First trackday in the westy and question

[SXRORY]

So popped the cherry in the westy at llandow. how much fun are they on track, really intuitive handling, moving about smiling all the way!

Great day on Saturday, weather was great and a nice track for the Westfield. very relaxed day. All was going well until the exhaust mount sheared off. Managed to bodge a solid bolt through it and was back out again. 

Quite a physical car to smash round though, ache all over my top half today. Not anything like doing them a tin top anyway.

My question is about brakes. First non servo car I ve ever drove and found it difficult to get the hang of the brakes. I had to really stand on the pedal and i was finding it tough to brake late with any confidence....and im lacking feel.

Is really having to push on the pedal normal or shall I look into doing something with them. If doing something to them what do you suggest first?

Cheers

[Greenstreak-Andy D]

You need to check out what brake setup you have and what pads too. 

I have the ap twin pot and master cylinder with golf rear discs. Never had any problems. Excellent pedal feel. 

Also worth renewing the brake fluid. 

Andy

 

[Onliest Smeg David]

Basic Westfield set up with good pads should stop fine.

Never had issue breaking on track, and mines not lightest Westie. M16 & Mintex 1144.

So probably worth a thorough check over/service.

[AdamR]

Pushing harder on the pedal is normal, as you mentioned there's no servo. I've also always found the standard master to give little feel unless you have posh calipers and pads, I think you've discovered upgradeitis

[TAFKARM]

Took me a while to get a brake sey up I was happy with - loads of feel and stopping power. Spoiler alert though, you don't need 4 pots

[SXRORY]

Think I might go for a bleed first as that was one of the things I ran out of time for before the day. I suspect that it's quite old as the dude who had it before did a 1k in 5 years.

I don't have a clue with what brakes are in there. Running drums at the back, discs at the front. With two master cylinders

Edited March 27, 2017 by SXRORY

[AdamR]

Ah-ha, if you have twin masters then you will definitely need to push hard on the pedal! This should give excellent feel though, so give them a good bleed through and see how you get on from there...

[Onliest Smeg David]

May be worth renewing brake fluid while your there as well, if it's many years old.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

As Dave said, renew the fluid rather than just bleeding; the typical dot 4 brake fluid used in the majority of Westfields is age sensitive far more than use sensitive. So even if it's done 10 miles a year to the MOT centre and back, it still needs changing roughly every two/three years. (Potentially more often if it's a standard fluid and getting cooked on track days, but in which case, it would be worth looking at a different spec fluid, anyway.)

My Westfield gets stored outside, rather than a nice warm garage, so I always reckon it's got more chance of absorbing moisture into the fluid as the humid level varies so much, I change mine at two years.

[SXRORY]

Ok thats the plan then (When I said bleed, new fluid is what i meant).

 

Thanks for all the advice. Got tickets for the action day at coombe in a couple of weeks,  might do a couple of sessions there when the day thins out a bit at the end. Can usually get them cheaper then too.