Westfield article on Autocar

[geoffd]

You may like to see this https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/anything-goes/westfield-kit-cars-autonomy-car-maker-who-wont-quit

Geoff

[CraigHew]

interesting read.  Workforce doubled in last 12 months and set to double again, order book of £M200.

[Kit Car Electronics]

Very interesting. I particularly like the idea of more 2.0 Ecoboost engines and Julian identifying a need for traction control

[Steve (sdh2903)]

1 hour ago, CraigHew said:

interesting read.  Workforce doubled in last 12 months and set to double again, order book of £M200.

Potential order book. Very different thing. I hope the pods have a good operating manual or poor Mark walker will be stressed out answering the phone to the koreans at all times of the night!!

While I wish nothing but the best for WF but I always get the impression Julian talks a good game. They will be taking a risk heading into a 30k roadster market with some very established incumbents.

[jeff oakley]

It would be great if the GTM is developed as a car that can be built either expensively or as a cheaper self build. They have a good solid order book for fully built cars and they are not cheap so if the GTM has a similar price then it will still sell.

When they built the last GTM that cost over £30k with the Honda engine but it was pricy because it had hard to find running gear, was costly to produce as the monocoque was very time consuming as well. This new one will use a traditional chassis, no doubt with uprights that are the same as across the range.

People will buy these as there will still be a choice of doing without all the technology of connected cars etc if you want to. 

[DonPeffers]

In a world of seemingly near constant negativity, where only bad news is worth reporting thru press or TV, how nice to read a positive uplifting piece of journalism.

I agree planning = good, but delivery = better.

[Thrustyjust]

I dont know 'if' the journalism is truthful or just there to up the company. With all this money flying around , you would have thought a tin of paint and some carpet would be small change to put into the factory, which makes me wonder about financials at WSC.   Also, as Steve says, there is talking and there is doing. Two very different things. Perhaps this should be resurrected in the future and we will see how far they got. I do think the future isnt our little cars, but to utilise a British company name and focus on electric vehicles and phase out sportscars. We are living on borrowed time for our type of cars , so either we need to invest in flux capacitors or just enjoy while we can.

[Kit Car Electronics]

5 minutes ago, Thrustyjust said:

I dont know 'if' the journalism is truthful or just there to up the company. With all this money flying around , you would have thought a tin of paint and some carpet would be small change to put into the factory, which makes me wonder about financials at WSC.   Also, as Steve says, there is talking and there is doing. Two very different things. Perhaps this should be resurrected in the future and we will see how far they got. I do think the future isnt our little cars, but to utilise a British company name and focus on electric vehicles and phase out sportscars. We are living on borrowed time for our type of cars , so either we need to invest in flux capacitors or just enjoy while we can.

I agree that the future isn't our little cars. We pretend to meet MOT emission legislation with an occasionally fitted catalyst, but in reality are miles away from current legal requirements for high volume manufacturers, and that's before you consider the diagnostic legislation and the next phase of particulate-based emissions where filters become commonplace even on petrol cars. We definitely need support in Government for low volume manufacturers and the whole kit industry or it will sink without trace.

Jumping to full electric solves the exhaust emission problem immediately and actually might fit our typical usage really well. If you told me I could never drive further than 200 miles without charging my Westfield ever again, I'd be fine for the whole year other than the Stoneleigh pilgrimage - I wonder when we'll see a creative company start offering electric conversion kits. Plenty of opportunity here I think - just look at what @gee_fin and Dan have achieved already...

[Stu Faulkner]

8 hours ago, Kit Car Electronics said:

Very interesting. I particularly like the idea of more 2.0 Ecoboost engines and Julian identifying a need for traction control

Easy, Don't fit an Ecoboost and you don't need traction control.

I wonder how many of the 46 work in the parts department.

[Lyonspride]

17 hours ago, Stuart Faulkner - Shows & Events Coordinator said:

Easy, Don't fit an Ecoboost and you don't need traction control.

I wonder how many of the 46 work in the parts department.

 

TC becomes necessary if you want to sell cars to people who can't drive and aren't "car people", just look at BMW and Audi, more driver aids than you can shake a *****y stick at. Dead customers tend to lead to bad press.

[jeff oakley]

18 hours ago, Lyonspride said:

 

TC becomes necessary if you want to sell cars to people who can't drive and aren't "car people", just look at BMW and Audi, more driver aids than you can shake a *****y stick at. Dead customers tend to lead to bad press.

It does, but it has never harmed Caterham to have increasingly powerful cars without driver aids. We all see the motoring press turn off the aids so that they can enjoy the full experience on other cars.

Lotus Elsie is another example, so I see no reason why there isn't room for them to bring back the GTM.

In years past I worked for a motor bike firm where the boss bought a lot of old model bikes, that we could not sell. We bolted on a Turbo and said we would only sell them to "experienced" riders as they were so dangerous with all the raw power, we sold every single one easily and they were awful. Some humans want a bit of danger.

 They are of course right that they need to evolve other wise once all of us die off, where is their market? In all areas of car hobbies except racing, young people are not that interested enough in large enough numbers to sustain things for ever so they must change to survive long term.

[DonPeffers]

4 hours ago, jeff oakley said:

It does, but it has never harmed Caterham to have increasingly powerful cars without driver aids. We all see the motoring press turn off the aids so that they can enjoy the full experience on other cars.

Lotus Elsie is another example, so I see no reason why there isn't room for them to bring back the GTM.

In years past I worked for a motor bike firm where the boss bought a lot of old model bikes, that we could not sell. We bolted on a Turbo and said we would only sell them to "experienced" riders as they were so dangerous with all the raw power, we sold every single one easily and they were awful. Some humans want a bit of danger.

 They are of course right that they need to evolve other wise once all of us die off, where is their market? In all areas of car hobbies except racing, young people are not that interested enough in large enough numbers to sustain things for ever so they must change to survive long term.

Many times I've seen the press turn off TC on a runway or similar and possibly Health and Safety and insurance rules are against doing it on the highway. When Joe footballer does it there have been many occasions when the car ends up in a field.

Jeff's right in that the young will experience more thru virtual reality and the future of kitcars and motorbikes could well be limited.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

23 hours ago, Lyonspride said:

 

TC becomes necessary if you want to sell cars to people who can't drive and aren't "car people", just look at BMW and Audi, more driver aids than you can shake a *****y stick at. Dead customers tend to lead to bad press.

Go drive a sport 250 in the wet on r888s and tell me that! In fact go drive a sport 250 in the wet on any tyres and tell me that.

I'm no Fernando Alonso by any stretch but I consider myself reasonably competent behind the wheel. Been around higher power cars and RWD since I turned 19 and could afford the insurance. Ran a stripped out R1 engined 7. I would happily have taken a TC system if it were available had I still owned the sport 250. Or even just a switchable map to get rid of the torque increase.

Just so the s2000 boys know what the T word is all about

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque

[DonPeffers]

12 minutes ago, sdh2903 said:

 I would happily have taken a TC system if it were available had I still owned the sport 250. Or even just a switchable map to get rid of the torque increase.

Just so the s2000 boys know what the T word is all about

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque

Steve the Westfield 250 price list has £895 for LSD upgrade so do you know if that is a recent addition, say after you had started your build or is LSD only offered on factory built cars?

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

12 minutes ago, DonPeffers said:

Steve the Westfield 250 price list has £895 for LSD upgrade so do you know if that is a recent addition, say after you had started your build or is LSD only offered on factory built cars?

Apologies for butting in, LSD was an an option (which I opted for) on the Mazda dif, for the 250, when I ordered mine to build myself, 12months ago.