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Filling up on the way home on Thursday night. A tad chilly and very slick conditions but great to be out. First run this year.

You don’t need to lose weight, you just need to be compressed. Try Spanx and a whalebone corset.

The honest answer from me is that owning one makes you a safer, more aware driver. No, it’s not as safe as a full blown tin top from an impact viewpoint but in 24 years of ownership, I’ve only learned of two fatal accidents (not sharing details) and one of those was a test drive by a completely inexperienced driver. However, I’ve read of a few dozen accidents in that time, a couple very serious, where the driver walked away. The tubular frame is far more effective than one might anticipate. Having said that, I give lorries and buses a great deal of respect and plenty of room, and I assume I’m invisible to everyone else on the road, including bicycles. I’m not afraid while driving mine. I think the first month or two of ownership is educational and as long as you take it easy and get to know the car, you’ll be fine. The handling can be confidence inspiring but push it too hard in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong conditions and you’ll be calling the RAC and testing your insurance.

Have you tried one out? See who is around your local area who would take you out for a trial blat. I'm an ex-motorcyclist so the Westfield is quite enclosed compared to a bike. The thing i love about it is the openness of it. I drive without doors unless the weather is filthy. Being able to look at the road going past just next to you is brilliant. It is a small very low car and can be missed by the unobservant. Keep lights on and drive defensively, keep to the sensible assumption that pretty much every other driver out there is an idiot who is trying to kill you. A noisy exhaust helps draw some attention to you. Find empty twisty roads, put your foot down and suddenly it'll all make sense...

I drive my Westfield like I ride my bike. I'm a life-long cyclist and I've never been hit by a car and part of the reason for that is that I have a certain mindset when I'm on the bike...I assume that no one will see me - ever. That means I can rightly expect drivers to pull out in front of me as if I wasn't there. It means that when they pass me that they will not give me an acceptable amount of room. It means when they finish passing me that they will pull back into the lane in front of me and effectively cut me off. I also never ride my bike through the center part of my city and I find routes that will see little traffic but might be slightly longer. I spend as much of my cycling time on nearly empty roads with good sight-lines. And lastly......I always wear bright colors and use a tail light to make myself annoyingly visible. I drive the Westfield the very same way. I assume I'm not going to be seen and given room, I always choose my routes carefully to lower my risk, and I always drive with my headlights on and my car is bright orange. The Westfield has fantastic active safety...it can stop and turn to avoid a collision better than most anything else on the road but that puts the responsibility in your hands to see the guy pulling out in front of you like you didn't exist. Done this way I feel an acceptable level a safety. Driving a Westie like it's an SUV and it won't go that well. I hope that makes sense. dave

Thanks for the info Steve. I have a habit of saying it is no secret why I am the size I am, and that it took a lot of expense in chocolate and pies to get here! 😟 I know I can lose weight. Prior to Covid I lost over 40kg through diet and exercise. I kept this off through most of Covid but somewhere around the last lockdown I lost the plot and it has crept back up since then. I have a kind of ‘switch’, so can be quite polarised in that I’m either on it or not. Hopefully I will re find my way and get back on it, I will certainly be much more comfortable in the car when I do, and it might even go faster 🤣. The car isn’t going anywhere, I’m committed to it so will just have to ensure I can get into it more comfortably in future…. So, if you see me, don’t offer me cake! 🤪🤣 BTW, this is my motivation to do it again! I know that I can. I might even iron the shirt next time, I didn’t need to in the image on the left!

Can I just say that blue is the best colour by far. Some people seem to think (incorrectly) that yellow is. This is daft as all the flies etc are attracted to yellow and who wants to be in a car with lots of flies hovering/pooing/squashed over it?? And red are pretending to be a bit of jam…..

I’m a big fan of the Porsche Riviera Blue but haven’t seen much Westfields in this colour

I'm not sure of your age Stuart but I'm gonna guess like me you are no longer in the flushes of youth? Have you gained weight unexpectedly recently for no obvious reason? It happened to me a few years ago as I entered my 60s. Gained 11 lbs for no reason I could figure out. Turned out I'd hit the male menopause and my testosterone had packed up. Got on treatment from the NHS and without changing anything lost 32lbs over about 6 months! May be worth getting your testosterone levels checked by your doctor, it's just a blood test that's all so worth doing. In fact as you age I think it's a good idea to get a full blood count done once every few years if you can, it will show up and catch anything untoward early with luck.

There is an easy to apply tax scheme that would automatically reflect fuel efficiency and usage, that being tax on fuel. The government could abolish VED and put fuel tax up. But of course, governments being what they are, never wanting to leave any revenue stream unexploited, they'd just bring VED back and we'd just end up with VED and higher fuel tax.

Logic frequently escapes some people. Richard Branson was in a multiple rollover accident on the M40 while driving his Range Rover and emerged almost unscathed. He used the logic that the car had protected him in an accident to purchase a fleet of them to use as limos for first class Virgin passengers being transported to Gatwick, claiming they were safer. The fact was that if he hadn’t been driving a vehicle with a high centre of gravity, he might well have avoided being in a rollover accident to begin with.

That’s with a wallet containing cash - I’ve got that issue with an empty wallet, which eliminates obtaining more power. As for CF, decorum prevents me from providing my opinion on that issue…

Here is my striker it’s Ford imperial blue pearl

Does blue and orange count?

If I had to choose a blue (I'm of Yellow or Orange preference) it would be this... (not mine)

20st! Time to lose weight… again 🤪 That is all 🤣🤣

I can only echo what others have said. Drive assuming no one has seen you and give enough space and distance. It can be intimidating on motorways with HGVs towering above you but same rules apply. I’ve driven mine around the M25 in rush hour and it’s quite ok. I was more worried about overheating than having a crash! They are lightweight rear wheel drive cars (duh 🤣) so need to be driven with respect; it’s easy to get caught out as I know from experience having visited a ditch once in mine, fortunately with no significant damage except a big dent to the ego. But, once used to the handling and grip then as has been said, that is normally enough to get you out of any trouble; last night heading home someone was playing silly b*****rs trying to undertake me completely unnecessarily. A quick prod of the throttle and I was three cars ahead and out of his way. If very concerned then you could consider a roll cage with side protection. I prefer mine lighter and easier to get into and normally drive with only half doors, or nothing at all in summer. I do have a decent roll bar with the triangulated supports rather than just a simple hoop, and use a 6 point harness as I feel much more secure with that. My wife does not share my love of the car. She calls it ‘the Pencil Tin’ and after her one and only drive to date said ‘it’s nice when you get out, isn’t it?’ 🤣🤣. That said, I doubt I would make a good Westfield passenger so do understand. One day I will take her on a nice relaxed drive on a hot summers day and see if I can convince her 👍 In summary, the open and low nature of the car only adds to the experience and is a big part of what I love; the rawness, noise and sensation of speed, even when within the speed limit are hard to beat and always put a big smile on my face.

the instant seamless gearchange of the DSG does get you very fast very quick though

Menopause? He's in his mid twenties! 😉 Just kidding, @Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset

Nah everybody knows red is the fastest... Look at Ferrari 😄

Nah, a recent poll last year showed that orange was the most popular kit car colour. I voted 52,376 times mind you 😁 From memory, blue came second. Same as it does on the road in a race with an orange car 🤣

Westfield navy blue from 2009 It's not a colour combination that I would have thought of myself or chosen from new but the navy blue and chrome does look smart. David

Royal Navy Blue from Westfield's palette of 2008.

But if you spent some of that cash out of your wallet on more power and carbon that would solve both issues!😀

Yep, owning a narrow does bring these things into sharp focus. I can’t have my wallet in my back pocket when driving my narrow as it can make my leg go numb, not an ideal driving scenario when braking. Being on steroids for my medical conditions has not helped slim my shape, either. It can get very confining, but it’s quite effective for holding you in place during spirited cornering.

BMW long beach blue, this shows the colour a bit better.

Chris Harris & friends had a good discussion about this on a recent podcast. The affects on the roads that massively heavy EVs are having on them and the idea of taxing by weight, all of a sudden manufacturers would be incentivised to build lightweight, hyper efficient little petrol & diesels. If only they'd focussed on that 15 years ago instead of 2.5t barges that obsess over 0-60 instead of efficiency. 🙃

Evening all. Sorry to be a bore but I'd love to hear your opinion/experience on how you feel on the road around other (much heavier) cars. I'm currently looking for my first westfield and it's not exactly easy to ignore the fact that you are very vulnerable on the road. What's your experience with it? Does it take some enjoyment away from the drive or do you simply avoid busy roads? Have you had incidents/close calls that stopped you using it? The idea of getting one is very exciting, but this is always in the back of my head, particularly thinking about family at home and whether there's a selfish aspect to it. Probably a bit dramatic but you know what I'm getting at. Cheers

Thank you very much everyone for your input, I didn't expect so many replies. It’s very interesting to hear your experience and it makes a lot of sense. I have not yet tried one but I am planning to soon, so that’ll be helpful. The biggest attraction for me is that you are forced to learn how to drive properly. Modern cars are essentially ‘point and shoot’ which just has no appeal to me. I imagine a track/experience type day is the best way to learn. I know I would naturally be very aware of everyone else around me and I’d take it very gingerly as I got to know the car, I guess that removes a fair chunk of the risks involved. Reading your comments has put me more at ease about the idea, so thank you. I hope to meet some of you in the near future 😎

Are there unsubscribe links at the bottom of the mails? Often these are in very small print as they don't really want you clicking on them but have to put them there.

If you're bothered about it then be sure to buy a brightly coloured one. I've had 2 very near misses in 35,000 miles both people who didn't see me and pulled out in front of me. But mine is racing green so blends in with the hedgerows. Always used headlights since. As Scott says they are pretty strong. I also had a massive aquaplane off in 2004 which resulted in me broadsiding a clearway sign. Ripped the offside rear wheel off and bent the chassis. Pretty hairy but I walked away without a scratch.

Maybe it is because that 7type cars so rare here in Poland , that quite contrary what I was expecting starting to drive on roads - other drivers pay in fact more attention to me , so they are aware of this car, so seems to be more safe. Visible colour also helps. That is in daylight, night driving on not lighted roads is not comfortable, partly due to mine small but beauty headlights. Other fact is that it is not much fun to drive in traffic hours, not un-safe, but not fun. What possible dangers I have experieced during 2 seassons on roads with Westfield - "blind" turns, and blind in Westfield is with good visibility in normal car - some highier grass on side of the road can blind visibility through turn. From that short experience I confirm first months was quite unpleasant with trucks , buses , SUV's etc around, but then part of fun such small _proper_ car with those monsters around:) And what is important to have plenty of twisty, empty roads in close area to really use Westfield as it should be without fears and smell from other cars exhausts on our head hights. edit - and before I bought first - track Wesfield I saw this, quite encouraging in terms of safety in rollover:

I’ve always liked @SXRORY’s car, looks great with the gold wheels, even better when the driver is in pink 😉.

I absolutely agree about the stupidity of focussing on 0-60 times and enormous ranges rather than 'sensible' cars.....but let's be honest, very few vocal people want a 'sensible' car, and marketing is invariably based on what people demand, or the thing doesn't sell. That said, the most popular car in the UK last year was the Ford Puma, so perhaps we should just ignore all the marketeers. (2nd, 3rd & 4th were SUVs, 5th was Apartheid Clive's Model Y crossover.....) I have 3 stupid cars at the moment, the Westfield, the Midlana and an MB Hybrid, yet I barely need 1 car, and that car could do 80% of my annual mileage with about 20 miles of range. As for performance, my hybrid has a sub 6 second 0-60 that I think I tried once for fun, but most of the time it gets driven like Miss Daisy is in the back. And yet.....I'd want an EV that could do a decent 0-60 time and have a worst-case range in the 200 mile region as a minimum. Go figure, as the septics would say.

To be clear, I wasn't trying to target EVs. As you say, SUVs are everywhere too. Heavy car = safe car. How do I survive a crash with a big car? Buy a bigger one 🤦‍♂️

Of course, those super lightweight 4x4s so essential for the school run are fine. This country has adopted the american dream of beating the roads and other road users into submission with ever larger & heavier vehicles, EVs just being a small part of the problem. 2024 “Mini”, ICE 1360kg, EV version 1680kg A fair system would be vehicle weight and miles and emissions, assuming anyone actually cares about that. But when has life ever been fair?

Looks better the right way up... The colour is whatever Westfield were using for their gel coat in 1997.

I’d say more horse power AND carbon! 🤔

New wheels and tyres now fitted. Not the best photograph. Need the weather to improve so I can get out for a blat.

I’ll still be paying the grand sum of £0 for my 2016 hybrid. Glad I sold the old Jeep though, that would be costing me £725 (£735 - £10 for having LPG). Much like the free charging for Teslas, any incentive is going to end sooner or later, and so often, they never seem to really help those that need it. And, of course, most schemes that purport to make something more attractive by offering some kind of grant or discount to the buyer is just going to end up putting the money in the pocket of someone along the chain rather than actually benefiting the buyer. I got a ‘grant’ to have a charger put in at home when I got the hybrid. Oddly, the cost of having it installed managed to soak up the total of the grant….so it still cost me the same as just buying the charger myself and paying a sparky to connect it. Even more galling given I had supplied and installed the cable myself because I wanted a route I knew they would charge extra for.

As a skinny git, there would be a marketable opportunity for me to offer a service of taking cars to be weighed... 🙂

That would rather depend on whether it was weighed with or without the driver. If it was with, I’d attached to another object by an inclined plane wrapped helically around an axis:

Hi Cyril Defo sent out, im sending another one out tomorrow, so keep an eye out for the postman,,, Thanks Mark

Im afraid they dont make these anymore... I tried to buy a pair form them last year, and they said the moulds were no longer any good and were not makign any more...