New Member and soon to be Westfield owner (I hope)

[Tim Reid]

Hi Ben,

The Thames Valley area meet in the second Sunday of the month at the bird in hand pub on the A4 between Maidenhead and Reading. You will be very welcome to pop along.

One of our members is currently selling his Westfield, it's got a stong setup (decent reliable power) and its under you budget so you will have plenty of money left over to customise the car to your taste. Something you should budget for regardless of which car you buy because these cars vary so much.

http://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic/110021-1989-westfield-seiw-1600-4age/#entry1167231

[tucky40]

Thanks Tim, will definately pop along if I can. I've just sent a message to Steve, thanks for the link.

[alexander72]

tucky mate - the mighty cross flow destine need any further tuning :-)   its on the limit of what it can do (just needs a better pilot who isn't quite as heavy :-)....do you want a competition car? or a road car? 

[Hellski]

Hopefully Ben's looking for one that's black, got all the boxes ticked for latest safety & handling options, looks damed good and with tuning potential to boot; overall making it a great package

[alexander72]

I would sell mine to buy yours Christian....

[tucky40]

Alexandre I don't know if I could handle the mighty crossflow!! ;-)

I want a car that does both road and track well and has roughly 300bhp/ton. Hopefully a car that needs no spending on it. I want it to be comparable to my friends Caterham supersport and a little quicker on the straights.

Engines I like the look of are vauxhall xe, tuned zetec and duratec.

I agree Christians car does look nice.

[tucky40]

Hi folks,

I keep coming back to this car.....

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/westfield/other-models/westfield-seiw--vx-on-tbs-dry-sump--amazing-spec-no-expense-spared/2959802

Does anyone know or recognise this car and what are your opinions? The more I read the more I like about the vauxhall xe engine. This one doesn't have any arp bottom end bolts which are recommended with a tuned engine. Also doesn't 186bhp sound modest for this eng with tb's, cams and omex ecu.

I also read the raceleda alloy uprights have a history of failing on car engined kit cars, I'm assuming these would need to be replaced?

Any help or advice is more than welcome

[jmad]

I bought a XE engine westfield earlier this year, and am really pleased with it, the engine is fantastic. I have had a bike engine striker and a Honda vtec engine mini and I think the Vauxhall engine is great in the westfield. I agree on the 186bhp but he says he has the printouts so might be worth a look and to see what rev limits were used.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

A rolling road can be perfectly sound for tuning a car - giving repeatable results, which is what you need, without the calibration, (simplifying greatly, I admit), being correct. Many rolling roads give wildly different results to each other. Some designs read generally "low" compared to others - hub dyno's for instance. Essentially although some do read spot on, that's why many say that you can't really ever compare the results from two different dyno's directly.

 

TBH though, it's probably not a million miles out either. On standard Pistons, the clearances are so tight there's not that much you can do with cams really, nor can you optimise the timing properly. There just isn't room, before valves and Pistons meet.

 

Have to say, compared to some of the cars on here, it's a shade high on price, (but then the cars on here have been exceptionally good value!)

 

Its got some nice stuff on it for sure, not sure if it's quite as high a spec as the owner thinks, but then that might just be down to how the ad reads. Certainly sounds worth a look at though.

[tucky40]

Jmad glad your enjoying your xe engine.

Dave totally agree with you on the RR.

The dry sump and modified gearbox aren't too common on the other cars I can see online so that has adied value to me. It also looks great although as you said it's not the cheapest either. Any opinions on the raceleda alloy uprights and possible the need to change these.

Ben

[Bean]

Good looking spec, worth a bit extra with the dry sump and BGH gearbox, not that much though, in my opinion.

 

Thread on Raceleda uprights http://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic/55048-raceleda-upright/

 

Worst case scenario, you could budget for a pair of Cortina uprights as well.

[SootySport]

The BGH box and the dry sump add up to £4000 on their own.   You would not get such a spec with a sub £10k car with a Redtop or Zetec engine normally.  There is quite a number of other goodies that make this car good value.  Of course, you would have to check the car is what has been described in the ad.    I would have a look if you want a ready to track car.

[tucky40]

Thanks so much guys, really appreciate the advice it all helps to make things a little clearer.

I've spotted a 2012 duratec I like the look of so this will be the first car I'll be looking at I think. It's obviously a little more expensive but an almost new car.

The xe I mentioned above will be another possible viewing. Theses cars are so different each one has its own pros and cons.

[tucky40]

Now a fully fledged Westfield owner....

Sport 2000fw in postbox red.

Many thanks for all the advice and help, looking forward to getting lots of driving in over the great british winter and plenty more in the summer.

Ben

[Simon Waterfall Syman84]

 to the clan