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Stelvio pass.

Here at Newark.

Chew Valley Lake this morning

7Early start this morning after packing the car late last night. Glynn, Tony, James and myself met up at the Carcrowd Cafe for a brew and a chat. Definitely a place for a meet at some point 👍 We then headed to the show to meet the rest of the crew. The halls were at least as good as Stoneleigh, but seemed like there were a few more small traders in attendance. I will post more pictures tomorrow as the beer has started to flow 😂

Start of the adventure towards newark for the show see you all there

On the dyno,

I had an old bath in the garden that did the same thing, come back from a winter walk and straight in the bath, mind you I then had soaking carpets in the house what with 12 paws running about.😄

Drove the car into this morning. Fun.

It was a lot smaller than Stoneleigh. Some manufacturers and parts for sale in the Hall.

Yes - now sold

22 June 2022 No solid news to report at this point. Basic information went out to interested parties with respect to the sale of the business last week, - we received one having previously discussed it with MB-I. While I can't disclose the contents of the (confidential) sales memorandum, I can say at that point there was nothing "for us". Appointments for those interested in purchasing the business were being arranged to view the assets at Kingswinford. However, in order to proceed to even that stage, would have required a signature from ourselves, (me), on an NDA (Confidentiality agreement), worded such, that I couldn't sign, and be in compliance with our own Club Constitution, (and not in a small trivial way, either). At this point though, there was no point making a mountain out of a mole hill, as the only reason for going from the Clubs point of view would be morbid curiosity. I replied to the info pack though stating as such, however I did also stress, that should the business fail to sell in this first round, and be liquidated, there would be assets such as the archives, that we may be interested in, so we do as a Club, still have irons in the fire. And for the moment, that's it, as far as we know. I'll keep updating this thread when I have any solid updates. It's not our intention to repeat hear-say from Social Media, we don't have to be first with information, just right. I've been in touch with the Chesil Support Group on Face Book, now the Westfield Support Group, it's a closed group, I can see we have a few members on there, though it is mainly the Chesil guys. On the whole, other than some Chesil specific suppliers, they don't seem to have much more info than us. Westfield Support Group --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi folks, For sale a nearly new set of Tillett B6 Screamer Seats (Size: Standard - 40cm) made of fibreglass. Set includes pads and alloy mounting brackets. Seats have covered around 300 miles... One seat has very slight surface scratches in between the two pads (passengers belt no doubt!) but could probably polish out to leave the seats looking as new. Bought from new myself for just over £2,500.. Open to offers - just message me. Nothing silly please! Pick up from Bucks / Oxfordshire boarder - HP17 postcode. Best, Marcus

I feel a bit of a fraud in posting this, given the superb trips of late around the Alps. However I intend to document my trip to the Wirral where I will be staying in just one property for the duration, and hopefully get to meet up with the Wirral section of the club and also if I can re-trace some old haunts around North Wales. I will be visting friends most of which have classic cars. This really is the first time in 25 years I have left my area without having to worry about pets. Just waiting for the temps to drop before departure, car is being slowly loaded and I can't wait to go. More to follow.

Hi all, talking about Opieoils in tech talk. Just had an email, discount code SALE for 15% off. I hope this might help anybody.

Somewhat insanely, I drove the car into work from my parent’s house this morning. Wokingham to near Dartford up the M3 and around the M25. Left at 6am to avoid the traffic and it was fine, good fun on the occasional roundabouts and twisty bits. I don’t have side screens or even wind deflectors so it gets a bit blowy at 70mph, the ears are ringing nicely now. I certainly feel alive and awake this morning though. It put a smile on my face, plus a few other passing drivers who seemed to like the car. Hopefully traffic home this afternoon won’t be too bad. The car seems to run quite hot so I don’t want any overheating problems. It sat around 90 degrees, edging up to 95 at times even with the fan on. The gauge may well be inaccurate so I need to check that out with an IR gauge when I get the chance, perhaps it’s not an issue. But it’s only about 20 degrees out there currently, so I doubt it would cope with 30 plus. Need to see what improvements I can make. First experience of driving with the Lonsdale trainers today too. Positive result, they made life easier and I can even manage a vaguely successful/smooth attempt at heel and toe downshifts, but I would need some new words to describe the unusual parts of my right foot needed to achieve this 🤪. My brake pedal is much too low to make it an easy process, another item on the list of improvements!

At the Carcrowd Cafe

I would love one but feel I would be well short of your asking. Good luck.

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The Image Works of Ilkeston do some cracking work The Image Works Vinyl Graphics (bike-stickers.com)

You were pretty much on the pace of the front group apart from the winner.. He must have been cheating! 😉

Lots of wet trackday experience came in very handy. P12 for me, P21 for Simon, both absolutely over the moon and buzzing. Should be dry this afternoon .

That would be GM Andrew… Grand Masters 👍

They'd have to have a MM class for me. 🤔 Good luck chaps! 🤞

Just staRted raining. M is masters - ie over 45 years old

4/1000ths of a second. I was robbed!

Day 3 Yes a lazy (ish) day was had. The weather was bit rubbish with drizzle on and off all day. The car wasn't even started today. I made a start at trying to get the driveway looking more like a driveway than a lawn, such were the weeds on it, got half of it done by dusk - so much for giving my back a rest... A Whatsapp message to the Wirral group told me the next Club night is 2nd Aug, so as not to show up the Lancs area , I gave the old girl a good scrub down in the garage, motorways don't do much for the bodywork I notice given the recent new additions in stone chips 😏, oh well battle scars is what I will call them 😁. Hoping to get to the local AbaKan fabric shop, as I want to match the seat colour with a leatherette type fabric for future projects, here is hoping they have a closer match than the Woolies sample I was kindly sent. More soon

It's a scrubber for your equipment...

@NigelO did you sell yours?

Only kidding, send me the artwork 😁

I was only half joking by the way..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XV9aHWMRFo

Smart looking car! When I bought my Westfield in 2003 it came from Brighton and I lived in Beaconsfield so the M23, M25, and M40 were on the itinerary. Like yours, this Pinto engined car had a tendency to run hot especially as it was a hot day. The inevitable stop-start traffic on the clockwise section around Leatherhead to Staines found my wife in the passenger seat getting hot coolant trickling down the bulkhead by her feet. It stopped if we were moving but started again in traffic. The fan was switched manually and it paradoxically seemed to aggravate the overheating even on the move. I got off the M25 and wriggled my way home on non-motorway routes with no further trouble. The chap from whom I bought the car didn't build it and wasn't au fait with automotive nuts 'n' bolts so he hadn't discovered the cause. The cause was a fundamental error by the builder who had fitted the electric fan the wrong way round so that when it was running it was sucking air out through the radiator matrix against the ram-air direction instead of forcing it through from outside and augmenting the natural air-flow! My first task the following day was to reverse the fan and reinstate the thermostatic switch that someone had bypassed in an attempt to cure the overheating! I avoided motorways as much as humanly possible after a few frightening moments due to not being seen, and now it is almost never driven on the roads at all as my great age makes me acutely aware of my vulnerability in such a fragile vehicle. Track days are safer!

Now @HB46443 has raised his seat runners, he might have a spare cushion you can have 😂

Lovely evening with Kitnet

Days later and still buzzing from the trip! I love the amount of yellow at the top of the Stelvio Pass

All packed and ready for the alpine passes

Now the adrenaline has dissipated I should probably tell you about my first race.... BRSCC MX5 Clubman Championship supporting the C1 24hr weekend. I've not been on track at Silverstone before, and the GP circuit is pretty long so I decided to do the test day the day before racing. It'll just be a like a track day right? Sure its raining, but I'm half decent in the wet so it'll be fine, right? Testing was in sessions - I pootled out ready to get up to speed. What followed was an absolute assault on the senses. Getting passed on the inside and the outside at the same time, while i'm trying not to fall off and learn which was the track goes. Mildly terrifying. After a couple of laps, I had a word with myself and decided to send it. The rest of the session was much better and I was a lot more comfortable, although I suspect this may have been that the fast guys had gone past so I was settling in with the drivers who were around my pace. As the day progressed, it dried out and I got happier and happier. Much more comfortable being in very close proximity and it was all good. Ready for race day. Didn't sleep, obviously. Got to the circuit around 730, scrutineering resulted in a couple of small jobs for the team. Very impressed with the scrutineers. I thought they'd be terrifiying ogres but he was so helpful - they really want to get you out there and keep you safe. Drivers briefing - dont remember much, surprised at how short it was and they basically said "guys, you have to stop crashing into each other". Next up, 15 mins of qualifying. Which to me, seemed pretty much like an actual race but with a rolling start. It was awesome, I didn't find myself with much space and probably should have backed off to get some, by the time I'd thought this it was half way through the session and I didn't want to sacrifice any laps (bearing in mind, its probably only 4 flying laps for quali). All going well, big smile on my face, I've almost done my first qualifying session! Then smiles turned to tears - the car lost power down the Wellington Straight and I could hear the distinctive noise of big end bearing failure. Gutted. In to the pits to lament. I qualified 19/33 though, which I was really pleased with. Catastrophic engine failure aside. Race 1 was in less than 2 hours. This was not looking good. The team didn't have a spare engine, even if they could get it swapped in time. Luckily, they 'obtained' a bottom end from somewhere and the plan was to put the old head on the new bottom end and get that in. It was clear race 1 wasn't going to happen for me, so got out of the way, let them get on with it and did what i do best - a cup of tea and a sausage butty. Race 2 was scheduled for 1640. Time was ticking... I'd have to start race 2 from the back of the grid, pretty disappointing but race 2 was looking less and less likely anyway The team told me to get suited up and get in the car. Its still on axle stands at this point and the "new" engine hasn't run. I'm strapped in, the other drivers are already in assembly. One of the lovely race people (?) is on the radio giving control updates, while I'm stressed AF. Engine starts, straight off the stands and round to assembly. Yes! I'm going racing!! Of course I got lost on the way to assembly, but figured it out after a wrong turn. They are making some checks on the car while we're waiting for green flag - a coolant leak is spotted...tools are dispatched, but its too late. The rest of the guys head for green flag lap and I'm stuck in assembly. I'm gutted, my racing dreams are over for today. . . . . . . . . Or are they? Jubilee clip tightened and the car is good to go, they'll let me start from the pit lane. I high tail it over to the pits from assembly, the nice flag man explains he'll turn the light green for me when the pack are through turn 1. Excitement building now, lights go green and off I go! Getting onto the track as the pack head through Maggots and Becketts, I think I'm about 3s behind the guy who is next to last. Engine seems strong though. I needn't have worried, I was on the back of them pretty much immediately and managed to get past 4 in the first lap. I was into my stride, this is so much better than track days. Trying to leave racing room, but passing on the inside and the outside. Managed to get on the power early, get a couple of overtakes on the long long straights and on the brakes. The short 15 min race was over in a flash. It was actually cut short to 13.5 mins because of delays earlier in the day. I managed to bring it home 23/33 which tbh I'm over the moon about considering the circumstances (racing driver excuse #72). I am still buzzing and absolutely hooked. Next outing Oulton Park on 23rd July, which I'm expecting to be different to silverstone but I cannot wait!!! ETA - I'd post a video, but the gopro fail

Chris you have provided training for russ everytime he gets to overtake you on a trackday, so some of today's success is down to you. 😁

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/61930544