Novice advice needed

[george]

Hello:

I've recently acquired my first English car (I live in California, north of San Francisco), a somewhat used, but well cared-for Westfield SEiGHT.  I bought it as a car for track days, having realized that continuing to modify my Mazda Miata (MX-5) would make it an ever-poorer street car and still not the track car I want.  I would greatly appreciate any thoughts, observations, corrections, directions, etc. that anyone on this list could provide.  I 'm a total Westfield novice and welcome your input.  

In the month I've had the Westfield, I've spent most of my free time cleaning,  adjusting, and repairing.  I did an alignment, setting the front and rear camber both to 1.3 degrees negative (that's all I could get out of the rear without substituting a thinner locking nut on the upper A-arm).  I set the front toe out just a bit (maybe 1/16 inch) and the rear toe in about 1/16 to 1/8 inch.  I set the shocks to 5 clicks from soft on the front and 2 clicks from soft on the rear.  (How many clicks are there?  Spax "High Performance")  (My springs are Eibach 350 pound/inch in front and unmarked black, said to be 250 pound/inch, in the rear.  The car has a front anti-roll bar.)  Any comments on what I did or should do (or not do)?  Are these reasonable settings?  I could get more camber in front, but thought it should not be more than in the rear.  

I did run a couple of autocrosses.  In both events the secondary float of my 390 CFM Holley stuck open after a run.  (Rubber hammer time.)  I've taken out the valve and cleaned it and I've drained the bowl.  Do I need to go to center-float bowls?

Three projects are planned before putting the car on the track next Spring:  

1) better roll protection -- an FIA roll bar is on order.  I've been thinking about putting a removable brace between somewhere on the hoop and a footing that I would weld into the passenger's footwell.  Any thoughts?

2) oil control -- I've bought a used 3 quart Accusump and I'm planning on splicing that into the oil filter lines -- and on moving the oil filter because it's stuck under the radiator cowl and looks hard and messy to change.  I'm planning on putting the battery in the passenger's footwell (LHD car) and moving the oil filter to the newly available space.  The Accusump would then be mounted vertically just in front of the oil filter (I've already removed the winshield washer).  With the Accusump I expect not to need a baffled sump pan.  Again, any thoughts?

3) fuel tank -- I'm nervous about running on the track with the stock fuel tank, so I'm planning on installing some kind of fuel cell.  And maybe adding some honeycomb crash protection.  Any ideas?

There will be a whole set of future ssues related to wheels, tires, brake pads, and so on, but those can wait until I learn how to drive the car.  I'll start on the street brake pads and the street tires (Yoko AVS) that it came with and use the limited grip as a training tool.  

Again, I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.  And I appreciate your patience at my long-winded post.

George

Santa Rosa, California

[ian crocker]

Hi George.  I've got a seight that I use for sprints and hills which is similar to your autox.  It is usual to have more camber up front that on the back.  2.5 degrees negative for the front is a good startign point on radials.  Your spring rates sound quite reasonable as do your toe settings.  The std sump is rubbish for combatting surge.  Have a look at my web site (www.seight.com) for info on better sumps.  Obviously an accusump greatly helps.  I too had problems with side-hung floats.  I now use centre-hung units and have no problems.

If you want to private mail me I can put you in contact with a couple of other seight owners in California.

Cheers,

Ian