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Wheel colour change for the summer. Satin black to satin bronze. Think it looks good against the green

The first proper drive of the year to the old haunt, Elstree Aerodrome. Now that the engine has had a good heat soak, it appears to be starting up fine. The XI appears to have shrunk in the wash again!

put my rollcage on yesterday the lads at my local meet said it would be much safer than my rac bar not so sure about that banged my head on it 3 times already just doing some work on the interior.

Out of hibernation

Suns out

some little treats for my westie.

When the wife rings ya from work and asks where you are as its noisey

Winter is long here in Montana so it’s the perfect time to design and make stuff. I complete in autocross with my car and one place that needed improvement was when braking from high speed (70 mph-ish - 90 mph-ish). If I simply stomp on the brake at that speed I tend to have one of both of the front wheels lock up. This never happens at lower speeds and the brake bias seems great. I think that there’s plenty of front end lift at speed and this could be the cause of the issue. So I came up with a plan and using CAD (cardboard aided design) I made two different things - - the first is what I suppose are called fender spats. The backside of the front fenders acts like a parachute and air being parted by the nose of the car gets pushed into the backside of the wheel and fender. This certainly causes a lot of drag and I suspect it causes some lift also. So I made a cover for the backside of the fender to keep air from going into the wheel and up under the fender. The material is 1/32” carbon fiber sheet. It was fussy to make cardboard template to fit but once that was done make the real ones out of carbon sheet was pretty simple. - the second and much bigger part of the system is the splitter/canard/diffuser mounted on each side of the nose. They mount to the splitter at the bottom and at the top they bolt to a bracket that is held by the front sway bar brackets. They are made from the same 1/32” carbon sheet and epoxied together to form a hollow box. What you can’t see in the photos is that the underside of these boxes is curved upward like a diffuser. These were not easy to make but it was a fun challenge. I wanted the boxes to reduce lift at speed and to divert the air up and around all the exposed front suspension stuff to reduce drag and wind noise. And the air that spills over the sides can no longer go up and under the fender creating drag and lift. I just drove the car for the first time with everything in place and I’m very pleased and there are a few unexpected benefits. The first is that there is noticeably less wind noise coming from the front of the car. I imagine this is from so much less air passing through all the suspension bits. It’s hard to say for sure but there’s less noise any way you cut it. The second thing that I noticed once moving is that I have less air hitting me in the face. I was shocked. It feels like air flow is now higher and further off to the side which makes it miss my head. It’s a pleasant feeling really and one I never expected. It’s much more calm now just cruising. I’m very sensitive about adding weight to car and make every effort to keep the weight at the minimum for my race class (1400 lbs or 636 kg with me in the car) so making these new things as light as possible was important and worth the effort. In the end the fender back spats weigh 1.1 lbs for the pair and the two nose boxes weigh 2 pounds in total. So the whole mess added just 3.1 lbs. Not is bad. Will it help with high speed braking? I think it will but will need to wait a few months until race season starts. Fingers crossed. Thanks for looking. Dave

First blat of the year

Megablade purchased end of last year and now on the road ! Never had a mot since 2018. just need some doors now the smallest puddle and you get soaked !

Out to play at our monthly meet tonight. Eight of us there which is a great turnout. I recently discovered a Caterham owner living very near me, and he came down with me in his car. Had a great run back over the Blackdown hills, very dark, but dry, no fog and no traffic so was good fun.

Fortune smiled on me this weekend due to a mix of circumstances. Firstly, my Mondeo decided to overheat on me on the way back to my parents on Thursday, so the AA recovered me back home on Friday afternoon. Very good service I must say, one chap delivering me to Solstice Services where another chap arrived within a few mins to take me the rest of the way. Seems like it is likely a water pump or thermostat issue. Hoping it can be repaired as a) I can’t afford a replacement currently and b) I desperately want to get it through 200k miles, currently just over 195k. Secondly, Mrs Stu had a friend down, and was out and about in her car, so the net result was that the Westfield was my only means of transport for the weekend, what a shame as my daughter had her singin’, dancin’ and actin’ lesson for 3 hours on Saturday morning in Yeovil…… Thirdly, the car was back together and generally functioning apart from a broken Speedo (officer). GPS had to come to the rescue. Finally. It was dry, and a little bit sunny. I dropped the short (though growing ever taller!) one at her lesson at 10.15, then had three hours before picking her up at 13.15. I hadn’t been North in the car for a while so headed up to Cheddar Gorge. It was fairly steady going most of the way up, but just nice to be out in the sunshine. The gorge itself was quiet, and I followed a nice looking M2 until part way up where I stopped for a couple of minutes before completing the run. I then caught up with said M2 stuck behind a van in the derestricted part afterwards, and as the van turned off left, off shot the M2, so I followed . He was bl**dy quick on the straights, but I kept up through the corners and we had quite a fun run for a while before encountering traffic so I trailed him all the way down to Wells where I stopped for a quick coffee. Time was ticking on so I headed back to Yeovil arriving with 5 mins to spare. We had a fun run back to Crewkerne, had a spot of lunch and walked the dog before hopping in the car again down to West Bay. Normal fun through Beaminster Tunnel and some of the clear sections on the way down. It was a tad chilly by the coast but the seas were well worth watching and we warmed up with a hot chocolate before heading back. Spotted a nice old Landie in West Bay too So, probably 4.5 hours in the car in total. Great fun to be out; the car is going well, steering wheel mods (Blinkstop system) working very well so bring on the spring! Here is a little YT compilation for your amusement:

Holme Moss Summit a SEiGHT and a Westus

Another quick job that I’ve been meaning to get round to for longer trips and euro blats, was using the empty underhood space to fit a tool roll including a jack and wheel brace. Just popped some M5 rivnuts in and used a couple of cycling toe straps, held down with stress relieving plates to hold this natty canvas bag from Amazon. Easily removed if out locally, but I’ll probably just leave it in there.

Nant Ffrancon Pass Not quite a Swiss pass but not bad for just 30mins from home.

Then lots of head scratching and asking what did I get us into lol

first drive this morning with replacement gearbox and newly fitted roll cage my little grandson couldn't wait any longer. Then off to mk sportscars open day to meet up with a few fellow westie owners.

Rear main seal now replaced. Clutch arrived today too! Be a shame to hide this away.

First run of the year and loving it!!

Meeting on a dry and foggy day at the car museum were 5 Westfield's Breakfast and a good catch up on everybodies car stories We went on the run out, which was the same route as last time as it was excellent for 2 main reasons, one reason being it is full of nice bendy roads for the drivers and the second reason is that the views are great for the passengers. The fog on the high ground added a more interesting and challenging element to the driving but did spoil it a bit for the passengers. I think we will go for this route again on a brighter day. We arrived at The Calver Arms and Lee checked his car out as he seemed to have filled his tank with Kangaroo Juice. Parked at The Calver Arms Carvery at the Calver Arms In the Calver Arms We popped down the road to the Pavillion Cafe, Baslow to finish off This normally very shiny car does get down and dirty and it got much more sludgy on the way out of the car park, good job it's 2 owners love washing cars Ian followed us into the overflow car park, the only way out was through the thick sludge, don't spin those wheels! The rare Lesser Spotted Westfield hiding in the bushes Mild enough to sit outside It's been a superb day out, the driving was excellent, the views were garbage, the company was hilarious, quuite how we did cars, death and semtex all in one paragraph I don't know. It's a good job we never get any alcohol flowing or goodness knows where we might end up. Thanks for coming everyone and see you next time, The Angel of Death

I’ve been swinging around most of this evening. Now ready to remove the engine. Rear main seal I’m coming to get you! Single garage fun!

All MOT’d for 2026. Missed it this winter. Life gets in the way… looking forward to the season, Malvern and another euro trip

Fidget actually sat still for a photo LOL

Let's celebrate the 40th anniversay of our car club by meeting at The Great British Car Journey at 10am for their Kit Car Kaboodle event. There will be a small entrance fee of which the committee will pay towards. More details will be posted on here the week before.

At hospital with SWMBO who is “enjoying” a spinal injection when I saw this sign above one of the doors:

Some pics from GBS. Good to see Roger and his XI. Dan's Robin Hood with a Vauxhall VX turbo engine. A nice XR3 just behind too. Andrew's very clean V8 Westfield. A variety of cars were present. Roger and his XI. A great turnout for the event. Tim's Westfield and mine with the bonnet off.

Had a great day thanks Julie&Glen. Not sure how many more we will have, now that we are probably on the terrorist watch list. The conversations today did drift toward the dark side, maybe something followed us out of the fog. Great roads, great views(apparently) and brilliant company. Our car is completely plastered with muck and s… hope to have it clean before our next trip out.

Today we did a 150 mile Historic Rally around Cheshire, including 10 special stages, four of which were on the Oulton Park rally circuit. Good fun, but pretty intense. The Westfield was too new to enter, so we used the Spitfire. Good job too, judging by the number of times we grounded!

Been waiting since December for this one, but well worth it. SBFS Steering wheel bag, takes my modded 250 very nicely, snug, but doesn’t activate any of the buttons so it is ideal.

A dry day at last and a touch of sun, so my first proper run out this year...in fact my first run out 'full stop' not having had the opportunity since I bought it late last year...whoop whoop Even though it was just for a fresh tank of 'five star'

6.30am. -3 degrees. Foggy. And you expect me to come out in a car with no roof in this - did you mention a full English breakfast? And a carvery for lunch. And being with lovely like minded people mad enough to venture out instead of getting back under the duvet. Twisted my arm. On my way - only 2hrs to the starting point…..

From the mind and workshops of @Martyn Vann - Warwickshire AO, snazzy custom aluminium windscreen mounting clips for my Longacre rear view mirror. He put in a lot of effort and made several prototypes before finalising the design and testing it on his own car at motorway speeds. Notice how the near side mount is slightly longer to angle the mirror better towards the driver! Looking forward to trying it out soon once The Wench is back on the road for April. Big thanks Martyn, you’re a true star!

First run out of the year for most of us. Nice and sunny , we were in the shade but in prime position right outside the restaurant. Think we managed 10 cars, forgot to count, with @DannyTGS and @Jakejmagee making the trip. There will probably be another Kit Car and Modified day later in the year. Thanks to all who came.

As part of the club's 40th Anniversary I think the best way to celebrate is to drive our Westfield's, so why not join Glen and I for a drive around the Peak District. Meeting point details and route plan will be posted on here the week before, let's invite the sunshine too shall we?

Been quiet on here for a while, probably the rubbish weather! I popped my solar scope out at lunchtime and had some decent views today, nice to be out again. Will have a look at Jupiter tonight as the Great Red Spot will be visible at around 9pm.

A few snaps from a video of my trip up through Cheddar Gorge today. Weather was pretty good, so was out in the car for about four hours.

New toys installed - ready for DIY painting…

Good day out and nice weather for a change! Also spotted a rare Westus as well

Was a great day out, I took an extended drive home in the end almost 3hrs haha definitely ready for track

nope. By the time I got home it was too late and dark. I think the first opportunity will be Wednesday due to work commitments and that has to be weather dependent. Going away to stay with my Mother on Thursday ready for Mothering Sunday so if Wednesday doesn’t work out, the car will remain filthy till mid next week!! By then the mud etc will have hardened on nicely!

Have you cleaned yours yet after yesterday? I was silly enough to follow J&G’s directions into the overflow carpark yesterday. My car must have weighed twice its usual weight with all the mud attached. Also Ali seems to have done a mud dance before getting into the car..

Took my road Westfield out of the Chinese Car Bubble after winter. I did not touch the bubble except for removing snow (the Car Bubble and Carcoon collapse in the same way under fresh snow). Looks like the bubble worked very well. I also added a regular old car cover (creating something like a two-layer cover inside, not connected to the bubble). So – the disc brakes are shiny and clean, completely rust-free, just like in a Carcoon. Battery was disconnected with kill switch, alarm disabled. No battery charging (18Ah gel type motorcycle rgular battery ) Engine started on one key turn like I left it yesterday Driving was great, little cold, but great!

Had these two bad boys out last night to look at Jupiter. They are both Japanese Takahashi scopes, one new and one quite old. The shorter one is a 180mm reflector type, only about 6 months old, the long one is a 128mm refractor, over 20 years old I think but gives lovely views still. The Great Red Spot was centre stage at around 9pm, so I had great views. The image below was taken by a chap called Keith Johnson on my Astro forum, and I have detuned it so it gives a very rough approximation of the view through the eyepiece. In some aspects the eyepiece view is better, some worse, it’s hard to exactly replicate it. The spot itself was a lovely orange colour, it does change over time in both size and colour.

Small little clean up from sitting garage for a while

A little teaser of something in the pipeline.... The XI was a pig to start, but once running it performed admirably .

I’ve got a few hundred photos but thought I’d start with one from the day a brought it with a coupe in between and finally one at its current stage

Finally had a great run out today.. Didn't even need gloves on.. Cars a bit crusty tho...