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Me n’ Jim i was 70 three weeks ago, Jim is70 next week, old guys rock.....lol

The sidewalls on R888's are so stiff you don't notice a puncture and hence you can drive on them sensibly, air free, to get you to Tyre shop/airline etc. I also carry a can of tyre weld. FW's don't have the option of a wheel carrier, hence I take a friend with a ZK on Euro road trips, here's my spare:

Well. Most of you will have seen that I've been sending quite a lot of cars to Spain lately. I've done that free of charge to help fellow petrolhead friends in spain and our club members, avoiding the hassle to have to sell overseas... All this cars, along with some other friends got along in a trackday in calafat. A very nice and technical track in Tarragona, 120Km south of Barcelona last weekend, and I was invited to share cars with all of them. See a video of myself in a flying lap 6 years ago... Once there, Old friends got excited to see me there, and I ended driving **** loads of cars, some of them quite impressive, and maybe, is worth to share the experience and some pictures... Lotus Elise S1 Sport160- This was my courtesy car while I was there. I got to drive it for about 300km, and I enjoyed every bit of her. For those who know the car, you will know is a special car... a bit in a dodgy way. Cam profile is very agressive, and lotus did a rubbish work to tune the low load and idle correctly, therefore you have to love the car, and is really unconfortable to drive steady and in traffic, however its responsiveness over 4k rpm and its handling, was FANTASTIC. This one, was only driven on the road and some spirited mountain drives, and it was awesome. Caterham S3 275R- This one was driven hard in mountain roads and in the track. Surprisingly, I enjoyed every bit of her. Out of the box, felt SOOOOOOOOOOO much better than our average Westfield (sorry guys, I'm a sinner) Ergonomy, and pedal feel was just outstanding, and I felt really confortable in her despite its narrow chasis. On track it felt somehow pretty agreesive. The weight transfer front to back was almost inmediate, and that meant that you could have the car understeering and oversteering in a few different occasions during the same split second. I think tyre pressure were a bit too high. Regardless of that, felt really good for its little 140hp. Westfield SEIW XE, 190hp former WSCC member- This is one of the cars I did sent to Spain... and Its been a great surprise. It does lap much faster than expected (about 3 seconds faster than my former MK in the same track) and given its "roadgoing" setup, its a car with shaitloads of potential. Balance on it was very very very good, feeling very simmilar to my current westfield, and alowing going fast with confidence and really compilant when breaking grip in the rears. Westfield SEIW 2.0Zetec, Ex TKM_Dave. This has been the great surprise of all the cars I did sent to spain. A car that I almost bought and I did discard it in favour of the Canary... And now i really regret. (well, not really... but is really good, and the build quality is one of the best I've ever ever seen). This car was the third fastest of the day, behind Myself in a KTM X-bow, and an Atom... so.. Yes. REALLY fast piece of kit. Its allegedly only 180ish HP, but the gearing is sooo good that would chase easily other westfields with known 220hp. Really enjoyable car. Really Dave... you made a huge mistake. That kit was a keeper. Westfield SEIW 2.0Zetec with 4 weebers. Purely a road car. well. I made a mistake, I was offered to drive it on the road... where is lighting fast, compilant and confortable... but rejected it in favour of thrashing it on track... and on track it track was... well. Enthusiastic would be the best way to describe its efforts. you could drive it well over the limit without having any scary moments... SOOOOO forgiving, but unfortunately, not fast and not too responsive. Westfield SEI 1.6XE . This car is also a former's WSCC car, and the one we bought with more perspectives... as, in paper was a fantastic piece of kit. Light, fast, reliable, not too expensive and with a propper Motorsport heritage that should warrant a decent setup and development. In truth, the car will need A LOT of development, as the handling is currently quite poor... and also broke the flywheel doing a bit of a disaster in the drivetrain. Its been a hughe disappointment as I did vouch for the car really badly. However, it does have so much potential... that i think once we have sorted all the gremlins, she will be a proper fast car. Time will tell. KTM X-Bow. I want one. Period. It feels like a Golf, Handles like a S7ven, and it has the power of an space shuttle. Really fast and Easy to drive. I know that track really really well and in my 4th lap I was lapping consistently faster than Any other KTM in the day, and taking the luxury to slide the rear like a mad man... Absolutely great piece of kit. The price is a big Pitty... as I really can't afford not quite justify it, but I'm wondering that I could sell the beemer, the westy, my dog, and Ana's mini, and maybe I could buy one to have in the garage. What a fantastic car my good. Gineta G50 Long Race Speck. Well. I can't really analyse this car, as is the most propper race bit I've ever driven. It was wild, amazingly quick, and easy to drive when in its sweet spot... but if you under drive it, or Over drive it, you will get bitten really quick, ending in a massive spin. Apparently I did it very well because I didn't quite spin, only a few big moments that I did solve with solvency, and impressed the owner. Not my cup of tea as a trackday car, but definitely, an amazing piece of kit and one of the most intensive experience I've ever had. As you could see in the picture, we needed about 3 people to make me fit in the cockcpit... really small and narrow. Well That is it!! hope you have enjoyed the write up, and the pictures!!!

Have to do your bit for our elderly community 👍 Hence why I go out on runs with @CraigHew 😂🤭

A further planned winter upgrade is to loose the two red reflectors and replace with another clear LED set of stop/tail and indicator lamps. However I need to find somewhere to mount a pair of reflectors. The construction and use regs don't allow for reflective tape, but they don't define a minimum size! Neither does the MOT Test. I've had a play with photoshop and tried different options (These pics also show how it will look with the stop/tail/indicators doubled up). I ordered some small round reflectors from Amazon (Pack of 6 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CCE63X0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 When these arrived. I then had a play with blutak to see how they look and how well they work from different angles. As well as being legal, I don't wish to be hit on a dark night should I breakdown on an unlit road etc. The dots work very well as you can see in lots of different places: However I felt they stuck out to much in daylight against the white and the round discs didn't look right on the roll bar. I soon settled on this: Given the horizonal LED clear brakelight. I started to think about a rectangular reflector on the roll bar. However they have a flat back and the bar is curved. Time for more 3D design and printing. I selected this hella reflector https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H8WSL7M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and drew this part in Fusion 360 The curve of the part is the same diameter as the roll bar increased by 1mm to allow for some 3M highbond tape. The rectangle on the front face is recessed slightly to allow the reflector to sit inside the item and hide the edge/back of the reflector. The part was printed at work for me yesterday and I collected it today: The reflector fit was perfect So I asked for another to be done. Back to the blutak and I tried them in several positions on the roll bar This is my chosen location. It's not perfectly vertical as the bar isn't either! However I prefer them to be vertical from the side and they aren't so noticeable in daylight on the vertical part as they are on the diagonal stay etc. The reflectors came with 3M tape already applied and I used this to stick the bar adaptor to the bar: I marked the bar with my favorite green tape to aid correct location Here's a pic of the 4 reflectors all mounted. They light up well I just need amazon to delivery one more LED clear indicator and I can complete my rear end winter upgrades! The price is double what I paid for the first one too!

I'll be three too. But probably in a tin top.

The opposite side of the story is if a cyclist does not use lights it’s largely there own life they endanger, not others. Evolution... Personally as a cyclist with a high vis jacket, flashing helmet, and more lights than you could shake a stick it still appears I’m invisible . Today’s idiot.. yes just today’s.. I see them most days on a 50 mile round trip commute. It always the same problem, folk just don’t think, and judge risk based on themselves. I was in traffic following a train of cars doing 25 in a 30. The car behind me not satisfied over took but was left with the problem that really there had never been enough space for another vehicle between me and the X5 in front so she cut me up. She’d get home 3 seconds faster and only endangered my exposed life. That’s the key difference if you as a car driver bump into a cyclist you are likely to hurt them a lot. If a cyclist bumps into you are barely likely to feel it. Yes a rider should have adequate lighting/ reflectors etc, but I’d have to question a car drivers eyes if they with their lights on are unable to see a bike, or possibly pedestrian (these don’t have lights). Or anything else unexpected on the road. Blooming car drivers.... 💋🚴🏼‍♂️💋

Firstly, let me say I'm a cynic at heart. I don't buy in to the BS you get on many an Internet forum - 'Only ABC can map your car', 'only XYZ can repair a bent chassis', 'only 123 can build a gearbox' etc etc ad infinitum. So here comes my unbiased experience of my geometry set up with Clear Motorsport yesterday. Like many, I bought a Westie because I couldn't afford a Caterham. Driven many of them in the past and have always been a little disappointed that the Westie never felt as up on its toes as the Caterhams I'd driven - handling on the limit was unpredictable, I could never provoke and hold a slide like I could in my MX5 for example. I took it to NMS back in 2012, it was much better than previous but still lacked the finesse I was after - a new steering rack and wishbones and some serious trackday kerbage later, I decided it was time to have the geometry looked at again. I've heard good things about Adam on the forum, so I thought I'd give him a try - plus to be honest, he was offering a service at a much better rate than others with higher overheads. A two hour trek to Clear Motorsport followed. Once the meet and greet was done, Adam had a chat with me about how I used the car and what I really wanted from it, between us we worked out I was looking for sharper turn it, a more lively fear that offered throttle adjustability and to be quick on track. Basically it needed to be more FUN. Adam then worked his magic, took the time to talk to me about toe in, camber, caster etc and more importantly how those changes affect the way the car behaves. He also checked my corner weights which required no adjustment and were spot on. Obviously, he took the time to explain corner weighting too! Finally he checked my shocks, which were set far too hard for the road. He softened them off, which came as a surprise to me as I thought the adjusters had seized!! He also advised how I should have them set for track work. We then took the car out to check I was happy, and Adam terrified me on the drive back. 4 hours work in total. To the results then. My God, it feels like a different car. It is absolutely FANTASTIC. I even think I'll be able to keep up with Julie on our bumpy Peak District roads. The car feels so communicative, exactly what I've wanted all this time. The rear breaks away progressively and is easy to control on the throttle. In conclusion, BRILLIANT and some of the best money I've spent on the car.

Big, big, big thank you again @Julie Hall - Peak District AO and @Westfield Parts Dept for sorting out today's Black Friday Christmas pressies 👍

We are intending to make it for this pre-Christmas sausage-fest. Probably see you at McDs!

@Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AOSorry I'm a bit late to the debate! As already stated there is not a requirement for a reverse gear to be fitted or tested on an MOT. The only concern for a tester could be if the vehicle is 'fit to test/drive' in which case the tester could refuse to test it. Reverse lamps are mandatory from September 2009 as already stated. Just for clarity it is not true that any lamp fitted must work as it only applies to obligatory lamps. If the vehicle does not require an obligatory lamp due to date of first use then any such lamp fitted that is inoperative could only generate an advisory. In addition any vehicle will pass an MOT with all obligatory lamps removed or permanently disabled!

Chris get rid of the Mikalor clips. I did the same as you and “upgraded” to the Mikalor t clamps. They just won’t tighten properly on a silicone hose. I think the width stops them sliding when they are tightened. I changed all mine for good quality stainless Jubilee type clamps. No more problems. Keep up the good work, it’s a great read.

As above our eurorescue stated we had to have a spare wheel, previously I hadn’t had one, just a tin of sealant I got the U shaped bottom carrier from a member on here, sat the wheel on and thus lined up a hole then got a length of 50 x 6 x 600 flat bar drilled and tapped an m10 hole then bonded in place using a short bolt to hold in place until set then spare wheel on and held in place with a long 10mm stainless bolt with a washer and rubber washer through one of the bolt holes hth

Good Morning All, Personal thank you to everyone who has ordered so far, helping support us. Greatly appreciated. Don't forget the code lasts all weekend and we have extended it until Monday. I'm by myself until Monday, limited orders can be shipped, however I will dispatch as many orders as possible. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Once again thank you for your support. Regards Patrick

I’ve always thought quite counterproductive sticking a heavy spare on the back of our lightweight sports cars... I carry this instead 0800 887766

Adam you must be the only person in the world who has a maclaren and a micra on the fleet

Its surprising how many people think the same tbh! Anyone local you could try their wheels on your car? They drive their best on 13 inch wheels if you fancy going that small. You need to consider ground clearance and speedo differences though depending on the rolling radius of your current wheels. I would downsize wheels first,then see what you think and do dampers after feeling the benefits of smaller wheels. www.willtheyfit.com is a great website for comparing wheel and tyre sizes ,speedo difference etc👍

What a pain in the ass that was!!! still got the fuel filler to sort and a few holes to relieve when the cage comes off again but it’s not a bad first fit

Personal choice, but if you have the rebound adjuster dials on your shocks facing inboard, they're easier to adjust when the wheels are on.

My Hella LED Reversing Lamp arrived last week. So I though I'd quickly fit that then build the rear suspension up! WRONG 😂 As well as the original lamp filling up with water somehow, I know discover the wire to the reverse lamp has also got water in it. Hence the copper is no longer bright and shiny. It's black 😂 Hence it won't conduct well if crimped and certainly won't solder. I start cutting the wire back in search of shiny copper. I pass through the 2 pin econseal connector and it's got inside there too. I then start pulling the loom out of the car as far as below the rear diff and it's still not shinny two feet in! I'd also tried to clean the black off with sandpaper but as it's a multi strand fine wire it's hard to clean all the black off this way good enough to solder to. I also don't want it failing in the future either! At this stage I'd almost come to the conclusion that I'm soon going to be a the reverse switch on the gearbox and might as well run a new cable in. However I shuddered recalling the 'fun' I had running some wires through the diff area on @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary Honda as part of his winter upgrades and that had no fuel tank or bodywork fitted! A quick google revealed:https://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?277269-How-to-clean-copper-wires-that-have-corroded-black It sounded too good to be true but I was out of most other options and thought I'd give it a try. I tested it on some of the wire I'd cut out: After a few mins it had improved to this: It wasn't so easy to do on the loom under the car and hence I've got no pics, but I'm pleased to report it worked and the wired solder to a new piece of cable. This was then all covered in heatshrink and loomed back in. I've now got a very bright reversing light ! The rear suspension was easily built back up and the bolts torqued to 40NM with the suspension loaded. I then discovered the passenger side indicator repeater wasn't working on the cycle wing! The wire had fretted (same as @Quinten) but as mine are pretend 'carbon fibre' they hadn't shorted out and blown a fuse etc. This was removed and the damaged wire replaced with a fresh section.

A trip out to see Santa on Sunday

Nice day at Classic on the Quay in Hythe Hampshire on Sunday. 230 cars all shapes and sizes

The worst thing about them clips is they look the dogs!!! There not cheep and there more heavy duty! So disappointing when we used to race bowlers we tryed them cost us a v8 never again. Now you have to do the job twice sorry pal I feel your pain most annoying!

Just swapping the spark plugs..

Didn’t have enough time to get to the Peak District today but managed a good 2 hrs out .The mudguards I made up the other week are proving a great addition ,a nice dry arm again with no doors.

Finished off the cooling plumbing today, put some OAT & water in it then played hunt the leak for a bit. Curiously, all the joints I thought would be fine weren't and all the ones I wasn't sure about were. Has to be a message in there somewhere.... Anyhoo, once it stopped dripping I fired it up...or at least tried to. Cranked and cranked but no fire. Weird, as I wasn't aware I'd done anything since it last ran (13 months ago!!!) that would cause an issue. I've had the ECU out of it for a long time and done lots of unplugging/replugging of boxes as I've been welding on it but it should have been good to go. Tried a few things, checked in case I'd left a rag in the air inlet - nope, triple checked all the assorted plugging of boxes-O-stuff, all good. Checked fuel pressure at rails...none. Then fretted I might have left the inertia switch unplugged. This is hard to get to at the moment as it lives just in front of the gearstick, which is covered by the tunnel cover, which is in turn impossible to remove with the seats in place, said seats are of course in place. Wanting to run this today, not next week, I thought maybe I could spoof the assumed missing earth so went to the plug on the fuel pump. Turned out I must have lifted it when tidying the fuel pipe 'cos it wasn't even plugged in. Plugged it in, turned the key and away it went. Let it warm up a bit and chased some more leaks. Can't believe how tight the Mikalor clamps need to be! I ran out of nerve once it reached 90 so switched off and vented the pressure while sorting yet more leaks. Almost every one of the joints with a Mikalor clamp leaked. Not a single one (of the relatively few) with more conventional clips leaked. I'll let it get properly hot and cycle the fans next time, assuming I've found and stopped all the leaks anyway. It sounds quite a lot better now - it had a very noisy tappet last time I ran it, and this time too at first, but I was hoping it would shut up once the oil got warmed up and circulated for a bit longer. Seemed to do the trick. It still seems a bit noisy in places, not sure if there are any exhaust leaks at the moment or maybe it's just the usual thing of it seeming noisy in an enclosed space. The engine was very sweet in the donor and I've done nothing other than a cambelt and water pump change on it since, so no real reason for it to have developed any issues other than noisy lifters. A very short vid for you. Apologies for the dodgy aspect ratio, I really should know better after 35 years in TV broadcasting.....

The cooling system is almost watertight now (one more small hose joiner needed) so I can run it up to proper temps, and run it whenever the mood takes me. It'll be months before the car is ready for strip down and I don't want it sitting idle all that time. Have also made a start at the very back. Rear upper panel-O-holes in place. It looks very see-through here, but I'm sure that once the engine cover is in place and it's a bit darker in there it'll be a bit less so. A long time ago I was stripping out some 19" computer racks at work and came across a Compaq one with this nice metal mesh panel for ventilation in the rear door. It was too nice to chuck in the skip so I grabbed it. There's enough left over to make the side panel vents too.

Wasn't sure where this should go... Stuff? Yeah I guess so. Nonsense? Not a bit of it! Anyway, perhaps I'm a day late with this as Mental Health Awareness week was last week, but here goes I've recently (almost) finished building my car, and all along the way this has had me dancing along a psychological tightrope. Due to various factors I have a tendency to strive for perfection, and this can get me into a lot of self-inflicted trouble (and has done in the past!). In a recent post I decided to 'come out' and share a bit of my story, in the hope that it would help others to be more open about any sort of mental struggles they have had, or are currently dealing with: https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/130867-the-lobster-88-se-rebuild/page/41/?tab=comments#comment-1422129 This can be anything from suicidal thoughts, right through to relatively-harmless-but-totally-draining overthinking (something I still do too much - mentally composing email replies at 3am while I'm lying awake, or practicing phone calls in advance!). If this describes you then you're not alone - even within this club - and I have always found the support that comes from all angles when I 'break cover' to be overwhelming, completely the opposite to my original fear of being seen as 'crazy', or being ridiculed, or even excluded. In fact it kinda makes you feel like you're in some sort of exclusive club when people pop up (both 'publicly' and privately) offering similar stories or support and understanding. It's extremely heartwarming. So, I guess the over-riding message is that it is perfectly normal to feel like cr@p sometimes, and that it's absolutely OK when that happens. There is support available all around if you allow it to come into your life. I will personally offer myself as one of these support mechanisms if I'm able to at the time, I'm only a PM away Feel free to share any stories here, you won't be judged and as I said, we'll be part of a (relatively) exclusive club, haha. And don't forget that whatever happens, there's always a fun and engaging toy with a shouty engine sat in / on your garage / shed / drive to allow you to clear your head at the end of a bad day Take care everyone, x

Also whilst under the car, I'd had an occasional knock from the rear on slow 90 degree turns on housing estates etc. Moving the rear roll bar side to side, soon demonstrated what the problem was: The bar has adjustable collars to hold it against the pillow blocks. I'm 99% sure these were adjusted during fitting, however they were soon tightened up and the knock solved.

Whilst I've got the boot box out, I've done another job I've been putting off................. Some of you may recall that my chassis had to be returned to the factory due to this wishbone bracket being welded out of place. It was corrected and returned back to me shortly afterwards. Clearly they couldn't send it away to be re powdercoated as the rear diff, front suspension etc was fitted to the chassis but it appeared to be suitably painted etc. Unfortunately, I've discovered the paint used isn't as good as the powder coat and rust has appeared in this area only on the chassis. It's not easy to get to without removing the body work, fuel tank, suspension etc. So I cut a few cable ties and removed both bolts in the top wishbone and pulled it forwards to gain better access to paint the bracket. The loose rust was brushed off and treated with https://www.hammerite.co.uk/product/kurust/ It was then given two coats of POR15 (Thanks @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary) for the tin!

Managed a quick blast before sunset... Moody skies over Bristol last Friday

The Prisoner(s). Behind bars! Well, big gates, at least.

Nothing to see here... Just a guy, casually walking his cow, next to a gold topped building in Ukraine while I drive my Westfield past...

Sunny morning in Somerset, couldn't resist a short run. King's Sedgemoor, Somerset Levels.

Happens all the time out here in the sticks, staff approaches to getting to a rural high school... Gary

Here y'go (Not my picture - apologies to the original photographer whoever you are!)

A very bracing drive to work this morning.

Tour of the Cambrian Mountains 2019

Driving to Sunk Island.

motorist new venue Sherburn airfield near Selby august/ sep 2019

A morning well spent, I'm liking the look of the new stripes.... Worth at least another 10bhp! 😂

Finally got around to taking some proper photos of my own car in the ‘paddock area’ at Curborough last week.

Be back on the road tomorrow after 14 years!

MOT test time - my local garage decided that it was better to use a Tapley meter to measure braking efficiency as light cars tend to skip on their rollers. John and Lucy the owners squeezed into my narrow SEi for the brief drive. Lucy is, er, 'solid' while John is 6'5". It was not the best of fits! But the car passed, which is the main thing. 🙂

Two toys...

These were taken a couple of months ago. The car is currently on jack stands with the engine, transmission, and parts of the interior removed, so not quite as photogenic at the moment. -John

A mooch about the hills today

Thanks very much for your kind words Russ - was great to meet you and I'm so glad you've found an improvement Didn't mean to scare you on the test drive, apologies How did you get on yesterday? Does Julie have something to worry about now?