reason to go in there)

It may have been a warmer day...

The calipers are HEAVY, about 5kg each, some alloy ones would shed 7kg off your car weight easily. Vented discs are also pretty chunky and un-necessary, could save 2-3kg there (each perhaps). Unsure of the extra wide rear end, but probably only adds a little bit of weight. Wheel / tyres could save a reasonable chunk there, maybe 5-8kg without going silly. Haven't been able to weigh this exactly, but I've estimated IRS to about 50-60kg heavier than live axle. Oh, and fuel is about 0.75kg / litre. A standard tank is about 25L IIRC, so half a tank is ~9kg. Work on rotating mass first (wheels & tyres, brake discs, hubs), then unsprung mass (stuff that moves up and down relative to the chassis - brake calipers, dampers, uprights), then sprung mass (chassis, driver, engine, etc).

The one with the lump removed. Its not @IanK (Bagpuss) is it.

Has it had some sort of conversion.

I'm not sure if I was offended or not. Can the picture be reposted so I can see if I was offended or not?

My current wildlife problem hinges around this fella Who is stealing my fish...