What happens to Westfield Sport Cars?

[CL767]

Just as I worked up the appetite to start a build, it looks like Westfield went of business. I contacted the administrators to see if i the inventory was going to be auctioned off, but it seemed like it was mostly tooling and so on that one could make a bid for. Does anyone know if Westfield will continue under new ownership, or if the toiling and production rights have been bought by someone who will offer parts in the future? 
 

thanks,

 

Claes

[Kit Car Electronics]

The company is still in administration, but it doesn't look hopeful. The staff were made redundant and debts were large. Time will tell, but in your position I would look at one of the excellent alternative manufacturers.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

The administrators report stated that they are still in negotiations with prospective purchasers for the business, but it’s anyones guess when a sale might happen or what any buyer might choose to do with Westfield. They may decide to concentrate only on spares or the more profitable Chesil market rather than Sportscars.

 

if you’ve got your heart set on a Westfield then the best bet is to try and find an unstarted or stalled project, but else unfortunately I’d suggest looking elsewhere at the moment as I don’t see kit sales starting again anytime soon.

[CL767]

Unfortunately it is the Westfield XI I was interested in. And in LHD. So chances are pretty slim😊

Lets hope someone picks up the business, and continues the legacy. 
 

[Morris]

8 hours ago, CL767 said:

Unfortunately it is the Westfield XI I was interested in. And in LHD. So chances are pretty slim😊

Lets hope someone picks up the business, and continues the legacy. 
 

I don't know if WSC only made XIs to order, but if not there may be a body/ chassis combo still sitting in the factory so worth keeping an eye on developments.

 

I expect one of the chassis 'straighteners' used by the '7' boys could convert the chassis to LHD.

 

The dash panel is simply a vinyl trimmed panel of aluminium so easy to reproduce at home for a LHD car.

 

Other than that, part build cars only come up for sale very rarely and as for alternatives, I once saw some photos of a MX5 based car but in my opinion it wasn't really in the true spirit of the Eleven.

 

As another alternative there's a Lotus 23 replica made by Tiger Racing (if I remember correctly?). Not quite the same of course but quite tasty all the same.

[Morris]

Tiger Racing call it the ERA 30:

 

https://tigerracing.com/kit/era-30

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

18 minutes ago, Morris said:

I don't know if WSC only made XIs to order, but if not there may be a body/ chassis combo still sitting in the factory so worth keeping an eye on developments.

They were advertised as being made in batches of 5 but I read that to mean that they’d wait till the had 5 confirmed orders rather than producing 5 and then looking for buyers. 

[Mark Stanton]

Unfortunately there is no "one" supplier for kits any longer as everything was outsourced by potenza to various fabricators throughout UK and overseas for chassis and bodywork, trim etc so it would require calling each company to provide the required part and even now they may not be able to due to any license agreements in place.

 

Sadly if you are looking for a kit, currently its not looking good, until someone purchases WSC - at present it may be that admin are looking for a buyer for everything which includes the electric pods not just Westfields and Chesils ☹️. Whatever you purchase you're always welcome at the WSCC 👍😁

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

My understanding was the same as Mark's (Smokey Mo); XI's were made in batches of five, to confirmed orders only, no chassis/bodywork kept in stock "just in case". It's actually a model that was discontinued years and years ago, but resurrected by popular demand in the 2000's, hence minimal changes/updates to the original design.

[jeff oakley]

I was involved in a company that went bust as an employee. The administrator kept trying to sell the whole lot as one, including all the crap money drain side.

Eventually they split everything and it all sold except the loss making money drain, which wasn't worth a button.

 

For us this seems like an eternity but in terms of winding up a multi layer business not so long. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

22 minutes ago, jeff oakley said:

For us this seems like an eternity but in terms of winding up a multi layer business not so long. 

 

Absolutely this!!

 

There is most unlikely to be a quick answer. It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't know anything concrete till later this year, or virtually next, now.

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

38 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman said:

 

Absolutely this!!

 

There is most unlikely to be a quick answer. It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't know anything concrete till later this year, or virtually next, now.

 

Agree entirely, having been involved in the buying of a business out of administration and receivers (admittedly bigger ones), it takes a long time for negotiations to conclude..... quite often its a game of brinkmanship for the buyer and administrator, one wants it cheap, the other wants to make the most money on the sale

[Kit Car Electronics]

I wonder what their product and process documentation is like - without any employees this will be critical to determine whether there's actually much value left to buy. 

[CL767]

13 hours ago, Morris said:

I don't know if WSC only made XIs to order, but if not there may be a body/ chassis combo still sitting in the factory so worth keeping an eye on developments.

 

I expect one of the chassis 'straighteners' used by the '7' boys could convert the chassis to LHD.

 

The dash panel is simply a vinyl trimmed panel of aluminium so easy to reproduce at home for a LHD car.

 

Other than that, part build cars only come up for sale very rarely and as for alternatives, I once saw some photos of a MX5 based car but in my opinion it wasn't really in the true spirit of the Eleven.

 

As another alternative there's a Lotus 23 replica made by Tiger Racing (if I remember correctly?). Not quite the same of course but quite tasty all the same.

I know that is what the website said. I was just wondering if the tooling might be bought up by another manufacturer. I have looked at the ERA30, and that is a nice car, too. But I have an Elise I use for track, have built a bike engined MK Indy, and was in the mood for a classic looking car, that would be fun on the road. I have a low milage k-series I took out of the elise, and the chap at Westfield I spoke to, thought I would be able, with some modification, to adapt it to the XI. But now I will never know….🥲

[stephenh]

The irritating thing is that my reading of the company accounts is that the real drain on the cash resources was Westfield Autonomous Vehicles Ltd., ie the pod developer, which was hopelessly insolvent. Although Westfield Sportscars owed a large sum to its immediate parent, Autonomous in turn owed a similar amount to Sportscars.

So if the administrators saw fit, the Sportscar company is saleable on its own, whereas the autonomous vehicle operation needs a very different sort of buyer, with a deep enough pocket to complete its development and marketing.