juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 Due to under use this year I've finally decided to part with my pride and joy. It's gonna hurt and I'm still not sure I'm doing the right thing (RTA: I really, really don't want to sell it) but money is tight and in the end it is just a toy Potential Owner Screening To save my time and yours I've devised a small questionaire to see if you, the potential buyer, and the PPE are compatible. Please take 2 minutes to complete it, thank you. 1) What type of car do you want? a) I want a car that I can polish and drive around on a weekend when it's sunny. One day I might try one of these trackday things. b) I want a trackday car I can drive to circuits and hoon around then drive home again. c) I want a well sorted trackday car that has potential for sprinting/hillclimbing. 2) About your beard: a) My face is smooth as a baby's A***, I make Furtive look like a mechanical genius. b) My beard is short but has much potential. I know where the fuel, the oil, the water go and can wield a spanner with reasonble authority. c) I am a member of ZZ Top, my beard is admired by all who see it. I assemble engines with my teeth and write iginition maps on the back of fag packets for fun. 3) Physically you are: a) Built like a basket ball player / sumo wrestler (over 6ft / heavier than 18st) b) Exactly 1 FMU (Juan being the standard Fat Man). c) Jules 4) Purple: a) You've got to be kidding me right?! b) Yo mama! What, the cam cover is purple too?! *AND* the calipers! Better pass the tissues. c) Who GAF what colour it is, it's a f**king track nail. If your answers were Mainly a: Sadly, the PPE is not for you. You would be far better served with a nice hairdressers car like an Mr2... /irony Mainly b* or c: The PPE may be the perfect car for you. Long may you enjoy lubing up it's slippy bits. * All b: You are me and I collect my £10 £8000 ovno. There are tonnes of pictures of it all over my gallery at www.bookatrack.com. Latest ones are at the bottom. Speccage Chassis and stuff The PPE is a Westfield SE. To the unwashed that is a standard bodied car (...as in not wide. The beards would get upset if I called it a narrow bodied car) with a live axle at the back. Right, that's weeded out the fatboys and the people who are convinced that IRS is better... The car is registered 1975 which sadly missed free tax by three years. As it is it's taxed 'till the end of March 2004 and the MOT lasts 'till Sept 2004. The other beauty of being registered 1975 is that emissions is a visible smoke test only. You can set the car up so it melts small animals as you pass by and as long as there's no smoke, Mr MOT man can't do a thing. We don't need no stinking catalytic converter amigo! The PPE actually came into being in 1995 (meaning it's also a lighter chassis than a more recent one). In this time it's done 13500 miles. However it had a unplanned full engine strip down and rebuild in 2002 and almost a chassis up rebuild at the same time. There are only 1000 miles on the freshly built engine. The bill was impressive and many pages long. All work was carried out by that jolly nice chap Paul Aspden at Plays-Kool Motorsport. Carbs were fettled by Dave Bogg being the local carb ninja and the ecu was mapped by Dennis Vassey. Engine Hard mounted under the bonnet is the legendary Ford Pintworth. Confused? It's a bit of a hybrid you see. To understand why I need to tell you a bit of a story... ...once upon a time Juan bought a Westfield. Mesmerised by the purpleness of it he handed over the cash believing the spec as it was written. Unbeknownst to him and probably also the broker of the deal, the nefarious seller hadn't been entirely accurate with his specification list. Sadly without actually dismantling the car this was not apparent to our hero Juan. 1 year later... Tootling around Donington on newly fitted sticky tyres one of the big end bearings screamed "enough!" and set about welding a bearing sleave to itself, bending a con-rod and cracking the block. All in all, an impressive amount of destruction. The cause of the tantrum turned out to be a less than adequately baffled sump (what baffles!?). That got consigned to the bin as did the block that was FUBAR. What it did allow us to do was strip the engine. Now this is where it gets freaky. The head is fairly high spec. It's flowed and ported, has solid lifters and a pair of L1 (silly) cams. All in all, not a cheap piece of kit and thankfully undamaged by the lunched bottom end. The bottom end however was not what was expected. Normally you would expect to see lots of nice Cosworth bits in the bottom also, but this was not the case. The block was Pinto, as was the crank. Pistons came from a Ford V6 and had been machined and pocketed to work in this N/A installation. Odd I thought. As it is it turns out that the Pinto crank is lighter than the Cossie one and providing you're not venturing much beyond 200bhp, it's well up to the job. So in this case it was actually desirable. A regrind saw that pressed back into service. The Pinto block is well up to it also, so another one was sourced and sent away along with the pistons to be crack tested and machined. Turns out I found a stonking block, handy! The bent rod was replaced and the pistons (which take the engine up to 2100cc) being undamaged were also reused. I used the theory that the engine had plenty of power pre-pop and I liked the way it drove. So I decided to have it rebuilt as was but this time with the added protection of a dry sump system. Little did I know how much more go there was to come! The carbs turned out to be miles out. Dave Bogg sorted that out with a serious re-jetting session. The Alpha 3D ignition was also unfeasbly dodgily done, Dennis Vassey sorted that. What I was left with was *much* more power. It certainly now really does feel like it has in the region of 190bhp as it's supposed to have. As is the case with any rebuild, sooooooo many other tasks were undertaken at this time also far too much to go into here. In summary it's a: 2.1 N/A Ford Cosworth(ish) YB L1 cams Solid lifters Ford V6 Pistons Pinto rods (the only thing I wish I'd replaced with steel, purely for strength) Pinto crank Pinto block Pace twin scavenge dry sump system Weber DCOE 45's with new K&N filters (ITG foam also supplied though it's bl**** noisy) Weber Alpha 3d ignition. Purple cam cover 4-1 exhaust New Wunoff repackable silencer The engine is hard mounted to the chassis so it's helpful to wonder around the car every now and then with a spanner to make sure everything is tight. drivetrain, transmission and stuff It's got an AP clutch and light flywheel. A type 9 5-speed Quaife Clubman straight cut close ratio gearbox. The English (Escort) axle at the back, that was sadly lacking the advertised LSD, benefits from a Tran-X plate limited slip differential. This was fitted in 2001 along with all new bearings including those on the drive shafts. I also replaced the front wheel bearings at the same time also. Now the LSD and gearbox on this car are LOUD. Think touring car levels of whine. This is normal. As I say, this is not a road car. It may be road legal, but pleasant for a Sunday drive it is not. brakes, suspension, steering... and stuff Total overkill up front with AP 'Princess' 4-pot calipers (purple). These grip a drilled and vented disk using newly fitted Mintex 1144 pads and Castrol SRF fluid. Ok, yes they're heavy. They are also the most awesome stoppers I've ever experienced. Massive amount of feel and stoppage. They ain't broke so I'm not replacing them. At the back is a disk conversion with solid, drilled disks and Sierra calipers. Again the pads are new. There is a Wilwood brake proportioning valve in the circuit to stop them locking up before the fronts. It's in cockpit adjustable for instant fun. At all four corners are Avo aluminum rose jointed Pro-Race shocks. 150lb springs on the back and 250lb on the front. Totally transformed the handling when I had them fitted. There are two sets of KN Minator 13x6 wheels. One set is brand new and have never been fitted to the car. I am planning on selling these seperately but give me the asking price for the car and they'll go with it. One set is fitted with 185x60 Yokohama A539's the other with A032R's in the same size. The 539's are in excellent condition, the 32R's are barely road legal. The steering rack is a 2.2 Escort quick rack. interior... and stuff The car has a RAC roll over bar. Holding you in are a pair of Caterham Tillet GRP seats and Luke 4 point harnesses with aircraft buckles. Beware though, paneled off in the end of the passenger footwell is the dry sump tank so if you want to take any passengers, make sure they're under 5'9" or saw their legs off. The dash is resplendent with VDO gauges, seqential shift lights, Momo 27D wheel (suede baby), aeroscreen, SPA mirrors and not a lot else. In fact the car is stripped pretty much bare. No doors, roof, windscreen, washers, wipers, heater, carpets, yadda, yadda. Though it's never been on the scales I realistically expect it to weigh in at around 575kg's wet. exterior It's really purple.
markboyce Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 Perfect trackday nail.... You cant get rid of it.... edit: I should add.. Its a very well sorted car as its already been through the "replace everything" stage as trackdays kill standard cars. Well worth the money
juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Author Posted November 3, 2003 Thanks for that Mark. Yep it's a solid machine. It's been very seriously rebuilt with track in mind... ...and I don't want to sell it. Hence when I wrote the ad I may not have been in the best of moods.
Bananaman Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 Just how Purple is PURPLE, go on post a pic. Sounds like a LOT of FUN.
markboyce Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 Better still is his obsession with the colour purple
juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Author Posted November 3, 2003 *Puts Boycies name under Picman's for people I will have my revenge upon* Grrr!
juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Author Posted November 3, 2003 These are the only recent pics I've got (and they're crap):
juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Author Posted November 3, 2003 Got tonnes of earlier ones: Interior, notice short passenger footwell. Rev counter was away being re-furbed at the time. Marvel at the Purple cam cover. All the coolant hosing is now Purple silicone and the header tank was raised (thanks davepip). The engine bay is panelled off. Hmm slidey. *sob* my baby
Blatman Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 Coupla things........ No doors, roof, windscreen, washers, wipers, heater, carpets, yadda, yadda. Though it's never been on the scales I realistically expect it to weigh in at around 575kg's wet. I reckon nearer 550kg's, and quite possibly a bit less..... I really, really don't want to sell it Then don't...... Man cannot live on bread alone. He's gotta have some butter on it.
juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Author Posted November 3, 2003 Does remind me that I need to get it over to Pauls to get it properly weighed. Very interested to see what we finally got it down to. I'm already starting to think that I should keep it and just lay off trackdays until next August when my shares come through. I would end up starting again at another point if I did sell it, prolly a few years down the line though.
markboyce Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 *Puts Boycies name under Picman's for people I will have my revenge upon* {cough} Must remember not to invite Juan to my stag do....
Bananaman Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 Juan Looks TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to sell. Don't do it. Andy
juansolo Posted November 3, 2003 Author Posted November 3, 2003 Mr Boyce - Mwhahahaha! Funily enough, I haven't seen Mr Picman since he produced that (has anyone...). Bananaman - Looking through a lot of the pics I've taken over the years is not helping me one bit. Last night I was adamant (...prince charmiiiiing) that I was doing the right thing, which is when the ad' went up on BaT. Now I'm not so sure...
Mrs Westy Posted November 3, 2003 Posted November 3, 2003 {cough} Must remember not to invite Juan to my stag do.... Can I come
juansolo Posted November 8, 2003 Author Posted November 8, 2003 b*******it, I'm keeping it. Who needs money anyhow?
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