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Great meeting tonight, good to catch up with everyone! Thanks to Chris for bringing along his absolutely stunning Midlana. Fantastic workmanship in a car built from plans, a real testament to your engineering skills, I take my hat off to you sir!

Almost looked tropical in Wales today. Found some new roads to play on.

I use Stripes Poole Ltd. I think the website is www.fantasticsigns.co.uk but if you Google Stripes Poole I’m sure you’ll find them. Here’s a pic of the Trident they made for the roof of my MC Stradale.

Completely agree with Martyn on Chris' build from plans - that is a whole other level and the result is very impressive. Nice to meet some of the local members and the weather held out. Hopefully I'll be back next month with something more in keeping than a Peugeot 🤨

So I was chatting to the Missus over breakfast and we discussed how much I still was enjoying the PS4 games she bought be for Xmas. So do you not fancy a PS5 then? Says the wife. Well, I figured it was rude not to (as she’d just given me a nod) so looked on Argos and bought one, picked it up 15 mins later. Sweet. I then mentioned this to a mate who said “WHERE!!!! Where did you get it!!!” So I told him and too late - no stock - he was gutted as he’s been dying to get one for ages. I had no idea that they were out of stock for months and that the long awaited resupply was early today at only a few places inc Argos - and that I maybe got the last one at the shop by pure fluke 🤭 Looks sweet though 😁

Yeah just like my mate. Don’t think he’s talking to me now 🤣

The phrase is "hoist by my own petard", not "hoisted"... not having your best thread, are you? 😛 So did Mr Van Zeller - I guess Lincolnshire is where those expelled from Yorkshire are sent these days.

ok so next TDO has come back to me Circuitdays. They basically highlighted the current lack of space on days, so discount is not available through the current summer months but they are intrested in working with us and have offered us a deal on a day already. i will post a seperate thread but Cadwell on a rare saturday but in november on the 27th. £149 per car or if we get a group of 10 £120. i have asked for there dates for 2022 as soon as they have firmed them up and we should be able to get out on some good dates with them. cheers

We've been seeing the same information as everyone else over the last couple of days; ie Face Book promises of dates that it will be on. The team are on it behind the scenes, but please be patient, we haven't had the information from the event organisers yet to even put a plan together ourselves. Once we actually do get official information for exhibitors etc, we then have to look at what can actually be done, and what actually should be done, so even if we get event details today, we've then got a lot to do, before we can actually say what's happening. ....And it all could still be cancelled/part cancelled/scaled back, if the delta variant situation keeps expanding, or another variant gives equal cause for concern.

@SteveH used to do a great coordination job on the trackday front for the club and the back office staff for the club feel it may be worth another go/experiment. So from myself putting my hand up earlier in the week, I will now be taking up the role of trackday coordinator/liaison/advisor for the club. This is not to stop/take over any of the current organised events between club members but to try and add further value to a growing group of Westfield club members. I will establish a single point of contact with many of the large Track day organisers and manage where possible the discount code for the club or further discount for large numbers 10+. I would also like to try and get a couple more official club days together, but this will all depend on the members support. I would like to offer support to novices who would like to dip there toe into trackdays, I often see new members say general touring Westfield with a couple of trackdays a year, these are the people i would really like to help. As starting out for your first couple of day would be much easier with the support at the curcuit from other members. Finally I will be the contact for flags, gazebo etc to be booked in and out, that would like to be used at trackdays. It would be great to get some more publicity for the club at these days and hopefully adding a little more off track organisation will help. I will be looking at some dates of days throughout the rest of the year and start the tdo liaison over the next couple of weeks. There is a great core group of friendly track day goers in the club and it has been slowly growing in the last couple of years. A few more would make club only days more viable and the first bonus of that is no clio's to deal with 😁. Many thanks Simon.

Thanks. Not far from where we take our wobble box on holiday. Have to visit there next time we go!

Tal-y-Lynn near the Mach loop. The road in red is superb if nothing is in your way.

Chris they haven't come back to me yet I was trying to get a group discount. If I haven't heard by Monday I will give them another nudge and if no joy I'm just going to book. Im doing this and croft the week after.

Your right Dave, the Mazda SDV ones are different, one can only assume the Sierra ones are as well.

A truss would be prefabricated and factory made with nailing plates at the connections. The timber size would typically be 3x1-1/2” and the contain a lot of triangulation internally. a tradional cut roof which is assembled on site from individual lengths of timber uses much larger structural timbers. These will have a ridge board which a trussed roof wouldn’t and traditionally would also incorporate purlins at mid span on the rafter sections.

Basic advice as always is, if not absolutely sure about the loadings/modifications you want, get a structural engineer to do inspection and get building regulation approval. Simply prefabricated roof trusses are quite slender in timber profile, especially against depth, joints are butted against each other, joints are usually plated, frame includes rafters/purlins/internal struts. The whole of the frame is triangulated so that every component has a job to do making the structure strong, light and easy to transport. Bespoke roof structures are usually heavier with timbers quite wide in ratio to depth, joints are normally overlapped for ease of fitting, ridge beam will normally be quite substantial, loft purlins may be to carry load and not connect directly to rafters. Each component is usually independent of each other and such will be heavy especially when compared to the truss design. This is not comprehensive by any means but may give a hint of what's involved.

well, at long last i finally got my call up to go. it is now 24 hours since i had it, and other than a sore arm last night i am fine, none of the side effects as reported, so far anyway... my 2nd jab is in 8 weeks time, unless boris reduces the wait to 4 weeks. i can not tell you how happy i was to have it and i am still smiling today. richard.

Just as well, you don't have time to be wasting your time with friends now, more time to game with your new PS! 😉

given both V5s were at the same address and not at the new one i recon ive just not renewed it so i just filled out the form online to change the address using the 11 digit number which the system didnt seem to have an issue with so I assume its ok. I only looked at them because of the thread about MOT and emissions to see what is written for mine

Hi all, We have managed a few drive outs which have been predominantly in the northern bit of our whacking great area. We’re going to schedule a drive out which will take in the Exeter / Dawlish area and maybe end over in West Bay, Dorset at the Dorset meet. Be great to meet a few more members from the Devon end of the area! You could join for part or all and there’s always cake! Planning on first Thursday in July - so 1st. Route TBA but can be flexible. Great if someone down that way could suggest route/ good roads / cake stops! (Jim needs at least one ake per 90 mins!) Drop me a note if you are interested/ can help with details etc? Thx W

Your having a laugh Russ, it’s pure misery 😂

Space for one more ? I'm doing the same as Gary, making my way over today and staying at the Muthu Ben Doran tonight then heading back after the run on Saturday. Gary, if you're in the next room we could mutually agree to keep the snoring down to a reasonable level! See you all at breakfast at the cafe Saturday morning, if not before somewhere. Cheers, Les

Sorry not going to make this run, the cars still in bits and I've got to drive the lad down south to collect his new toy. Hope this nice weather holds for you all and have a great weekend 👍

@Tony Smiley queuing and track space isn’t usually an issue at Cadwell

Happy Belated Birthday Danny.

aka c*cking about.

That’s a first for me to correctly explain anything… another point I forgot is undamped mass is bad…. So if you allow the wheel to stay still and the tyre to do the work that’s good, there’s only a bit of rubber moving. Where as it appears on my BMW For instance on the front to smooth the ride the top mount is soft as soft so now every road imperfection moves the massive heavy tyre and wheel, wishbones, brakes, strut, whole spring, and the whole lot adds up to the mass of the moon freely moving about independent of damping!

Hate run flats especially on the earlier cars which clearly where not designed for them. My 2014 320d for instance is suprisingly good.. but still better with my winter tyres fitted. They are basically the work of the devil. Tyres have traditionally been the primary suspension, and smooth out a lot of the road. Leaving the secondary suspension at the damper and springs to do more of the bigger ride stuff and handling… These things are at odds with each other.. so you want decent low speed damping to control the rate of roll, pitching etc… and then relatively softer damping to allow the wheels to travel over rougher ground. But with run flats the damper will be processing high frequency, short amplitude stuff all the time which alters the mean low speed movement and also the higher speed movement . The solution BMW uses appears to be softer suspension mounts allowing the dampers not to be dealing with some much of the high frequency stuff.. but this then adds to the next challenge that updated dampers and springs need to work in harmony with the soft top mounts or they get out of phase with each other.. so you can get a whole manner of strange happenings. Noise, wheels pattering on the ground…. All the devils work!

We've run the same set of non run flat winter tyres on my wife's 320i and then a 115i. Yes the ride is less harsh, hard to compare the grip levels. I think the 115i's handling is sharper with the run flats. Though the tyre sizes aren't identical. the run flats are lower profile and wider. The rolling circumference is the same. Some tyre experts suggest the stiffer sidewalls of the run flats are parts of the suspension effectively. Hence in theory you should possibly change the springs and shocks if running on non-run flats. I'm sure @DamperMan will have some good input to this topic. Given you're driving and ability to feel how a car is handling @maurici, I take your knowledge and judgment on such topics as valued. Many BMW's drivers (I've had two), are more interested in the badge and not so much about the dynamics of how the car rides and handles.

My wife has COVID itus, this is a media virus. The government and media have done a fantastic job of scaring the **** out of her. It’s plugged right into her head in the same socket as she had postnatal depression many years ago. She is petrified of catching it, and given the option would lock herself and the kids away until the last case of the virus is gone. The second biggest factor after age is weight, yet she’s added a stone or so to her mass. I try to be supportive but it’s hard. I try to explain in terms of how many coach loads of people she’d need to get very close to in order to catch anything. Logic has no place in people’s fears and axeieties . All shopping is quarentined for days and days. Fresh is washed, other stuff has its own shelf in the fridge until it’s out of date/ deemed safe to eat. I’ve worked through out. I stopped meeting my cycling mates for a long time even when it was allowed so not to cause more axeiety. The vaccine has offered her hope, after her first jab she was beginning to join the world and then the Indian one arrived!! Luckily She’s had her second one now and she’s feeling less worried. Personally I was nether bothered either way regarding having the vaccine I consider my self fit and if it’s my time it’s my time. But me having the vaccine will help her )and me) rejoin the world. So I’m 1 jab in 1 to go. Personally I thought if it’s full of 4g powered Nanobots most the population will be to so.. And if it kills me I’m well insured I do believe if my wife had of got COVID it would of been the worst case of COVID ever recorded. To explain So every year you get what we call man flue and you feel like you are going to die, but we know we will be feeling better in a few days, you don’t panic you just try and sleep it off/ work it off/ whiskey it off.. because it’s just a cold. Now if when you got the same cold you was told 75000 people die of this every year and this could kill you, you might not be able to breath…. You’d probably panic… stress…. What you believe has a massive difference to the outcome. Placebos, snake oils, etc when a person believes in them it has a proper measurable positive outcome. The same is true for negative thoughts Nocebos.. with 66 million people all being told the end is nigh, that alone will of had an effect on the number of hospitalisations, long COVID, and so on. my kids are 13 and 15. They have more chance of getting run over walking to school.. than suffering from COVID. I don’t see any good reason for them to be given a vaccine which we do not know if there are long term effects…. After a few years and all the vaccines are better and tested for longer why not.. remember Protect the NHS and the Vulnerable…. Hospitals are quite empty and the vulnerable are jabbed..

OK so a bit of a thread resurrection and to do a bit of an introduction and house keeping. @SteveH used to do a great coordination job on the trackday front for the club and the back office staff for the club feel it may be worth another go/experiment. So from myself putting my hand up earlier in the week, I will now be taking up the role of trackday coordinator/liaison/advisor for the club. This is not to stop/take over any of the current organised events between club members but to try and add further value to a growing group of Westfield club members. I will establish a single point of contact with many of the large Track day organisers and manage where possible the discount code for the club or further discount for large numbers 10+. I would also like to try and get a couple more official club days together, but this will all depend on the members support. I would like to offer support to novices who would like to dip there toe into trackdays, I often see new members say general touring Westfield with a couple of trackdays a year, these are the people i would really like to help. As starting out for your first couple of day would be much easier with the support at the curcuit from other members. Finally I will be the contact for flags, gazebo etc to be booked in and out, that would like to be used at trackdays. It would be great to get some more publicity for the club at these days and hopefully adding a little more off track organisation will help. I will be looking at some dates of days throughout the rest of the year and start the tdo liaison over the next couple of weeks. There is a great core group of friendly track day goers in the club and it has been slowly growing in the last couple of years. A few more would make club only days more viable and the first bonus of that is no clio's to deal with 😁. Many thanks Simon.

I'm starting a team in the national hide and seek championship but good players are hard to find.

You raise a good point! I'll get my pushbike out. Oh wait... Life is a risk, just depends which ones you want to take. We all die sometime. On a similar note, I previously calculated that the chance of catching (not dying from) Covid (during the lockdown when it was most prevalent) was lower than dying in a car accident (which is 1 in 252). And that's for a normal driver, not a lunatic who races and does track days. Makes you wonder why the world is losing its **** so much... My point was that life has X risk at the moment. To have an additional vaccine then makes that risk (X + vaccine), without reducing X much at all. Maybe the government should forcibly remove all foods with high fat and sugar content from supermarket shelves, close all takeaways, and impose compulsory daily exercise amounts? After all, there were 1 million UK hospital admissions in the last year related to obesity vs 470,000 related to Covid.

For me (late 30s) it was for 2 reasons. 1. The reduced transmission of a vaccinated person vs non vaccinated. I have a good few close family relatives who are elderly and have some of the highlighted health issues. 2. My work involves travel and its almost nailed on that vaccine passports will be a thing. Well this might be irrelevant if the government keep on decimating the industry, but thats another debate. If it wasn't for the above I would openly admit I would have probably swerved it. I've seen friends around my age be affected worse by having the vaccine than those who've had covid. I know the older generations on here will scoff at that viewpoint but it's a fact. And very similar to how we deal with flu, we vaccinate the vulnerable and leave the rest to get on with it. If I were older then obviously my viewpoint would be different. You just have to weigh up everything and make your own mind up and don't let anyone pressurise you into it.

Good info, thanks Jim! I found the numbers presented nicely here: https://fullfact.org/health/covid-vaccine-blood-clots/ Given my age, exposure level and current health, it looks I would be increasing my chances of developing a serious health condition by having the vaccine. Better not to increase the chance of the NHS having another person to deal with, and leave the dose for someone else more in need.

Had my second letter today, following two text messages, 'inviting' me for mine. This seems quite insistent. The literature within the NHS letters did not state that I should have the vaccine, and does not offer any good reasons why I should. Between 8 of my school friends we know of 3 people who have had serious health complications (blood clot related) immediately following the AZ vaccine. I also know of two people (same household) who have been bed-ridden with Covid after having had both jabs. My mum ticks every risk box, had Covid, and is still alive somehow. Ergo: I am still not sure about all of this. In these situations I tend to speak to the most informed person I know within that area. That happens to be a school friend who studied at Oxford, came out with a 1st, and now works in the pharmaceutical industry. He has decided not to have the vaccine. i am going to need to do some more research, and find some bl**** some good reasons to go and get stabbed!