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First outing with the her new shoes on

Hi guys, I’m new to the club and look forward to meeting you at your gatherings. I’m located in Frome, just outside of Bath. I collected my first Westfield (Seight) from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 on Saturday, it’s always been a dream car. Wow, what a machine!! 400 miles of pure joy and excitement 😁

Coil packs finally arrived today, so waited for my oldest to finish school, he put them in and we took it for a test drive. It appears to be a successful result, super happy.

I probably know a bit more than most on this as a couple of us have been putting in a lot of time (some more than I) trying to help in our own time in the back ground. The car was a non-runner being sold at a very low price for a Westfield of exportable age. It last had an MOT in 2020 and had been sat untouched ever since. James (who was selling the car) managed to get the car started and a video was seen of it ticking over (although not running particularly well). Using contacts from our end, a transport company was sourced for Nikos to get the car to the docks in Bristol and he had sorted the export paperwork. Rather than being container shipped, the car was being exported as a running car (i.e. was to be driven onto and off the ship by the dockworkers). The transport company did not start the car, they winched it onto and off their trailer and it was delivered safely. When the dock workers attempted to start the car they could not. It was assumed that they were not used to an old car running webers. At this point, a helpful member rang various local garages who could attend the dock to get the car started. Paul at Bristol Classics agreed to do this, arriving very early to try and start the car. Unfortunately when the car eventually started (after over 2 hours of fault finding) the carbs were so far out of tune a backfire caused the filters to catch fire. Thankfully Paul managed to extinguish the flames. Bristol Classics then agreed with Nikos that the car be transported to their workshop to get the car running. They spent many hours on it with various electrical and fueling issues. For instance, they found the ignition was permanently on (which they fixed), the fan switch had failed and the fuel was stale (tank drained, system flushed and fresh fuel added). On inspection of the carbs, the 40 webers are of two different types (one from a Lotus and one from an Alfa) with different jets etc. The carbs were dismantled and cleaned along with new jets etc so the car could run with reasonably balanced fueling. While the bill is a lot if money, the car was not in a road legal state (known to have no MOT and be a "barn find"). Bristol Classics have done a lot of work and shared photos and videos at most stages of the work. The sale agreement (who with, what was described etc) is really between the seller and the buyer. It's not something I could or would offer an opinion on in open forum as its not fair on either party without all of the facts. Even with the £1500 spent, the car us still thousands below the price of all other exportable age Westfields I have seen for sale. On a side note, I'd like to thank the people who have helped in the background (you know who you are!). One person in particular has spent hours and hours of his own time liaising with the docks, transport companies and the garage trying to help someone in need.

MOT done. Now for some nice weather.

Not Westfield but 7 type still MNR Vortx CBR1000RR sc59 . Visited dyno: 192hp 128NM. Std sc59 honda engine , MNR exhaust , mine airbox intake Happy

I’ve been quiet on this thread for the last few months, mainly because there had been some suggestion that the regulations would change for this year so I waited for entries to open earlier this month before investing too much in the build. That don’t stop me drawing though and gathering a few of the parts need for the build. One part I did buy over winter was a body to make the sidecar. I’d looked at various things such as pedal bins and water butts but in the end I found an eBay seller local to me who made fibreglass tote Tot-Rod bodies. The cost wasn’t much more than a pedal bin would be and it would save me a lot of fabrication work. With that sorted I moved on to finalising the sidecar drawings, I’d initially looked to mount the pivot low to minimise tyre scrub but since the course is straight and the turns are minimal I instead settled on a high pivot as it would simplify the construction. The sidecar frame itself is quite crude but I wanted to keep the design of it simple and the weight down. Finally to get the BMX looking more like a motorcycle I modelled an engine. This will also double as a mount for the sidecar and also stop the crank arms from rotating. This week I stripped the BMX down and it got a rattle can finish in Red and Black while I wait for the laser cut parts to arrive so I can fabricate the sidecar. Finally my trusty companion Gromit who will be riding alongside me.

Thanks to Nick for the stickers and membership card, race ready for gurston this weekend

You can tell the weather is improving, five cars out to play tonight at The Halfway House pub in Cullompton. I met up with Matt in Illminster and we had a fun drive down over the Blackdown hills, much more pleasant in daylight! Eight of us in total, good to catch up and have a natter about all things Westfield and not. We even managed a quick photo shoot once the car park emptied out a bit. Heading home was a tad chilly, so a quick stop for fuel at Illminster services was welcome, the guy serving thought I was mad!

Last piece of the jigsaw today. My spacers arrived in time to get the fitted while I had the wheels off. All done, car is back on four wheels! Rear arches filled much better now. I’ll take it for a quick test this lunchtime, and if it stops, and the rears don’t fall off, I’ll brave it to Cullompton for our meet tonight!! Perhaps not on the M5 though! 🤪🤪

I have altered the post with the invoice in it (blacked out two areas on the invoice) due to the fact it contained highly sensitive bank account details as well as an email address and phone number, which being in a public area could have caused major security issues for the poster.

Test drive successful! All four wheels stayed on, car ran well and the brakes are a revelation! Need to get used to a higher, firmer pedal but it actually now stops how it always should have done 👍👍

Or if it’s for a number of days buy one rather than hire. depreciation on trailers is virtually non-existent so you may find that buying one and then selling again once you get back to Ireland works out cheeper than the cost of hiring.

It's back folks!

Spotted this on the way home last night, looked it up and it is a CSR260, seems a very nice spec.

I used 15mm spacers on the rear of mine when I bought some wheels and tyres that had an offset that much different from the originals. Longer studs were needed as only eight turns of the nuts seemed marginal. There was debate on here at the time about how many turns were required as minimum for optimum strength. There was no firm conclusion so I thought overkill would avoid any other 'kill'. If 'blind' nuts were fitted, though, bottoming-out of the nuts was a risk if not allowed for.

And I don't driver her in the dark but I am impressed with the lights!

I blame @Crash test dummy. Just finished the painstakingly pain in the butt job and replaced the floor.

Oops! I seem to have lost an engine and gearbox… not to worry, new one being built by Richard Wragg at ProDev Engineering. Build thread to follow…

The roads from East Lothian to the motorways were epic, but once on the motorways it just cruised. I had a smile on my face the entire way 😁 and yes, the sound track is unmistakable. in the traffic jams on the M5 people putting their windows down to hear it burbling away and giving it a thumbs up. It’s always been my dream car and it certainly lives up to expectations 🤩

Welcome from South Derbyshire. That's an epic journey, I bet the V8 sound track made it a bit easier though!

That is the plan! There are some secret (🤐) discussions going on via PM with a member who has a Black set and may be able to get an orange set available. I hadn’t necessarily planned on buying them just yet but if they are hard to come by it makes sense.

They are rare these days as Team Dynamics no longer make their 1.2s in a 13” wheel. Apparently there wasn’t enough demand for them 🤷‍♂️ There is a set for sale on Facebook on the MK Sportscars page, not sure if you’ll be able to open the link. They are £600 with a set of slick tyres…..ET23 PCD 108. https://www.facebook.com/groups/mkindymarketplace/permalink/1876644649467463/?sale_post_id=1876644649467463 No affiliation to the seller.

In a local pub car park while out for lunch this week…

It's one example where bolts score over studs and nuts, of course. The only real drawback with bolts is with heavy wheels and trying to align the holes in the wheel with the hub holes. Something like these will make this part much easier than getting a damaged back and a hernia fitting wheel to a hub with no rotational registers such as studs provide.

@Stuart @Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative @DomWash @Andy Westwood @Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator @aeg @Glynn Walters @ianali @Steve Bosworth @neptune @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman @W Shep @Jim cunliffe @tex Event update: We have a 70 page draft roadbook ready 😎 The WSCC event team will be carrying out a ''dry run'' (hopefully 😆) over the next couple of weekends to make any tweaks required to the roadbook which will then be going for print. If all goes well the roadbook will be ready for distribution prior at Malvern kit car show, so @Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator can hopefully distribute to any club members at Malvern who are going on the tour, for the remainder of participants we can post out the roadbook to you so you have a chance to study it prior to the event weekend. Promotional clothing and stickers will be handed out at the start point on the day

Entries are now open for the above event Regs - https://sandhmc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/mallory-Park-Sprint-Regs-june-23-06-24.pdf Entry form - https://sandhmc.co.uk/entry-form/

The car is not 30years old yet Ive run the reg and it was registered 1998 so its 4 years short at the moment

When I first started competing with the VSCC 25 years ago I never knew more than 10 days before the event if I had an entry. Fortunately things have moved on and the greater majority of clubs confirm the entry within a few days giving me the chance to organise myself. So far I have a receipt for my payment for the Blyton sprint, so I assume I have an entry. I had a talk with David Taylor about this at Anglesey and he took the time to explain the situation which I can understand to a certain extent. But I would have thought a club that is run as professionally as Longton would not have fallen into the trap of being dependant on one individual, and even if they had, would have recovered by now. I'm looking forward to the sprint, the best part of it is at 6.30am walking the track and seeing and hearing all the sky larks, I have never seen so many in one place.

Don't see many of those these days. A very good Caterham. More than 450bhp/tonne and handles superbly. Could apparently outperform an R500 on the road!

Its standard equipment in Alfa Romeos (at least in 156 and 166) . Great tool.

At my age all wheels feel like 50kgs 😂

I got one of those and they are very helpful - especially for the 19" wheels on our X3 which seem to weigh about 50kg 😊

Do I spy a carbon adict ? 😉

That is just stunning, very clean indeed. If I had not purchased a car last year I would’ve had this one. Good luck with the sale

Shame as its a good day, there is a Mallory trackday on the same date (24th) I might now book as got the day off work https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/154717-mallory-park-240524/#comment-1617310 https://javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackdays/May/MP240524

I just choose 45mm bolts as the originals were 25mm plus the 20mm spacers so my simple logic was that I would end up with the same amount of thread in the hub. What I haven’t been able to verify is how much was in in the first place but it should be all the way through I think, looking at the depth on the wheel etc.

Welcome to the Westfield family @SteveG, looks you've got a great car there. Hope to catch up with you at one of the local meetings very soon. Don't forget the Warwickshire Area meets at the Falcon, Birmingham Road, Hatton, CV35 7HA, from 7.30pm, 3rd Thursday of the month.

Thank you Karl, that's much appreciated. It will definitely be looked after under my ownership too. No questions at the moment, but appreciate the offer. Hope you're enjoying your new one too?

Hi Steve I'm pleased it went to a good home and still in the local area 💪 If I can help with anything let me know 👍

@Stuart @Steve Bosworth Gents thank you very much 😎 I will contact you both via a group pm after the dry run so I can share the up to date roadbook and the other route info I have and hopefully between us we can sort something out

Another form of tracked machinery.

It sounds to me that Paul did a lot of work and lots of hours. I think the bill is probably spot on in that case. It can take a lot of time and effort to get non-runners going and from what I've read he's done a great job getting to the bottom of many issues. Never plain sailing with kits is it! Sorry about the sailing pun 😂

Entries are open. An online entry list is not a necessity. Many events only provide an entry list when the Final instructions are issued.

Thanks for the insight. Always good to know it's come from a good home.

The plug in that drives this needs an update. Updates to plugins used to be done via the forum software’s own “marketplace” - but they recently ditched this and so you now have to do things differently. It is on the list of things to do.

Ah ha! A full member now, and here she is

Decent progress being made now, back on it's wheels after the front end rebuild and on a transporter to the painter on Friday evening 👍 I'm getting the roll bar repainted too, can anyone tell me the rose joint sizes as they seem to be different on top and bottom?

1st time MOT pass at Snow Hill Motors, Wolves after winter fettling - 🤝