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Last Wednesday on the last day of my holiday just setting of from hotel de France just out side Le Mans

A big thanks to all who came and supported and visited us at Bo’ness today, unfortunately I couldn’t have my westy there due to weather yesterday forcing me to take the regular car it was really good to see so many members coming past and saying hello and enthusing over their cars and we hope to see you out and about with us

Here's a few more pics of his adventures:

@wizzer Rather messy I should think. But you're missing the point. Regardless the horsepower, you're owning and driving something that very few people have, every Westfield has a soul of its own as very few are identical, every drive is a 'performance' of passion, sound and drama. Park a Westfield next to a Ferrari and more folk will talk to you, take pictures, and want to sit in yours than the Ferrari. That's the buzz. Whipping it around a twisty, technical b-road that would leave other cars in the ditch is the icing on the cake!

A long read but bear with me...... For ages I've been thinking about why the ASBO was running a bit lean, along with that it was running a bit rough on tick-over, sometimes it would almost stall, then it would bounce to 1500 rpm and repeat until I intervened with some throttle. Add to that the pops and bangs on gear change and over-run that were just a tad too much even for the ASBO. To top that off it's been running hot, and a couple of times it's refused to start for a while after parking up. A bit of background on the ASBO, it's a Factory built SEiGHT with a fuel injected 3950 Rover V8, the only mods I've done to the engine are a baffled trapdoor sump and a wind-age tray. The stages of running the problems to ground were as follows. One of the tech guys at the factory stuffed a small bolt into the open end of a bit of hose that was connected near to the 'Flapper Valve'(not sure if it's called that but I reckon it's a good name for it..... and whatever it does), that smoothed the tick-over out a bit. I removed, cleaned and replaced the K & N Air filter, another slight improvement. I removed and cleaned the M A F Sensor with carb. cleaner, again another improvement. I dived into a box of shiny new bits I purchased from John Eales a few years ago, I changed all 8 plugs, the rotor arm and distributor cap and all of the HT leads. One of the distributor outputs was corroded in a way that reminded me of an old battery....... Again an improvement in the general running and a lot less lumpy-ness in the tick-over but it still lacked something, and managing the engine temp. was still challenging. A Radtech radiator with 50mm cores and a new expansion tank & Cap, (the last one in the country apparently) filled with proper blue Glycol and not that pink carp (Radtech's words not mine) plus a newer version of the same fan that was fitted have sorted the effective cooling, the fan now defeats the engine heat (if that makes sense) but it takes a while! Yesterday I visited a local Land Rover specialist, I pointed my non technical finger at the M A F Sensor and said "got one of those?"..... "Nope.... but if you want to wait a lifetime or two we can get you one, it'll be £1050 plus the vat..... or you can have a Tradefit one for £118 inclusive of VAT " No brainer..... "how soon?" says I.... "12:00 o'bells say the man"..... and true to his word whilst having my old gits health MOT at the quacks the phone rang to say come get it. Well I waited until today to fit it...... and I really wish I hadn't, what an amazing difference, the ASBO is back to full nutter, and no more pops and bangs, it's just smooth uninterrupted lunacy from tick-over to O-Dear how do I survive this...... I shall be ordering a spare one of these Anti-Depressant devices on Monday..... no longer will I ponder the troubles of the ailing V8...... It just goes to show how the abundance of cylinders can overcome such a mix of problems and still function...... So on to the word "Brain".... if the ASBO was equipped with more brain power , and i had been born brighter could we have fixed it sooner??? Answers on a small postcard please...... A very happy Nem.......

I think there’s room for another sticker just over there!

So Mr Barber, how exactly did you manage to get on a WSCC tour?

I’m here too. 😎

At BMW's HQ in Farnborough... no, I'm not trading it in

Somebodies not spotted this yes 😁

We found some wonderful swisties for the last 20 odd miles with a couple of dodgy overtakes no names mentioned !

Went for a wander around the scottish ford show in dunfermline today with the wee one. Was really an 'all clubs welcome' show and was a good selection of machinery, although no westies, shame as it clashed with bo'ness. Some pics if anyones interested And my favourites of the day. Childhood dream car Stunning home restoration. Really unusual fiat 500 wagon with suicide doors And top of my want list at the minute.

I will likely be along too

I will be there with a spare steering rack if @Greenstreak-Andy D still needs to help work out the steering issues.

Terrys caught the sun as well

Good turn out today, even if we did have a couple of showers. We began with a breakfast at the Red Kite, not a bad way to start the day, then headed up to the railway where only 1 of us got a free ticket for a ride.

We arrived at the hotel booked by an ex member who’s supposedly also a senior planner ... anyway secured parking entrance caused a bit of an headache we tried forwards/ backwards / without drivers in and still chassis hoops and lowered floors were catching.. luckily @Paul Hurdsfield Stole some grilles from somewhere and were all in 😁

I reckon he got the Mrs to go cycling as well 🚴‍♀️ 🧡

“...and then Terry we’re stopping at a teddy bear factory so you can buy a replacement for the one you threw out of your cot back in April.” 😄 /just quoting what @marcusb said at the time in the thread //ducks anyway 😄

Terry must be knackered he's fallen asleep stood up🤣

Look, no matter how much you beg and cry, you are not joining again.

DO IT! It might just be a phase for you, or a lifelong journey, but I doubt you will regret it either way. I've owned well in excess of 70 cars and bikes, all of them modified someway small and large, but my Westfield is up at the top of the list. And having a solid, supportive and friendly club behind it goes a long way to putting it there.

From the comments it's clear every westie is unique and a joy in its own right. I suspect that owing one for many is a journey, refining it as you go along. Whether that be adding power, losing weight, or the opposite and developing it as a tourer. On the road my guess is a 1.8 will be plenty for 95% of the time. Only thing to do now is to go and drive some and see where that journey begins!!

A great post... well done Mr/Mrs Orangecrush. I haven't chuckled so much in a long time.

No problem Nick, I’ve generated a renewal invoice for regular membership for you for a year, it will have been emailed to the address you have on record with the Club; follow the instruction in the email to renew and you should be all sorted. Any problems, give us a shout. regards Dave

It really depends what your use to. If you're coming from a bike with anything over 100bhp or a modern diesel turbo car with more than 250bhp then a modest powered westie will feel start to feel slow fairly quickly. 200bhp is the magic number for me in a 500-600kg Westfield. Quick enough to keep entertaining for a good few years up to a tonne without being silly. If you got a windscreen, most decent powered road cars will batter you at anything over 100mph. Best example I can think of, my daily S2000 was near enough equal from a rolling start to 100 to a 170bhp locost kit car (aero screen). Once past 100 the s2k easily pulled away.

Just quite the most amazing day today, thank you to @IanK (Bagpuss) for inviting us to Alton Towers and going on my cars namesake 'Rita the Queen of Speed'. No oranges 🧡 were found in the making of this 'smiler' photo though. Smiler 4.5G and 13 up side downs, now where did I leave my stomach?

Somebody is playing silly b*******s and I now have 4 pink dust caps 😐

Finally managed to get out and enjoy the Summer - Chew Magna, en route to Cheddar Gorge for some aural pleasure and an ice cream!