Thinking of buying & building a full kit

[cjwood23]

Hi all,

As I'm rapidly approaching 50 and the government are doing its best to stop us driving ICE cars I'm thinking of buying and building a full kit - classic with FW bonnet & MSA roll bar.

I have a few questions if that's OK?

 

When Westfield say 'full kit' does it include absolutely everything?

Would look to get the standard 150bhp engine package - which ECU does this come with? as would look to put ITB's on at a later date and would like to not have to swap/buy a new ECU.

Is it worth specifying the wide track front wishbones?

Would like to use the Kitcar Electonics freewheel set up - will this pass IVA?

 

I'm sure I'll think of a few more questions but that's it for the moment - thanks.

 

Chris

 

[Stu Faulkner]

Hi Chris.

 

Firstly if you buy one, you won't regret it.

Full kit really does mean it, you get everything except fluids, oil fuel ETC.

It will come with an Omex ECU which will be fine for ITB's later on.

Wide track is down to choice. makes the car look fatter at the front, avoids the wheels hitting the bodywork at full lock and is arguably better on track but it does cost a bit more.

As for the Free wheel set up, Not sure. The buttons on the steering wheel probably won't pass IVA as the wheel needs to be padded. Most people have an IVA pass wheel and change to something 'nicer' later. You could wire it in but leave everything behind the dash until needed.

 

Stu

[jonjh1964]

23 minutes ago, cjwood23 said:

When Westfield say 'full kit' does it include absolutely everything? The 'full' kit has virtually everything you need to build and IVA the car but most builders do something slightly different to standard so have to buy additional consumables - examples being more convoluted tubing covering the whole loom, rivnuts and screws rather than rivets/self tappers - expect to spend at least another £100-200 (I like most others spend a lot more!).

 

Would look to get the standard 150bhp engine package - which ECU does this come with? as would look to put ITB's on at a later date and would like to not have to swap/buy a new ECU. Current kit comes with Omex 600 which is suitable for the majority of Zetec upgrades and is supported by most rolling road mappers (I got ITBs as a upgrade with the initial kit to avoid the 2 section  lower steering column (with an extra UJ) that's needed to get around the standard Ford inlet manifold).

 

Is it worth specifying the wide track front wishbones? I believe it's cheaper to do as part of an initial build because you only pay the net additional cost and you get the longer shocks/braided brake lines rather than having to fit adapters/replace.  On a car principally for the road it gives a much better turning circle but there's a lot of debate as to the impact on car balance for cars that are principally for the track.  Furthermore, there are specialist suppliers that make even wider track than the Westfield wide track which I believe is favoured by hill climbers(?), just showing that there's no one 'right' answer. (I got wide track as a kit option)

 

Would like to use the Kitcar Electonics freewheel set up - will this pass IVA? Others have successfully done it, I fitted mine after along with a new steering wheel & quick release that wouldn't get through the IVA because the standard Westfield steering boss has a crushable section to meet the requirement.

 

[cjwood23]

Thanks for the info - greatly appreciated.

Hadn't realised about the different steering columns depending on induction setup.

Is there an inherent disadvantage of the 2 section steering column?

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

I started with the standard Ford injection, I swapped to ITBs at a latter date, If you get the ITBs from Westfield they came with a suitable map ready to load onto the ECU. I ran with this map without issue for quite a few years. I've since upgraded the cams and it was at this point I had it properly rolling road set up.

Options is a more difficult quesiton as there is a degree of personal choise. I went for the wide track, hi spec brakes, heater, sport turbo seats and have been happy.

 

One important thing to remember with a Westfield is that it will never be finnished, they will allways to something that you want to do to improve it and the more you use it the more you'll understand what your priotities are. 

 

Good luck and enjoy

[jonjh1964]

14 minutes ago, cjwood23 said:

Is there an inherent disadvantage of the 2 section steering column?

With my lack of driving skill I suspect not, however, when I was first researching buying the kit there was school of thought that the extra UJ impacted the directness/feel of the steering which I can understand.  On the other hand the 2 section lower column has lots of offset angle so in theory maybe a little safer in a front end accident, I suspect that in reality for a Westfield this is probably a moot point and accidents best avoided in the first place.

[Kingster]

51 minutes ago, jonjh1964 said:

school of thought that the extra UJ impacted the directness/feel of the steering

I didn’t find that when I swapped. I just kept looking at the “javelin” and figured I’d like that extra tiny bit of leeway!

[Steve (sdh2903)]

1 hour ago, cjwood23 said:

Would like to use the Kitcar Electonics freewheel set up - will this pass IVA?

Provided you are mindful of the edge radius regulation then there’s no reason the freewheel will not pass Iva, you don’t even need a padded steering wheel provided the spokes of the steering wheel are radiused.

 

regarding the full kit, whilst it’s great to just get everything in one, I would never do it. This is not a criticism of Westfield or their package at all, but, at the end of the day they are a business. By shopping for bits yourself you can buy a higher quality component and still save money. It also gives you a much bigger choice of how your car turns out. I see a lot of people build a complete kit and then end up buying different dash panels, alloy radiators, throttle bodies, cycle wings, lights, brakes etc etc when you could just build it that way in the first place. Upgraditis is fun and rewarding but it isn’t cheap. 

[Alan France]

I went for the full kit but then deselected the items I wanted to source from elsewhere. I deselected wheels, tyres, dashboard, switches and instruments. Westfield happy with the deal and so was I.

[cjwood23]

1 hour ago, Steve (sdh2903) said:

Provided you are mindful of the edge radius regulation then there’s no reason the freewheel will not pass Iva, you don’t even need a padded steering wheel provided the spokes of the steering wheel are radiused.

 

regarding the full kit, whilst it’s great to just get everything in one, I would never do it. This is not a criticism of Westfield or their package at all, but, at the end of the day they are a business. By shopping for bits yourself you can buy a higher quality component and still save money. It also gives you a much bigger choice of how your car turns out. I see a lot of people build a complete kit and then end up buying different dash panels, alloy radiators, throttle bodies, cycle wings, lights, brakes etc etc when you could just build it that way in the first place. Upgraditis is fun and rewarding but it isn’t cheap. 

Thanks for the reply - I had thought of getting just the starter kit and sourcing the rest form various places.

The biggest outlay in doing it that way would be engine - and as I'd like a new reg I'd be looking at around £5k for a complete engine from the likes or Raceline or Omex. and not much less buying a standard crate engine (£2k) and adding all the bits to it - lowered sump, alternator and induction etc.

so not sure how much that would actually save me in the long run.

 

 

1 hour ago, Alan France said:

I went for the full kit but then deselected the items I wanted to source from elsewhere. I deselected wheels, tyres, dashboard, switches and instruments. Westfield happy with the deal and so was I.

Interesting - I hadn't thought about doing it that way. I'm not crazy about either of the dash options offered (padded or contoured) so would have probably swapped the switches and dash out anyway for the carbon effect.

[Alan France]

I bought the carbon effect dashboard with no cutouts to give maximum flexibility. Obviously if you use different gauges and switches that involves lots of wiring.

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

19 hours ago, Steve (sdh2903) said:

regarding the full kit, whilst it’s great to just get everything in one, I would never do it. This is not a criticism of Westfield or their package at all, but, at the end of the day they are a business. By shopping for bits yourself you can buy a higher quality component and still save money. It also gives you a much bigger choice of how your car turns out. I see a lot of people build a complete kit and then end up buying different dash panels, alloy radiators, throttle bodies, cycle wings, lights, brakes etc etc when you could just build it that way in the first place. Upgraditis is fun and rewarding but it isn’t cheap. 

 

To counter this, If I were to build another (and I'd love to) I'd go down this route but when I built mine, I'm glad I went for the full kit. I'm not an engineer but I've an analytical mind and can turn my hand to most things, given some base instructions. I’ve occasionally thought back and considered that question, if I’d not bought the kit I could have done this, used that etc, each time I end up with the same conclusion, I would have struggled and more to the point at the time of build I would not have even known to ask my self the question.

When you consider that the build guide is not comprehensive (and was even less compressive when I built mine) knowing that what I had would piece together gave me a lot of comfort and confidence and having the kit meant I’d not only got the club support but the factory as well.