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After months of blood, sweat and tears to fix The Wench, happiness is a successful MOT test.

I've been meaning to do this for a while, here's a little write up of the trackday a few of us took part in at Donington on Monday. This is a mixture of how it went and some things to help those who've yet to take the plunge! As this was a Javelin event I'd taken advantage of our Clubs exclusive 5% discount, plus I'd had some loyalty points from last year which reduced the cost to about £280 from £299. A track evening is about half this price. I always add insurance cover for 5 trackdays to my annual insurance renewal so a quick call to Howden on the Friday had my car covered with one of these. It's normally far cheaper to do this if you do more than one event a year. for example, a one off track day insurance for my car (valued at £25k) is about £120 but when I add five at renewal it adds about £100-£120 total to the renewal price (£20 ish per track day). Being a Javelin day, the driver briefing is done online the day before, answering some easy questions on track etiquette, what the flags mean etc. This means driver signing on is very slick, normally less than 10mins gets you your wrist band and car sticker. Other organisers may have a face to face briefings at the track. I'd arrived at about 8am (track opens at 730) to find Ben and Nathan already there. Joolz and Claire arrived shortly afterwards. We'd pitched in on the day to secure a garage (just £40 between us). Nathan, Joolz and Claire had trailered their cars there, but Ben and I had both driven with the passenger seats full of essentials, this is an example of what I normally take. At 9am it was time for the sighter lap. Essentially this is a single file (no overtaking allowed) familiarisation lap of the circuit following a marshal at relatively low speed. Once this was completed, the track started in earnest..... sadly for us, that's when the hours rain commenced 😂 Being on semi slicks and with no roof we sat the first hour out until the track dried. We always delay our first drive for 30mins anyway as it allows the more excitable drivers to get the adrenaline out of their system! I'd been a bit worried about my noise levels as it was the first time on track since my ITB's were fitted. My induction noise at 9,000rpm is VERY, VERY loud, noticeably louder than a similar Zetec engined car for instance... my fears were realised, on my 12th lap I was duly black flagged for noise (102.3dB vs the 98dB limit)! I was touching the rev limiter in 4th directly under the newly calibrated dB meter on the pit straight 😂 You are allowed one chance in these circumstances so we put on our thinking caps over a breakfast buttie.... Amusingly, Ben had also been black flagged in his MNR but it was a case of mistaken identity for him (another red "sevenesque" car) as I was the real culprit 😂. Here's Ben telling the marshal "it's not me, it's Rob!" 😂😂 By this time we'd been joined by Garry, Glynn, Steve, Alistair, Michael, Hedley and Tony who'd all come along to watch. We were walking back to the garage after breakfast when we spotted some 300mm lengths of discarded closed cell foam (about 40mm thick, 100mm wide)... a plan was hatched! 10 minutes with some helping hands, gaffer tape and cable ties, and hey presto, I had my extra sound proofing under the V8 bonnet on the intake side! I headed back out to do some lappery, short shifting 3rd, 4th and 5th as I passed the DB meter and no black flag!!!! I'll be looking for a more permanent solution for the next one 😂 Nathan had hit some troubles by this stage in his 1600cc, 270bhp RLM Hyabusa powered MNR. Having only had the car a few weeks and it being effectively stood for 5 years (MOT mileage only), he'd discovered a misfire above 8500rpm. Despite a team effort to remove/clean the fuel filter and change his spark plugs the issue didn't improve. We believe it's probably a coil pack but sadly we couldn't fix it so he settled for some gentler laps. After the 1 hour lunch break, I set out giving some passenger rides for a couple of 17 year old petrolheads I'd invited (we have to get the younger generation interested in our daft cars!). One was my neighbours son and the other is a budding Instagram photographer I know, both enjoyed it (well I couldn't hear any screaming at least!). Passengers can normally sign on during these events as long as they have ID and a helmet, it's just £10 for a wrist band so is a cheap way for novices to experience the cars and circuit. You can also book in extra drivers like Joolz and Claire do as they share the driving of their track only zetec Westfield. Later on I also took Ben out for a few laps (as a registered driver, you can also be a passenger). Ben has done a lot more track days than I have and is very quick and consistent so it was great to get some feedback on the car and my technique. His bike engined car is a lot lighter and mlre agile than mine but he was impressed with the power and the neutral chassis balance. Seems he was enjoying it anyway 😂 As a track day is not a race, most organisers will not allow live lap timing, however you can run an action camera (as long as it's securely fitted) that will also record speed and time. I also run a free app on my phone (with the display off) called Racechrono which gives rudimentary telemetry. With my Gopro attached and Racechrono app running in the background I can then get telemetry plus footage of my laps to help improve my technique. A here's an idea of the sort of info the free Racechrono app can give. This was my fastest lap of the day with overlays for speed, lateral G and longitudinal G. Amazing to see the car pulling over 1G at 100mph down the Craner Curves.... that's the part of the track where I realise I'm not a Lewis or a Max 😂 The car performed faultlessly all day and despite me having to short shift in a couple of areas I knocked 3 seconds off my personal best, completed over 60 laps and managed a respectable 10mpg.... Despite the MegaS2000 probably not being the most track biased Westfield (she's quite heavy), old rear tyres (secondhand Kumho V70's that are past their best), running in "Peak District cake chasing" softish road settings, and my lack of talent, we were only about 3 seconds off the slick shod, race spec 3.7 V6 Ginetta G55. On my fastest laps we were also keeping a well driven 620r very honest, easily passing the Caterham Academy cars (who were there testing), noticeably quicker than the sole Ariel Atom, driving by the M2 Cup cars, and not embarrassingly far off the incredibly quick slick shod Radicals. Another great thing with a track day is the photos you can get. Some organisers charge for these, some don't. Javelin photos are free to download from Flickr within a days or so making a great keepsake. All in all a fantastic day! Having fun on track and loads of laughs with mates in the garage is what makes these events so brilliant. If you're debating whether to go and do a track day, I would highly recommend it. Get insured (optional, but gives peace of mind), spanner check your car, stick a helmet on and go have some fun! It's really the only place you can fully explore the incredibly high limits of our amazing cars.

Carpets? What are they? 🤣

Half hood has arrived, yippee... Job for tomorrow

Spent a brilliant weekend in Matlock a couple of years ago and did the Great british car museum too as well as the Heights of Abraham. Lovely part of the country and some great roads. Have a good one 👍

Yep I can make this one 😊

Hi all i would like to put for sale my lovely 2.0l zetec westfield Fw 2013 model with a rotrex supercharger i have owned the car since buying from the Toybox in 2021. i have had the engine forged , and a tts rotrex charger fitted all professionally . the diff which is an LSD has been rebuilt just after i bought the car . also had a new caged lazer full cage fitted too the car was mapped after all works completed at northampton motor sport with 260 hp at wheels i have receipts for nearly £9k on parts and works - interested parties ? please contact me and i can give you the full spec of vehicle this car is very rapid and not for the faint hearted but also a pleasure to drive I have reviewed the asking price as of feb2025 as need room now and happy to look at offers of £18,500 so good reduction for a lot of car thanks for looking For the best response please text to 07855 833602

Meet at 10am at The Great British Car Journey car museum, Ambergate, DE56 2HE for breakfast before heading out on a run around the Peak District. The Lotus 7 and Caterhams are meeting at 8am so the car park may look very interesting when we get there. Who is joining us?

Just wondering how you guys clean your cars? I've had this stuff on the shelf for years, I got the concept, but just never got on with it in practice. Just didn't feel right not soaking your car with loads of water, but I've got to say it's been absolutely brilliant on the Westfield. Can wash the car in the garage which is a bonus, no hoses to bother about.

I was never one for washing mine! A small blat was always more fun 😁

Most definitely will post some pics. Sun's shining too tomorrow 👍

1993 registered (‘89 kit) SEiW in good condition for year and benefits from some pretty good spec: SOLD Dunnell blueprinted 1800 Zetec Silvertop (have receipts) - built for old clubman series but hardly used before upgraded Dunnell mapped ignition Twin 40 DCOEs Raceline sump Not been on rolling road but Paul Dunnell indicates c.150-160BHP in this spec. Type 9 gearbox just rebuilt by First Motion with long 1st gear (receipt for £1200) 3.54 english diff. Believed to be from RS2000 rebuilt by Arrow Engineering All driveshaft and prop shaft UJs recently replaced Westfield alloy front brakes and alloy hubs Rear disc brakes RAC type roll bar Wet weather gear, a little worn but still very useable 12 months MOT from today! New ‘mini lite ‘ wheels and Toyo R888s It’s over 30 years old so body has age related marks. Newer style bonnet and nosecone. But don’t expect it to be perfect. It’s an honest, very useable and fun car. SOLD

Looking good 👍

Would they add too many grams

Brilliant, thanks. I had already looked and Cobra looked the best bet. 👍

Very pleased with them so far, haven't gotten lots of seat time yet. However the premium ultralight adjusters are lovely. Here is the link. I gave them a call though and asked for their westfield spec. The lap straps are bolt in. The shoulder straps I chose snap hook. However, if you go bolt in shoulder straps, they can make them shorter, so there isn't loads of excess behind the seat. They were super helpful on the phone. https://www.cobraseatsshop.co.uk/trs-clubman-4-point-harness-75mm-shoulder-9748-p.asp

Well done, congratulations

Meeee!!! As long as car is feeling better.

That's a good point, the track tuition that's offered is excellent. Probably the most cost effective way of going faster 👍

🥲 not us 😢 family gathering so you’ll have glorious weather and next week when we’re free it will be chucking it down . Have a great time good luck with getting a Caterham owner to smile or talk, take care A&B

Sod’s Law, checked on here at 9 and nothing, made plans to do something else and just had a scroll through and now there’s a meet😂🤦‍♂️. maybe next time, or maybe I might be a last minute drop in. have fun.