Sam_68 Posted June 28, 2009 Posted June 28, 2009 Ian, I see from a thread on the 'Cars for Sale' board that you have recently sold your FW400? Not being a WSCC member, I can't post on that part of the forums, but if you know the new owner, it might be helpful for him if you could put me in touch. I own one of the other two FW400's still in this country and recently bought all remaining spares from the factory. There's not a huge amount of stuff, but you never know if I might have something that would come in handy to keep one of the other cars running. Similar invitation to Paul Bayes - if you want to get in touch, Paul, I'd be happy to hear from you! Quote
rob iles Posted June 28, 2009 Posted June 28, 2009 Saw one for sale today at Supercar Sunday Think it belongs to one of the Northampton boys........ Nice looking mota Quote
Sam_68 Posted June 28, 2009 Author Posted June 28, 2009 What colour was it, Rob? Paul is the Northampton boy with the FW. I know Ian has just sold his, 'cos he said as much on the 'For Sale' board, and I was under the impression that there's only mine, Paul's and Ian's old car left in the UK. Of the six built, one was allegedly written off and I know that two went to Japan. Quote
RichP Posted June 28, 2009 Posted June 28, 2009 Give Chris Elworthy a shout - he might be able to put you in touch. Quote
Sam_68 Posted June 29, 2009 Author Posted June 29, 2009 Certainly sounds like Paul Bayes car, if it was bright orange. Unless I'm getting my cars confused, Ian's was a sort of metallic copper colour - although I suppose that could qualify as orange? Funny that Paul is quoted on the 'for sale' forum as saying he has no intention of selling at the moment. Are you here to confirm or deny, Mr Bayes!? Quote
fw400 Posted June 30, 2009 Posted June 30, 2009 hi guys it's paul here. I own the the Orange fw400 that used to be green, Ian had the copper one and Sam's I think is a sort of ice blue. There was actually 5 cars only ever made acording to westfields records, and I have this in writing from the factorys archives ,service and registered records. If sam would like to email me at pabayes@aol.com ile give you my number and send you some history of the cars. Thanks guys all the best happy blatting out there. fw400 Quote
Sam_68 Posted June 30, 2009 Author Posted June 30, 2009 Paul, Thanks for your reply - YHM. My car was indeed originally ice blue, but it's currently silver with bare carbon fibre 'slashes' on the rear bodywork and carbon wings/mudguards. I'm thinking about respraying it either metallic Jaguar F1 green (similar to the colour your car used to be, in fact) or TVR Paradise Purple at the moment, though, because some of the bare carbon on the bodywork (though not the tub, fortunately) has started to cloud a little due to UV exposure. Quote
fw400 Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Im also thinking of putting my cars paint back to the original green, as i have lots of magazines that it was featured in back in 1999. You can't beat the original speck that it was in, then every body knows it's that car from that magazine or tv series that it was featured in. Auto car featured the Ice blue one in the 0-100-0 in 1999 when it took first place at 13.7 secs and waisted the Caterham superlight R which only achived 17 sec. I have a Copy of this issue in my collection of history. Everybody who reads AutoCar magazine will remeber that event in History, It was the final Straw that Forced Caterham to build the R 500. As mine had previously set top gears fastest ever 0-60 in 3.6 secs earlier that year. Caterham fort back with R 500 and pipped the 0-60 time with the yellow 7duo R500 setting a 3.53 secs time ,then Westfield Came back in Top gear magazine with a race at BrandsHatch indy against the Current Touring car Champion in the Honda accord touring car,Westfield had Rob Gravett the previous touring car champion driving my green fw400. The conditions were wet so the Touring car won the day, as it had tyre warmers and front wheel drive which gave it the edge putting the power down out of the corners. But!! even Honda will admit they were worried!! one of Westfields machanics that was there, I think his name was Russel told me that they did it again later in the dry and it was different story. But this was not published. If you ask me I remember that car for being famous in Ice Blue the same as mine was green, thats why later this year you'll se mine back to its original colour. Its a Historic car along with mine in the war against Caterham, what dose everybody else think. Quote
fw400 Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Oh!! buy the way guys Mines not for sale, It's to F**king Knarley to sell, Im never selling it, Im even thinking of being burried in it so I drive it in hell or heaven, which ever I don't care !!! I was at super car sunday but with No for sale sign. Its Ian's copper coloured one that's for sale, I think That they put a link to The Northants area website to show details obout my car, I think thats why everybody thinks it's me. If this car is for sale Still Buy it, it's a steal at £15,000 They used to be £39.950 new. There Sh*t fast, Even my mate's 202 Bhp genuine horse power tuned Black bird engined westy STILL can't catch mine. It's currenly has Been kicked off Silverstone full Gp Circuit after 15laps for being to loud 112Dbs at 6000 rpms I didn't dare take it to over 8000 out of sheer embarisment. But It did Kick the a**es of a Brand new 911 turbo a ferrari 360 and a Noble m12 before she left. Awsome car!! Rare Chance to buy if it's still there ! Quote
Sam_68 Posted July 1, 2009 Author Posted July 1, 2009 Yeah, I take your point about the originality of the Ice Blue. It's just a bit too close to the current silver (which I think was achieved by swapping the bodywork rather than a respray) - if I'm going to the expense of a respaint, I fancy something with a bit more of a difference. I'm not against the idea of developing the car, anyway - I'm looking at the possibility of softening off the suspension a bit for road use, changing to lightweight carbon seats (the originals weighs a ton and the driver's has an irrelevant adjustable subframe - presumably fitted because it was a demonstrator/press car) and maybe even replacing the LD200 Hewland with a JFR 6-speed sequential. Things have moved on a bit with K-series tuning, so 230bhp+ ought to be available with a bit more reliability and lower cost than the original R500's, too. The thing that I find most impressive with the road test acceleration is the fact that it was achieved with a really tall 1st gear and an awkward dog-leg change from 1st to 2nd. I reckon with the extra ratio to widen the range of the gearing a bit, and a sequential change, it ought to get a bit closer to the original computed 0-60 time of 3.1 seconds. Definitely stupid quick for road use, though. Quote
fw400 Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 Yeah my original engine went pop the other year, PTP in Hinkley at Leicester developed the engines originally for Rover for the 200 race series, I took mine back there they built it's original engine. I even managed to get the same guy who built the original one to build me a new one, they've lerned a few things since the first one and cured a lot of the old faults. It took two weeks to do it from scratch, weighing each part compairing it to the next one, grinding some off to get it identical so every thing was balanced perfect and so on. I have pictures of it all. Perfomance and output plus more reliability was achived though, never missed a beat since. The gearbox could definiatly do with a seqencial with padle shift on the track though, having to take your hand off the wheel mid corner to knock it through with no cluch is a bit aqkward. A friend of mine owns and races a jordan 197 in the Euro Boss Championships, we ran the gearbox on that without the paddle shift one year to give the less advanced cars a chance and cost over 3 secs a lap. Mine at the min I think has a smaller final drive on it as it's doing 5000 revs at 70 mph and currently tops out at 120 via satnav. I think they messed with it for a few different track sessions but never put it back to stock. Quote
Sam_68 Posted July 2, 2009 Author Posted July 2, 2009 Yes, you've definitely got a much shorter final drive than me, then - I've seen 136mph on Sat Nav. What's the selection like on your gearbox? The gate going down from 4th to 3rd can be a bit hit-and-miss on mine; I'm wondering if I need a slightly stronger detent spring? Quote
moomin Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 I have nothing much to add to this conversation, other than to say that I have always wanted one! I had a close-ish look at the orange one which was for sale at the factory (I think the silver one may have been at around the same time?) when I bought my kit in 2002. Having had my megabird for 7 years now, I want a '400 even more, and if I had gotten off my backside and sold my car, I would have been very tempted by Ian's. That is all - I am suitably jealous of you guys - let me know when hell freezes over and you want to sell! moomin Quote
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