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So after seeing @itsagoodalifecarbon exhaust surround, I enquired where it was from. Since I have been in constant dialogue with AJM Designs refining my template. After several weeks, the finished surround arrived in the post today. I think it finishes off the exhaust exit hole nicely, particularly as my car has had a different engine and exhaust over the years which had resulted in a rather unsightly hole! Thanks @am46006 Before After

Not this time - left the Westie at home in favour of the TR. We stopped there on the way back from Angouleme Circuit des Remparts.

I APPRECIATE WE DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER AND SOME OF YOU MAY BE PUTTING OFF MAKING A DECISION BUT THIS EVENT IS PROVING TO BE VERY POPULAR AND THERE ARE ONLY 6 SPACES LEFT. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME, PLEASE DO NOT MISS OUT!!! Thought it would be lovely to meet up and celebrate the season so I have booked a private dining room at The Crispin, Great Longstone (not far from our regular starting point at Quackers) DE45 1TZ. The Crispin located here- MAP The room can seat up to 38 people so there should be plenty of room. I need to confirm numbers by the 17th November so please confirm as soon as you can. There will be a Christmas menu as well as a scaled down normal menu which is available on their website. Depending on numbers attending, we may need to decide what we are eating in advance so they can get enough food in! Looking forward to hearing from you all so I can confirm the booking. 😀 PS come in whatever car you like!

Super idea, count us in!

Im working that weekend but I’ll see what I’m like for holidays closer to November 17th👍

Great idea. Yes please, 2 people. regards Lucan

Ah, so yours is the one I saw on their FB page yesterday; looked like a really nice job!

Brilliant idea! I'll put it in the diary 👍

Wonderful idea Andrew, I’m up for that!

One of my nephews is going on a bike ride next week. Dan and his kit. The bike fully loaded. The route Now that's what I call a road trip, good luck Dan.

Waaaay better. Nice job!

Which is yours, the 6 or the 4/4a/5? I must have got one of them correct 😂

That looks so much better … it really does finish off the body … great work 👊🏼

I'm up for that too.

@Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club ChairmanI’m super happy with the results, Andrew has done an excellent job. It took 4 templates to get it looking as I wanted but nothing was too much trouble.

Happy birthday Howard, from Mr & Mrs H. Have a good one.

Just got back from a week in France and much to my amazement my money has now been refunded. I did write to the CEO and fire off lots of details to them but it really is way more difficult than it should be to get a result

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.

Have a great Birthday, Howard!

Have a great day! 🍺

I've sold an item to a fellow WSCC member and used ParcelForce for the collect/delivery service. Just as I clicked the 'Book' button, I noticed that Parcel2Go is part of ParcelForce (or vice versa??). Having read this thread, I was dreading the potential outcome. I made the booking on Sunday at 1615. The item was collected at 1030 on Monday from Shropshire, and it's been delivered to Northumberland today (Tuesday morning) at 0950. All for £15. I couldn't have wished for a better service.

we’re talking about doing Gt Dunmow which I posted about a few months back. it’s a much steeper track with some big jumps and hard obstacles so it’ll suit a robustly built kart much better. Certainly the plan is to do a few more events and Colchester again next year. I’ll have a think for a while now but need to decide whether to upgrade this kart or learn from this race and build something even better.

They’ll be more to come in the future Nic.

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.

Well done Mark. Thanks for sharing all of this. It’s been refreshing to follow a different build thread. I can smell upgrades 😂 Keep us posted on your next outing.

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.

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

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

Making the most of the sunny weather 👍