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Here it is

Well after many long days and evenings in the garage I'm almost there and I'm rather pleased with the outcome.. A few teething issues (I need to reduce the steering lock if possible?) and the head is coming off again to improve the porting as its isn't breathing well enough at the top end, but otherwise pretty much there. Specification Early lightweight race chassis (Narrow body) 2000cc Vauxhall ‘Red Top’ DOHC engine Costcast Head. Gas Flowed with titanium Vales caps, Double Valve springs, wasited valves Solid lifters Kent 1605 Cams Steel Rods Forged Pistons Dry Sump Ram air system ARP rod bolts, head bolts and flywheel bolts SBD Lightweight Flywheel, clutch and pressure plate SBD Ceramic paddle clutch, uprated cover plate to suit Tapered 48mm Jenvy Throttle bodies, Bosch Green 440cc injectors SBD inlet Manifold SDB Exhaust Omex 600 ECU Aero Quip Fuel and Oil Hoses High capacity radiator High capacity fuel pump, 3.5 bar regulator. Alloy fuel tank Type 9 Straight Cut Heavy duty Gear Box Front Willwood 4 pot calipers, Drilled and proved discs Ferodo Racing Pads Braided Hoses Two brake master cylinders with Front/Rear balance bar Rear Live axle converted to disc brakes (VW callipers with handbrake) Quaife ATB limited slip differential 4.7 -1 4 link rear suspension (adjustable) ProTech alloy adjustable dampers PlaySkool ARB 13 inch CR500 Superlight wheels on 888r ‘Caged’ FIA full roll cage Removable steering wheel with DigiDash 2 built in. DigiDash GPS datalogging. Lightweight fiberglass seats 4 point harnesses Carbon effect front arches Fibreglass rear diffuser 4.5 inch headlamps FIA isolating switch.

4 of us turned up in our Westfields, varying from full hood and doors, half hood and doors, doors and nothing. And Craig in his pick up.

Glad you've had a good but quiet run. I had a tricky trot round the villages this morning in my trainers with a few 'Torville and Dean' moments. Let's hope the sun shines next week!

Brace yourselves for the magnificent line up of Westfields in the car park of Tagg Lane Dairy It is a whole, thoroughbred Westfield, soon to be joined by Dave Eastwood who promptly dwarfed my car Christmas Pudding Ice Cream on top with the very favourite Jaffa Cake ice cream underneath After a good car-i chat it was revealed why Dave had pretended that his car was off the road and he needed to come in the very large, freezer sized pick up. It was because he was stocking up on ice cream, tubs full of the stuff GUILTY After an enjoyable chat and a strange brunch it was time to get home before it all melted depart. We are not ones to go directly home so it was a little sight seeing tour taking in the rather great hairpin road to Litton on the way. With almost frozen tarmac that was drenched from the overnight rain it was a little frustrating on the really quiet roads. The Monsal Head Viaduct Fingers crossed for some of this fine weather for the Santa Run next Sunday.

Hi everyone, first post so here goes. Back in the late sixties me and a mate were Mini owners with the obligatory go faster black and white checker tape and a Union Jack. We would often go to Castle Combe to watch the Minis racing, Richard Cooper would be there and also the Lotus Sevens which we would dribble over and dream of ownership one day. Then along came the ladies followed by the kids and all the Lotus dreams went on the back burner, until now. Being in the throws of retirement (67) and looking for something to occupy my days I decided to look at Caterhams and was all set to buy one when a client of mine said he had a Westy in the garage collecting dust if I wanted to have a look, well I did, said Westy was built in 2010 and had 1107 on the clock (not a typo) , It's a SEIW powered by a 2L Duratec, he also has another one, the same but supercharged which he uses for track days. Being able to see through the dust and the grime I could see tremendous potential. Every year it was tested and serviced for the just in case days which rarely come along, so I've bought it and picked it up on Dec 1. The first thing I did was to drive to my trusted mechanic (in the rain) to give it the once over apart from new exhaust manifold gasket and replacing all the perished rubber hoses from the fuel tank he gave it a clean bill of health and considered it a steal. As I am not going to be a sunny day driver it have to have the creature comforts which are perfect and we have managed to put 250 miles on the clock, the response from straightening the right foot is fabulous and it is such a joy (will have to get some silicone around the bottom of the screen though) the best thing of all is that my wife enjoys being a passenger and driving it almost as much as me so it's happy days all round. I live in GL5 if there is any like minded owners close by. Hopefully I will cross paths with some of you during the coming months and will join my local branch in January.

I went with Tour operator Speed Chills last year and this year which was superb, unfortunately they are not running the same event for 2019. Look for camp sites within walking distance of the track. We went for meal deal too, to avoid taking cooking things and food. Two up plus tent and everything else needed will be very organised packing! Andy

Rob, I’m running a standard head with standard valves. I’ve got solid lifters, double springs and uprated caps and platforms. I run the QED450 cams and it pushes 242bhp at 7,339rpm with a good spread of torque peaking at 180ftlb. It behaves well on road and is really good on track. Pulls like an express train. I was advised if I could get the QED450V cams it would make a bit more difference too. Your car looks mint mate. I love it! Well done.

nope....even mine are dated 2017

Was slippy at the dairy too. All iced cream safely now tucked away in the freezer at home ready for Christmas, and no, none of the tubs are missing even the slightest little taster scoop! yum, yum!

Have you checked the mapping?

That's very kind of you, thank you. It has been a bit of a journey with quite a bit of swearing and long days along the way..... I guess its normal for these cars to fight you at every turn.. I mean every job has been far from simple.. I think I will give SBD a call and see what they advise as It currently runs out of steam around 7600 so as you say cams are the way forward with an improved gas flow. I'm contemplating the sprint series next year so I want it to be right.. Thanks again for your kind words

You don’t say! Would have thought it difficult to do sober!

Suggests cams could be an issue then. Standard valve sizes and heads can normally get past that level. As Adam said, 260 is doable. The car is looking fantastic though, funny, we were only talking about it over coffee at the Peak District meet today; a real credit to you. I know SBD have some great cam choices for the Red top, I’m just not that familiar with them. “In the day” the QED Q450V was the real go to cam for the big power road going and track C20XE’s. (With some more track only/competition focussed cars going down the Q460 route, IIRC). Q450V’s could certainly give you an engine in that sort of 250 +/- ball park, whilst at the same time, in a car as light as an average Westfield, still being quite well road mannered and tractable, when you weren’t, ahem, going for it!

Looking good...nice colour and spec...

Looks superb!

... but we do need a photo or two. Oh and BTW!

If your engine position allows you to separate it from the gearbox while still in the engine bay and peek into the bell housing, you may be able to re-tighten the nipple if that's the sum total of your problem. That would be much less work than trying to remove the gearbox if that's even possible without removing the engine. It doesn't take long to remove the engine and in my experience its much more hassle to re-align the prop shaft and gearbox single handed as inevitably the primary shaft gets rotated during gearbox removal. Where as keeping the engine and clutch plate un-disturbed is much easier. I would highly recommend fitting a remote bleed to your clutch cylinder whilst you have access: Remote pipes just poking through to be connected ( type 9 bell housing)

Thanks to Geoffrey for organising today And to everyone who came along Terry joined us for breakfast but couldn’t come and play, and to everyone at lunch it was great to catch up again, it’s been to long since the last time even the 5 hour drive back to the hotel via the A19 ice rink ( bambino’s on ice didn’t have a look in lol ) was an adventure thanks one and all

Amazing car Gary..................

And all completed by Friday lunchtime . Pretty happy with the floor. Seems a lot warmer than just the rubber sheet I had down ( which I left down underneath as a membrane ) So, its about 16mm thick to the concrete below now . This should keep the cold concrete from condensating when the air warms in there now , so the humidifier has less to do.