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Well, the snows of have winter have arrived in the Northwest region of the USA and this makes it a good time to look back on this past season of autocross competition in my 2014 Westfield Mega S2000. I had a good set of results this year so I apologize in advance for the following humble-brag. I made some changes to the car before the season started that really made the car quicker and easier to drive at the limit. The biggest single change was the installation of the +35 mm wide track front suspension kit from the good people at Siltech racing. This really made the car easier to drive and more intuitive at the limit…the place it was really felt was that I’m now able to stay on the gas during rapid lane changes or slaloms. In the past I’d have needed to mind the tail coming around and eased off a bit to keep it in line. With the Siltech wide A arms and a ARB that I made the nose turned in very sharply but the tail stayed in line even when on the throttle. Stay on the gas, turn in violently and everything does what one would want it to do. It’s wonderful. I also changed the alignment some to deal with the inherently high slip angles of the wide Avon slicks I’m using. I now run 2mm of toe-out on each front tire, 2mm of toe-in on each rear tire and 1.2° of camber all around. This really aided turn-in without having to keep the tail in line and combined with the new front suspension the car went from very good to great. Here’s a few of this year's stats - 17 days of competition 17 times setting FTD (Fastest Time of Day) 172 runs in total over those 17 days 1 set of Avon A15 compound slicks used to the full 0 mechanical breakdowns 2 times setting fastest PAX time (a handicap factor based on the car’s potential/class so that cars of different classes can be compared) 3 second place PAX finishes 11 top five PAX finishes Largest winning margin over 2nd place - 6 seconds. Smallest margin - .6 seconds Lastly - I set a new fastest ever time on our club’s “Index Course” where we can compare times to those set all the way back to 2012. I held the previous fastest Index time and beat it this year by .4 seconds on a very hot (slow) day. I’ve got some plans to make the car better balanced next year which should help the handling even more. I’ll be modifying the fuel tank so that it will carry nearly all of its load on the passenger side of the car which should benefit the handling. I’m already at the minimum weight for my class (1420 lbs or 644kg for the car with me in it) but I’ll be taking some more weight out of it so that I can bring it back up to minimum weight with ballast on the passenger side to further help with right/left weight distribution…in effect I’ll be shifting weight to the passenger side of the car. And lastly I hope to install Siltech Mirco Adjust rear A arms to get rid of the one rubber bushing left in the suspension and to make toe and camber adjustments more precise and easier. Winter is long in Montana so I have plenty of wrenching time over the coming months. If anyone is interested in Autocross and I can help in any way please let me know. It's so much fun. I'm already excited for next season...it's only 6 months away! Thanks for reading, Dave

I shared this video some time back and it's the only one I have. I apologize if it's a repeat for you. This was taken at an event this past spring at a local very small church parking lot. This is about as small, tight, slow and technical as autocross gets. My top speed on this course is about 63 mph (100 kph). Considering that the parking lot is only 450' x 250' hitting 63 mph while also constantly changing direction it feels plenty quick. But this will give a little bit of a feel for what it looks like. dave

@fatblokestu. Here's how I mounted the mirror.

Afternoon All All the members missing magazines have new been processed and will be with you shortly, can I please ask those that haven't received a magazine please check that your "Billing address" corresponds with your "profile address" as this is how the mailing list is automatically generated, thanks for your understanding. Thanks Mark

Thanks for the questions. I don’t think I would say that front toe-out helps specifically with turn-in under throttle…I would say that front toe-out helps with turn-in under all conditions. It’s my understanding that toe-out helps because it preloads the tire’s slip angle meaning that there is less time taken up with waiting for the slip angle to build before one gets an actual change in direction. The bias ply slicks I use have awesome ultimate grip but their construction means that the slip angle is very high compared to a radial street tire…and that means that the turn-in response can be slow. I have definitely found that the front toe-out helps to get the front to dig in and head in the new direction much better. Also of benefit on turn-in is using the short steering arms which give more Ackerman effect…which means that toe out increases as the steering comes off center. The greater the steering angle the more toe-out. So on slower and tighter corners there is huge toe out and very aggressive turn-in and at lower steering angles it’s less aggressive. The performance benefit from the rear spoiler is harder to define. At lower speeds I’ll bet it does very little to add grip. At the same time I also doubt it adds much in the way of drag at low speeds so there is very little downside. The spoiler weighs only 1 pound so the added weight is of little concern. At higher speeds it feels like the car is better planted in the rear. On a smaller and tighter course my high speed will be only about 60 mph to 65 mph but on larger more open courses I’ll see about 85 mph. So my guess is that on smaller courses that the benefit of the spoiler is small and for only a short period of time (when at peak speed) but on larger courses much more time is spent at 60-80 mph and there the benefit feels more obvious. It does act as an air brake I suppose but I always have more power than grip so the added drag is OK as long as the car stays stuck to the floor. In the end it’s a matter of “accumulation of incremental gains” and none of the small changes alone amount to much. But if the spoiler drops .1 seconds (on a 60 second run time) and the front toe drops .1 seconds and the closed underbody drops .1 seconds and the front splitter drops .1 seconds……etc….pretty soon you have a can that is easier to drive faster and you’ve dropped 1/2 second…and 1/2 second is a solid winning margin. When I started autocrossing 20 years ago I assumed that the fastest cars must be very difficult to drive. After all my slow car was hard to drive so going faster must be even harder. I clearly had this wrong. The fastest cars are the easiest to drive and that’s the thing that makes them quick. When I first built the Westfield in late 2014 my car was hard to drive. It was a lot of work. It understeered and oversteered and was unpredictable and hard to read. Now it’s easy and any reasonably skilled driver would be quick in it first time out. It’s really fun! Dave

Possibly Soft Bits for Sevens: https://www.softbitsshop.co.uk/westfield-50-c.asp

Cheers for the advice, I was looking half cage initially, but having read a few horror stories I'm leaning more to going full cage now. Fingers crossed caged have a good black Friday deal on! I do plan on joining the speed series but I'll be late on joining, my westfield needs a bit of work to be up to the standards I'd like for hillclimbing. Engine is the big issue currently along with a rear end chassis tidy up (surface rust) but I also need seats, harnesses, tyres, cage and a full face helmet (along with hans ideally) before I start using it competitively. It's a nice step up from road going though so I do look forward to it! I'm sure I'll have a few questions along the way so will reach out a couple of times. Thanks

Hi James, Regarding the cage, do you mean a full cage or just the rear section? The rear section is all that is mandatory but many fit a full cage to be super safe. Caged are the most popular supplier. Others do exist (Safety Devices, Custom Cages etc) but dont sell them in as larger numbers as Caged so are probably more expensive. The other thing to watch is that Caged cages are FIA homologated so can use smaller diameter tubing which makes it lighter. Others will be to the MSUK blue Book standard which is larger diameter and hence heavier. Regarding your steering wheel position, there are several ways around this such as fitting a deeper dish steering wheel, fitting a flat bottomed steering wheel, fitting a spacer between the wheel and the adaptor if it is quick release plus obviously cutting the column and sleeving it to extend it and rewelding it by someone who can weld properly. Other options include lowering the seat to give more clearance. Hope this helps. John

Thanks Julie. I've emailed a couple of companies so I will try them tomorrow! This laptop is like triggers broom....the pet rabbits have chewed through the charger lead, the screen has been replaced after it cracked (Covid related home tutoring incident involving a stressed wife and daughter) and the battery was replaced under warranty. I replaced the screen just over a year ago after the 'incident' so the cable could be down to me not routing it correctly??? I've found one on eBay for £27 delivered (from China) which is bonkers as the replacement screen was only £50. It's still to good to write off yet.

I was thinking the same in regards to where I take my youngest for her riding lessons hence I own Defender🤣

Time for a double celebration: To my knowledge this is the first LHD car to pass an IVA in the UK! It's probably the highest mileage kit, given it's crossed the Atlantic twice (circa 10,000 miles in total) before IVA too. This started with a kit delivery in April 2014. Very well done @elrik a great achievement and I wish you many miles of happiness in your great car! If you've enjoyed building it, just wait till you start driving it more and getting used to it etc.

Little trip out to Ham Hill Country Park while the rain is elsewhere!

Got our wedding photos through today. This is one of my faves!