minghis Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 One of my scariest moments was being trapped after getting in with the weather gear on for the first time... Minghis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oioi Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 Scarriest moment – hmm, tricky one, theres been a few The day I bought it and the throttle stuck open? doesn’t compare to some peoples tales. The time I gave it a bit too much on the dual carriage way and view went road ahead, central reservation, road ahead, hard shoulder, road ahead? Nah caught it Out blatting with an elise and was coming up to a t-junction which he had spotted and I hadnt. The speed was well into three figures , locked up everything and went hurtling past him in a haze of tyre smoke. I had visions of westie mounting an elise at very high speed. very very luckily the t- junction went slightly left and the road to join the road I was on was straight ahead. Nothing coming down the road. Pheewwww. Looked in rear view mirror, thro the smoke I could see a very white elsie driver. Ive been practising my brake modulation since then…… A fellow westie driver did that to me once. It’s a horrible feeling when you are looking in your rear view mirror at a westie all locked up hurtling towards you. In my mg midget my party piece was to turn into a particular corner about 20ft early and slide sideways into the corner upon arriving in the corner nailing it. It was a 90 deg bend and the car would just slide down the road to the corner and then lurch forward as I booted it. Used to be great going down this lane with the nose pointed at a hedge waiting for the corner to arrive. Stopped doing it tho after I got it wrong and the usual throttle application didn’t stop the slide. View went hedge corner ditch. The day my dad had just finished running in his rebuilt tr5 and blew the engine at 130 on the m11. I was only twelve and kacking meself. More at the extreme language coming from the drivers seat than the fact the road had suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smelly fog. Best moment – that’s between me and the missus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan Coombes Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 Can't think of a scariest moment, but a friend who we will call "Ross" Wrote his car off after driving back from the SVA center in his brand new car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markboyce Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 has to be the quick release steering wheel coming off westys car going round School at Anglesey. Tip: never trust someone else to put the steering wheel on the car before you drive it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 When I saw you'd posted to this thread Mr Boyce I feared you were going to make some comment about "that" trip back from Le Mans (see above) Still makes me smile, especially the bit where we were 3 cars wide at one point... But flippin' 'eck about pulling the steering wheel off !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markboyce Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 yep, I will never drive his car again unless I fit the wheel myself! Assuming he lets me drive it again how about the record breaking run to Le Mans by [cough] grahams v8 westy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starter Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 OK, 1)I'd only just got the car last July and took it out at Oulton a week later on a wet track (with Avon CR322's.) Third lap went into Lodge too fast and the back end just broke away and the next thing I'm sliding down the grass on the inside about 2 feet from the arnco and absolutely nothing I can do. Car seemed to carry on for ages and convinced that I was about to do major damage to the car but somehow came out wihout a scatch. 2) Racing at Rockingham yesterday escaped all of the flying bodywork over the first few laps and chasing down 10 th on lap 7. Go into the second chicane only to see the car immediately in front lose it and come hurtling towards me backwards fast. No place to go and now have a car with broken rear suspension, bent chassis, hole in the side skin and the list goes on Recovery vehicle then managed to lift the car vertically rather than level and punctured the radiator as they were putting it down Mikew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 how about the record breaking run to Le Mans by [cough] grahams v8 westy... GLOL !!! That was *totally* mental !! I'm pretty sure his passenger was still in shock on the Friday !! Top trip that year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westy Posted April 14, 2003 Author Share Posted April 14, 2003 yep, I will never drive his car again unless I fit the wheel myself! Assuming he lets me drive it again probably not, I’m still embarrassed of being a passenger the last time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markboyce Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 careful I may decide to drop scrap metal in your garage this week rather than take it away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 Now that Mark's joined in.......... Not that it was the best moment, but I was scared that I was going to die laughing........ Doing a bit over the speed limit on top of the Pennines in the dark in a howling gale and horizontal snow. We (Mr Boyce and I) turned into the wind, which got under part of the experimental greenhouse roof that we had attached to the top of his car with garden twine. It promptly disappeared into the night and left the remnants flapping about like a flag The best experience is a toss up between humbling Cerbies at Croft and the previously mentioned run back from Le Mans. The 3 abreast incident was 2 Westys overtaking a Porsche which was overtaking another Porsche....most satisfying. After this Porker-bating, we stoppped for a slash at the bottom of a hill. After about 5 mins the Porkers went past giving us baleful looks. When we set off again, we found them hiding in a layby a couple of miles further on....obviously, one shaming was enough Cheers Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markboyce Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 Doing a bit over the speed limit on top of the Pennines in the dark in a howling gale and horizontal snow. We (Mr Boyce and I) turned into the wind, which got under part of the experimental greenhouse roof that we had attached to the top of his car with garden twine. It promptly disappeared into the night and left the remnants flapping about like a flag I am not the mark boyce Paul is talking about, honest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 I am not the mark boyce Paul is talking about, honest! Don't forget, I have the evidence...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markboyce Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 So I will call you Sir, and buy you plenty of beer at the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markboyce Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 April 2000 Dear all, Fellow lister Mark Boyce visited chez nous yesterday afternoon with a view to purchasing my unused Westfield hood and frame and fitting it to his car. At the time I bought the hood Westfield warned me that it would have to be altered slightly to fit over my RAC spec rollbar. I have never got further than draping the hood over the frame and confirming that it did indeed need some nifty tailoring - about 3" of material adding all the way round the bottom IMO. As Mark has a standard height rollbar, and required some weather protection to get him back to London (from Yorkshire) in yesterday's atrocious weather conditions, we set to work fitting the frame and hood. The frame went on to the standard mounts very easily using stainless nuts and bolts found in the bottom of the 'sundry Westy parts' box; however, when we attached the hood to the screen (very nifty attachment method) and draped the hood over the frame, it quickly became obvious that it didn't fit Mark's car to almost the same extent that it didn't fit mine - they are both wide bodied cars. It appears that Westfield have supplied me with a frame for a Wide car and a hood for a narrow car. With the standard roll bar, it is very obvious that the hood is not the right size for either the back of the car, or the hood frame. The RAC bar just confuses the issue, as I was expecting it not to fit. Moral: don't assume - measure carefully as soon as parts arrive. I wonder what the chances are of exchanging a hood purchased about 3 years ago. :-o I'll let you know when I find out. Anyway, we still had the problem(?) that Mark wanted to travel 200 miles in driving rain, and more importantly, be able to see to do it. It just so happened that I was junking some secondary double glazing from our weaver's cottage type bedroom windows. This consisted of 6 thin pieces of perspex roughly 30"x12". We hatched this idea that if we rivetted all this placky sheet together and tied it onto (no don't laff) the windscreen and roll bar with a suitably located bit of steel tube to brace it, we would have a roof somewhat akin to the Tommy Kaira ZZ ( Gesundheit). If you don't know what that looks like, imagine a Renault Spider with bits of secondary double glazing nailed and tied to the top of it. Anyway, we got all this perspex rivetted together (why do you never have the right size of rivets!, hot-air-gunned the leading edge to fold it over the windscreen and attached it to the bracing bar that was fixed twixt windscreen and roll bar. Lengths of string tying the 'roof' corners to the mirrors and roll bar provided the finishing touch, and we were ready to roll. Much of this was carried out in the pouring rain, with Mark unaccountably losing enthusiasm more and more as we converted his pristine ( and soaking wet) Westfield into an allotment shed And so to the test drive. By this time we were both wet and cold, it was pitch dark, and there was slush on the roads, but when a Se7en needs test driving who can refuse. It took several minutes to back the car out into the road because we were laughing so much, but surprisingly, (well we were surprised) it worked. It kept the rain off, didn't flap too badly and despite only resting on the tops of the sidescreens, didn't let water in at the sides either. Unfortunately the Mark 1 (no pun intended) version wasn't up to turning into the wind at a combined speed of perhaps 90mph, and the centre section flew off into the night (moorland roads - no-one behind us). The rest of it started flapping, but the string (good Yorkshire string) held, and we brought most of it home. Sadly the time for departure was approaching, so we couldn't try a Mark 2 version and Mark was understandably wary of the embarrassment of pulling in for petrol with the remnants of a cheap greenhouse attached to his car with string. So the stanley knife was put to work, he was topped up with coffee, kitted out with a peaked cap to keep some of the rain out of his eyes and with a fag well and truly lit, disappeared into the night. Well, It passed a Sunday afternoon if nothing else. So............where can I buy a piece of perspex about 4 feet square for the moon-roof mark 2? ;-) Epilogue: Mark got home at about half past midnight. cheers Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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