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Banned 👍

Full and final results. I'm happy with our 10th place for our first event ever, but it looks like we've some catching up to do if we want to get near the winners as I was 10 seconds off the pace.

I’m sure admin are on the case but I’ve reported both the spammers so it should flag it for them.

Now I’ve had a chance to recover I’ve more time to type a full round up of the day. It was an early start on Colchester High Street; as a penalty for getting my entry in so early we were were given the earliest arrival time of 8am. Next year I’ll put my entry in last minute so we get the 10:00 drop off time. Scrutineering went without a hitch and we were given our pass sticker to display on the car. My OCD wasn’t best pleased that it was slightly off centre on the nose cone. After this we had a good couple of hours to waste till the 11am start time so we went off to admire our competition and pick up some tips from the pros. There was a good mix of styles and designs. The most popular chassis were based on karts and quad bikes whilst a few others used tricycles. The rest like me built their own chassis. There was plenty of admiring glances from the crowd and plenty of children had a photo behind the wheel, after swapping notes with the seasoned pros I realised that my wider wheels may be a disadvantage on such a flat course where all the speed comes from the initial push rather than the gradient of the hill. Not to be deterred we lined up in our number 4 spot (although 3 on the road as one didn’t turn up) ready for our first run. The start ramp was a monster and quite steep too, the two karts ahead of us bottomed out on the transition as they were pushed up the ramp, hopefully they made it off ok. No such issues for us, the short wheelbase and the minimal overhang front and back meant that nothing caught on the way over the top. For the first run my instructions to my pushing team of Ian, Paris and Dawn were basic and clear: a good firm push but not too hard as this was the first time I’d driven the kart at any pace so I want to get a feel for it. From the off it felt steady as we rolled down the ramp onto the tarmac. I steered it with ease through the kart wash, getting a good soaking of soapy bubbles on the way. Up and over the speed bump I could feel it was loosing a bit of speed at this point as the road flattened and I rolled towards the barrage of super-soakers. Under the finish arch and I was just happy to get a clear run and record a time. As I sat near the finish the others started to roll in behind me in various states of undress and a good few needing to be pushed there. I’ve no idea what my time or position was but I was guessing we were somewhere in the top half. A time if anything less than 30seconds was considered very good, 30-60 was the average range and plenty failed to break one minute. The top two sports were taken by the sister cars of ADP classic racing and Techniq. For those who were thinking that my kart was over engineered these were were in a league of their own in terms of chassis and design. Both cars had inboard suspension on pushrods and full carbon fibre bodywork. Unsurprisingly they ran the course in 23 seconds. We had a good long wait till our next run so a chance to get my race weight up with some lunch. Come the end of lunch we lined up again for run 2. Feeling more confident about the handling my pushers gave it all and everything they had. With the timing beam at the bottom of the ramp we lined up right at the back to get the biggest run up possible. As I launched off, Ian hit the deck as Paris and Dawn sprinted down the track behind me. This run felt considerably faster as I went through and over the obstacles. I got well and truly covered by the kart wash to the point I could see out the goggles and then soaked by the super soakers. Crossing the line I had a short interview with BBC Essex who informed me of my finishing time of 30seconds. Time to relax and watch the other runners come in.

Happy to help. for the benefit of everyone else, it’s quick and easy to report spam posts and offensive content by clicking the 3 dots at the top right of every post and then click report.

Evening all, Results for Harewood below, I hope it was a good weekend for all? Also, had to adjust some Class G scores for Snetterton on Saturday so apologies Pete & John, I got your target times swapped around Harewood (R21) - Sat Results Harewood (R22) - Sun Results Tiggs

A few more photos, enjoyed the run there and the hosts were most welcoming. Literally a couple of minutes out of the westie and I was offered ‘rocky road’ and another cake! Rude not to! 😂

Not my Westfield but thought it was worth posting - Le Mans Lotus 11 in the Le Mans museum.

thanks Scott, yes I survived 😀 absolutely shattered now after a long day so will update tomorrow but we made it to the finish, all in one piece and with no crashes or stoppages.

Sorry I missed this it looks like a good meeting and may well have been the last 'summer' day, but on the plus side we raised £74K for the Sheffield Children's Hospital with our charity clay shoot. Luke.

Thanks for your vigilance as always Mark 👍

Thanks for the rapid update. It was a great couple of days . Boy is that a complicated course especially that last bend. All I need is an upgrade to my skills and I will be catching up the others.

I’ve enjoyed stumbling across this post this morning. What a fantastic quality build. Well done @Mark (smokey mow)

Final glory fell to the team from ADP classic racing with the sister Tecniq car a fraction of a second behind them. Third place fell to the BBC Essex team who were in a car loaned to them by one of the countries most seasoned racers and our scruitineer for the day. The next few spaces after that were occupied by karts with two things in common, firstly narrow wheels and secondly no suspension. The first I already knew when I built the kart and realised I was taking a risk, but on the flat course the narrow and also critically lighter wheels reigned supreme as they had the lowest rolling resistance and could be accelerated faster by their team of pushers. The second point was less obvious to me but looking back the photos and videos I could see that I was loosing momentum at the bottom of the ramp and also on the speed bump because of the suspension compression. Despite the firmness of my suspension I noticed that I was getting more compression than I’d expected which was causing it to reach a point where the wheels were toeing in quite a lot. Clearly I need to raise the steering rack slightly and possibly change to an even stiffer spring to improve the geometry. You can see the issues with compression and toe here.

Rode the Ruthin MTB Marathon with my 12yo Daughter yesterday. Really good day out apart from the MASSIVE climb at the start!

Hi julie. Some of the stragglers from the day. The ice cream melted very quickly indeed.

Hi Julie, Here you go -

Here’s a view from inside, I can even wash the caravan up to the roof without ladders, and those that know me know that’s quite a feat 😂

Passed scrutineering

I’m going to die !

Westfield Power - we went for a ride and Wife wanted to visit local bakery etc shop. Was closed but when Lady saw Westfield - she opened for us

The sun was up so a good turnout at GBS. The cakes were exceptional as normal and plentiful. As GBS themselves seem to photoshop Westfields out of their photos, I thought I’d post photos of the 5 that were there - @Greenstreak-Andy D, Trisha (driven by Jordan - it was really really clean and shiny), James in his yellow masda R/S engined car and Gary in his dark green pre-lit. Good to see @Martyn Vann - Warwickshire AO and Sue. and @Phippsy! I thought I’d put this photo in just as it was a car of dreams back in my day a long long time ago. RS2000 Mexico. Having made the comment about GBS cutting the photos, it would appear that the tactic of abandoning our cars in the middle of the car park worked and we are actually in their photos!! Instagram only at this stage but it’s a start!

Welcome to another 'working from home' Friday afternoon!

I’m sure this will help keep you dry:

Scotland East coast to west coast on Sat via Perth, Crieff, Glen Coe, Oban, Loch Awe. 270 miles covered.It was sunny when we left, without the hood! Met a couple of Lotus guys on the way over one of which still owns a Westie.

Less than two weeks to go and the final details for the day have been released. For those that know Colchester the start line will be at the town hall and finishing at the bottom of high street near the castle. By my calculations that’s 200m so shorter than was originally billed but is the steepest part with an elevation change of 6m. No news yet on the course design but I’m expecting a couple of jumps and a chicane. I guess we’ll find out in the day. BBC Essex are also proving race day commentary and there’s three big screens to watch the action. Final fettling of the soapbox is being done, sone basic testing was completed by pushing around the garden and rolling off the trailer ramps. obligatory race car driver stickers fitted

I’ve not had a chance to do much on the car over the last months due to holidays but last weekend I took it along to the local car show and it attracted plenty of attention. Promotion of the race by the organisers is now also In full swing and it’s even made it onto their social media posts.

Not much progress to show for the last couple of weeks as I’ve been very busy with work but I did manage to get the screen finished and some colour on the bodywork. my pushing team suggested I needed something a bit bolder than plain red so I’ve gone for a bright camo vinyl wrap. there’s a few bits to finish on the nose cone before it’s fitted but I’m almost there and ready for testing.

With the nose complete it was fettled to the final shape and offered up to the chassis. An aluminium bracket was made to fix it to the top of the chassis and a Dzus fastener fitted. The bottom is secured in a similar way with a Dzus fastener through the floor. the back of the bonnet will be fixed with slide fasteners.

Back on it again this week. Looking at the bonnet I felt it didn’t quite look complete and needed a small windscreen. I cut and folded a strip of aluminium to make a mounting and then ran it through the rollers to put a slight curve on it to match the profile of the bonnet. I then used a scrap piece of aluminium to mock up a small screen and get a shape I liked. once happy I then cut the screen from 2mm polycarbonate and riveted it to the aluminium mount.

After several failed attempts I now have tyres. I somehow confused all the local tyre fitting workshops and their suppliers by wanting four tyres fitting to a moped 😀 the wheels were possibly in the worst condition that I could have bought but they were also the cheapest and as I was planning to get them blasted and powdercoated the condition didn’t really matter that much. this is the before and then after. With tyres fitting I could finally get them mounted onto the chassis. And then I wheeled it out into the sunshine for a few photos and the first test drive. after a short test I found one of the front brakes was binding slightly which appeared to be linked to the size of the master cylinder I’d fitted as the pads weren’t retracting back far enough. Initially I’d gone for a 5/8” but have now changed that to a 3/4” bore which now seems to have cured the problem. next job bodywork.

A couple more hours after work tonight and I got the steering rack cut down to the right length, new threaded ends welded on and then fitted to the car. I then spent a bit of time getting the front camber set and the toe-in to zero. To make this easier I clamped a couple of lengths of steel to the front uprights and then measured off both sides of the chassis till everything was parallel. Final job before I had to stop and cook dinner was to swap out all the plain nuts on the suspension for nyloc’s and tighten them all up.

Ah, yes, but a very very FAST coffin!

After giving the chassis a lick of paint, today I’ve mostly been riveting. I didn’t count how many but that’s a lot of holes drilled and then the chassis panelled. it’s starting to look like a Westfield 🤣

I’ve had a lot more eye rolls with this project than usual. She thinks I’m completely mad.

The good news is the remaining part of my steel order was delivered today so not wanting to waste any time I got the wishbone tubes fitted on the jig. I’m very happy with the fit here and having everything laser cut has saved me a lot of cutting and fettling time and means I get get straight to the welding. The other missing parts were the diagonal braces for the front of the chassis so these were fitted at the same time. after a test fit of the seating position I wasn’t comfortable with the position of the rear tube behind my back. It was limiting how far I could lean back and would limit any options for fitting a fibreglass seat in the future. out came the angle grinder and this was changed to a pair of diagonal braces. That’s all the welding finished now so next task is to paint.

Not much progress to report while I wait for my steel order to arrive so today I went on a research trip to watch the Gt Dunmow soapbox race.

There’s not much to show yet but these are the concept drawings I’ve been working on. The basic dimensions for the driver are not dissimilar to that of a Westfield. Chassis will be 25mm mild steel box with an aluminium floor. Most of the mechanicals such as the wheels, hubs and brakes are from a Peugeot Speedfight moped whist the narrowest steering rack I could source was from an MC2 Microcar. finished weight of the rolling chassis should be 55kg. The bodywork I’m loosely basing around the 1949-51 Ferrari 166 F2. I haven’t worked out how I’m making this yet but if time it’ll probably be fibreglass.