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Just catching up after a busy weekend, so here we go, HAPPY BIG BIRTHDAY MARGARET XXXX @Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO hope you and your family have all had a wonderful time. After spending yesterday with well over 30 Westfield's in the car park at the factory, today we had 15 cars in the car park at The Whitworth Centre We tucked in to breakfast sandwiches as we overlooked the park. Eggs are easier eaten in a cake recipe than on a bread cob hey Ian 🙄 It was warm enough to wear my new hat, got my new badge on too, thank you WCLtd As Ian had mentioned, after a 100 mile faultless, motorway journey yesterday, I came off onto A roads and as I changed gear the car dropped all it's revs and cut out. To test it, I dipped the clutch and the revs dropped to zero again and the car cut out. Clutch out, car runs ok. I got in touch with Ian last night and we arranged today to slink off to the car park while everyone ate breakfast and get into some funny positions in the car, all in the name of engineering you understand😁 My car ran faultless today so we have a little enigma going on?? Thank you Ian for your help. Rob, Luke and I set a route, I proceeded to ignore it and went a different way but in the end we all got the Crowdecote road in and we all got to Hulme End cafe. I was only 1 right turn from being on the right road though, huge thanks to Rob and Ian for getting us all there in the end. After lots of chats and cakes in the sun we dispersed. Glynn, Andrew and Pete were able to stay a little longer with us and there was a new car show at The New Bath Hotel, so off we went. Not before having more cake, Andrew is passing his cake techniques on to son, Pete. Andrew on top form At The New Bath Hotel we shared the car park with a guy called Rob in his Ariel Atom, powered by a turbo'd 2 litre Honda Civic engine. The Ariel factory sounds like a very interesting place to visit, with a hotel attached containing cars? Lots of other cars started to arrive but we had been out all day, all weekend actually and we left them to it. It is to be a monthly event so we will watch out for the next one. Thanks for coming everyone, it's been a fab day as ever xxxxx

A few arty shots from Inverness performance car show before everything got soggy !!!

With @GaryD1971 and @Bellyboy at the Tydd St Mary car rally earlier. Nice day out had by all 🙂

We've had some fun today! I nearly got killed at Newhaven on the way to Matlock when a Cop in a 3 series on blues and two's overtakes on a blind bend with solid white lines approaching me! It was here- https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Carriages+Bar+%26+Restaurant/@53.1394724,-1.7510708,17.5z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x487a2469f3ed75c7:0xfc6da7e972f0d460!8m2!3d53.139564!4d-1.752528!16s%2Fg%2F1tl4ckbz?hl=en My direction of travel is in Red, his in blue- google street view image (typical I'd not fitted my 360 camera today or got it recording)- @Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative noticed some strange behavior from Rita on her way home from WCL. Revs were dropping really low on lifting off but it was idling fine. Hence I'd brought my laptop along to try to see if the TPS was working as expected, however I also suggested she brought her own laptop and lead along and she can learn how to check it herself. She really enjoyed plugging the serial lead into the ECU- 'Mad Dog' Pete asked if he could ride with me, rather than his dad's lullaby express, so my laptop was passed to @AndrewBClarke in exchange for his son. Rita behaved fine, so I've suggested a new TPS may be worth while as mine failed recently too and Rita does a similar annual mileage to me. The convoy soon broke up, so I regathered as many lost Westies as possible and led them to Hulme End. @Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative will elaborate further shortly............................... a grand day out as always with cracking weather!

Late start to the season, but finally on the road with a rebuilt VLSD and thoroughly renovated differential inside and out! Visco works beautifully, evidenced by the amount of dust in the photo

Great day out and really good to meet you all. Looking forward to more adventures in the peaks! Thanks

After about three months' time waiting for the seller to return to Italy from a work obligation overseas, we finally closed the deal on the SE on Thursday the 11th in Sarnico. My wife and I booked a lovely B&B for the night at an agriturismo, and headed back to Modena (180 km distant) on Friday. The car is an '88 SE, shows ~3000 miles, well-constructed (factory job?), and drove and ran flawlessly. Thanks to seller Fabio, who was friendly, cheerful, and patient. This was a painless transaction!! Now I have four cars and only a two car garage. Our flawless '03 BRG Jag X Type will have to go with only 76K on the clock. The Westie will share garage space with my '08 Quattroporte while the Glamour Red '06 S-Type "R" is relegated to street parking. This is already looking like fun--too much fun for a 75-year-old California transplant? Nope. Don't call me Gramps, OK?

Didn’t help he’d got this on the back!😂

A great Westfield weekend for me with plenty of miles covered sat/sun just a few pics from today whilst in a typical Peak District traffic jam!

Where were you Mr @aegand Mr @Andy Westwood?? Can’t take the cake eating competition?? There’s a new kid on the block who is in training to take you down. 🤪

Great drive up Hartside yesterday

Well, it started cold and misty but soon warmed up! Bright and early at the services for the start of the convoy and in pulled a Listerbell Stratos.... always a favourite of mine from watching them scream through the forests on the RAC rally. One for the lottery win garage! We headed north, and found some lovely roads rather than enter the carnage of road closures in Matlock. Quite a line up! While we were sat having breakfast I spotted a Westfield I recognised and went to meet the owner. It was new member Gareth with the lovely yellow and carbon car that he had bought recently from Steve. It was great to meet Gareth and see the car in safe hands. Heading off to Hulme End, we lost the main group in traffic and ended up on the way to Bakewell... realising the mistake, I unleashed the VTEC for an overtake or three (or four 😂) and managed to scoop up the pack before handing over to Ian to lead the way and get us safely to our destination. Big thanks to @Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative for another brilliant day out 👍

He'll need some tips from Andy Forrest to up his power to take full advantage of all this great aero work!

Great to see everyone again today. It has been a while for one reason or another. I tagged onto a group of Stratos kits on the way out of Hulme End, and then saw a huge group of Mustangs going in the opposite direction. Sounded glorious I picked up a lot of cow muck around Biggin/Hartington, so I did a quick wash of the car before the kid's party. Great run, thanks Julie. Luke.

This was our first ever Westfield factory visit so I wasn't sure what to expect, it was an amazing day spent with such wonderful people and all the lovely cars. It was awesome, we stayed over 4 hours and had to peel ourselves away, what a success. It was nice to feel 'listened to', to feel that 'we matter', thank you for that. We already know that we drive the best kit car available but what is good to know is that this is the brand of the future, do not buy any other kit because you will regret it and you will be wasting your time and energy. We have the dream team with regards to our club and now we have the dream team at the factory, you don't need anything more. For future reference, if you are travelling a distance I can recommend a good nights sleep is available at the Travelodge, M40 J10, only 6 miles away and at £33 for a double room, it leaves lots of pennies for some extra fuel. You then get there early for a prime parking spot at the factory Here is the dash that everyone liked, neat and symmetrical. We were welcomed with bacon sandwiches and pastries for breakfast, thank you Windscreen's hey, we have just replaced ours Lot's of other goodies It soon got busy Bonnet's came off as the conversation flowed Soon people started leaving The time came for us to go too As the sun shone we suddenly didn't really want to go home so we pulled off the motorway and came home through Matlock, calling in for a brew. Addictive these cars are, that's why I did not hesitate to arrange a run out for tomorrow, more, more you can't get enough of them. See you in the morning XXX

What a line up at the factory today! Well worth a visit, its in safe hands 👍

@Glynn Walters that tractor was sooo close at that point I was concerned I might be joining Hedley's Tractor club. Luckily half an inch is as good as a mile

Finished! Just need to work out how to get rid of the grass now. The dog wanted to play as soon as I sat down!

I can't wait to see this with the side pods all done!

My mower has been in for repair for the last five weeks, waiting for parts apparently. Unfortunately the grass decided to carry on growing, to the stage where I’m sure there is a small undiscovered tribe living down there now! I did at one point call them up to ask if they sold combine harvesters but the chap didn’t seem to share my sense of humour 🤪🤣. I have the mower back finally so this is a ‘what am I doing’ rather than what have I just done post. I got halfway through it yesterday on the highest setting, am at the tip (in a very unusual queue for Crewkerne) getting rid of a huge sack of grass, then am back to finish the rest. Should stay dry for it at least. Oh, and yea I probably should have a bigger mower but the garden has plenty of awkward corners and slopes so this one is about the biggest which is useable.

PS, while I have written generally on behalf of us all to thank the Westfield Chesil guys for yesterday, don't let that put off anyone who wants to contact them directly to express thanks. After all the long days, inevitable small setbacks and big wins, it's taken for the guys to get to the point they're currently at, I know yesterday was a great mental boost for them too!

Yep, re the new bodywork side of things, I had a good conversation with the guy responsible for taking that project further), is going to be a significant/major re-style, re-focus for the brand, I believe. It sounds to be a very exciting project. It will no-doubt change and develop as it's at such a very, very early stage currently, but at the moment, it looks like some basic tub elements may or may not carry forward with tweaks, but that the back, front, bonnet and wings will not be the same at all, though sevenesque, still. AN exciting project. Current style bodywork, for spares/replacement parts is intended to continue, AFAIK, beyond the point that the new car is released. Whether a traditional FW etc type model might live alongside the new car for a while, I honestly don't know.

It was a Friday night! good job you didn't find his high heels👠😆

Pretty sure Ali and me will be popping up. Been a while since we caught up.

A great day at the new factory with plenty of westfields 😎 I do feel sorry for @Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative who hatch to ditch some of her toolkit to make way for Glen’s overnight paraphernalia which included hairspray and straightening tongs 😁

A recent snap of two of my Westfields !! Q47 KUA which I owned back in 2008 now owned by Ash and my current 3rd Westfield W700V 😁

I agree with @Scott Young (Captain Colonial) - Club Secretaryand @Mark (smokey mow) - an excellent event. One indicator of learning being implemented was the brand new FW bonnet moulding that incorporated the headlamp spats - fixing one of the most annoying/ painful parts of the build (IMHO of course!) - see pictures:

I've posted it on the local Facebook groups as usual. Those coming from the South will be meeting at the A38/A50 services (DE65 6DX) at 845 for a 9am departure and a nice run up the Derbyshire B roads 👍

Well, I must say I was hugely impressed with the Westfield Chesil team today, looks like the brand is in safe hands 👏 Given the early start this morning, I was expecting 5 or 6 cars at the first meeting point but we more than doubled that estimate! With so many, I was glad I'd adjusted the route to a simpler run down the A5... After making sure everyone had the postcode of the 2nd stop, we headed off in formation. We hadn't been going long before we lost Ash with fuel pressure problems. Thankfully a call to the AA and he got back safe on the "van of shame". We got to Towcester McDonald's for a refuel (car and body) and eventually landed a bit later than planned at about 1050am to find loads of Westfields and Chesils already lined up. Nigel, Simeon and the team were so welcoming and appreciative of the turnout. We had a great tour and a good chat about the journey from buying the business and getting it up an running. Having been involved in a few similar acquisitions, I know full well how difficult and complex it is but looks like they have it under control 👍 Great to see so many WSCC members from all parts of the UK there, some I'd not met before, not seen for months or since Stoneleigh and Newark last year, fab to meet everyone! Personally I found it a very worthwhile trip and we'll definitely make the effort to come down to the next one 👍

Things we do for you lot! Get volunteering!!!

I’m refuelled and the windscreen debugged! So ready to go again tommorow👍

Ditto to what @Scott Young (Captain Colonial) - Club Secretary said. I’ll be writing to the Westfield Chesil team directly to thank them but what a great event and thank you for organising. It was refreshing to hear about the changes they’ve made already at all levels to improve the brand and buying experience as well as making positive moves to address many of the issues we’ve all had in the past either with the build manuals, parts quality, supply issues etc. it very much seems to be a case of learning heavily from the past mistakes and starting afresh with a clear vision and plan to make the whole buying process better and the the quality of the kits as good as they should be.

It was an excellent place to stay, although it was a 7 point turn to get my car turned round in the courtyard!

Hopefully I'll be there, let's see how the propshaft bolts hold up tomorrow! 😂

I'll be there (but just for the breakfast part of the meet).

Sorry cant make this one, a certain person close to me has a significant birthday (70) on Saturday, and we have a family event at centre parks, Penrith this weekend, have a good one 👍

Richard Cable (a former member I think) is up there at the mo.

Only just back home, so no chance to do the tyres, and if I’m honest, after a mentally hard week of four days of lessons and exams through work, I’m shattered now, after the near five hour round trip to the (excellent) new Westfield factory. So I’m going to cry off tomorrow, I’m afraid, and see you all next time!

I'm away unfortunately 😭😭