dern Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 (edited) I'll try and put something back after crashing your thread... hopefully it's not complete nonsense The xflow car had a live axle and the v8 had independent rear suspension and there was insufficient difference between them to make me favour one over the other... or at least to favour a car with one over a car with the other if there was some other differentiator. I've had a xflow car with a windscreen and a v8 without and I would always want one without now. I know an aeroscreen can be a bit of a faff what with the open to the elements feel of it and the wearing of a lid but I found the turbulence caused by screen was a major pain... especially if you wear glasses. The weather protection of the hood was pretty lousy too and I found that the combination of an aeroscreen, decent lid with antifogging, a waterproof bike suit and holes drilled in the floor so you don't drown preferable to dicking about with the hood and doors. This is bound to be down to personal preference though and I guess (I haven't done it) that converting from a full windscreen to an aeroscreen would be pretty straight forward. My v8 came with an aeroscreen fitted but all the full screen, wiper assembly and hood came with it. There was a ready demand for all that stuff and selling it would have easily covered the cost of an aeroscreen. I'd definitely be happy to buy a car with a screen but would convert it more or less immediately. Edited January 17, 2012 by dern Quote
rocket_rabbit Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 I've had a xflow car with a windscreen and a v8 without and I would always want one without now. I know an aeroscreen can be a bit of a faff what with the open to the elements feel of it and the wearing of a lid but I found the turbulence caused by screen was a major pain... especially if you wear glasses. The weather protection of the hood was pretty lousy too and I found that the combination of an aeroscreen, decent lid with antifogging, a waterproof bike suit and holes drilled in the floor so you don't drown preferable to dicking about with the hood and doors. I agree with this BTW. The screen is a good idea I suppose if you are staying under 70. After that it starts to get bad and the turbulence is awful over 110. Quote
matt nossiter Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 Are you having to use an exhaust silencer to meet Bedford noise restrictions ? The driveby limit is fairly low. Mine has got a simpson manifold and 7" wide , 30" long ( with cat ) silencer and a reverie airbox ducted to the nose cone . Last time I was at Bedford it they measured it at 100db static but its never failed on driveby and I did Donington last year and it was fine on driveby there . Quote
cosmick Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 So it seems there are loads of options out there for these cars - live rear axle or independant, wide track suspension, windscreen, reverse, some have sequential shifter, ive seen some on u-tube with flappy padle shift. Any thoughts on must haves ? Steves (Johnson) Megabusa has paddle shift and no reverse gear and has been built minimalist by him. My car was a factory built item that I bought from the original owner.It has a conventional gear lever 1st forwards and 2nd to 6th back. It also has reverse. Since buying it, i have slowly but methodically worked my way through all of the "not so nice" problems and improved the car to just about perfect. Many BEC people complain or comment on harsh clutch operation making it difficult to pull away smoothly. This was the first item i worked on and it now pulls away easily with no violent engagement. The throttle was also modified to operate with more pedal movement making that aid good and controlled operation. I Track day my car a lot and I was concerned about very loud induction noise and fitted an original Hayabusa airbox. This collects air through the V8 bonnet scoop and is totally silent. For road use I fitted larger diameter rear wheels 205/60x15 to reduce the RPM in all gears. This makes 70 MPH now at 5800 RPM. Still high in comparison to a CEC but very manageable and does not get on my nerves. For the track, I have 205/60x13 wheels which is ideal for most circuits. Quote
Rory's Dad Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 I agree with this BTW. The screen is a good idea I suppose if you are staying under 70. After that it starts to get bad and the turbulence is awful over 110. I disagree - I have some smallish wind deflectors and my glasses stay on at all sorts of speeds!! Rory's Dad Quote
dern Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 I disagree - I have some smallish wind deflectors and my glasses stay on at all sorts of speeds!! Rory's Dad I forgot about those... have you got any pictures of them? I had to resort to putting the doors on my old car to stop my glasses vibrating around... which made life 'exciting'. Quote
Johnson Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 Waves at Mick . Very well summed up there mate. You didnt mention you need legs like a scrum half to work your clutch :d Just to add to the wind issue,I can drive in sunglasses quite happily with my aeroscreen although on my old car that had a full screen I did get a bit of turbulence but nothing to worry about. I guess at all depends on your height,seating position and probably the screen angle. Quote
Superleggera Posted January 18, 2012 Author Posted January 18, 2012 Thanks for all the info so far. Hopefulyl weather this weekend is okay so can have a nose Steve's car Quote
Superleggera Posted January 21, 2012 Author Posted January 21, 2012 Steve. Really appreciate you taking me out for a drive today !!! Was really impressed with your car and the attention to detail. Will have to do a bit more research and then start looking for a car : ) Quote
alex07715 Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) I'm crashing this thread I know but........................ I'm in the exact same position as Superleggera! I want a Caterham/Westfield but that's all I know so far. I'm currently wondering what I want the car for, maybe a Megabusa is the way to go as I intend to use it on the road, the track and maybe in the future, sprints and hillclimbs. It seems you need a Caterham R300 to equal a Megabusa on performance and the 2 are quite a way apart on price! Edited February 28, 2012 by alex07715 Quote
GreigM Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 I'd say it depends on exactly where your road/track balance is - while perfectly usable on the road I'd say you don't want to do long drives in a BEC, short twisty blasts are great but on long runs the high revs, vibrations and poor fuel economy will irritate, but on the track the pointy nature and sequential box of the BEC is a very fun combination. On the track, as you say you need to be in at LEAST an R300 to get the same performance, and a well driven one at that, you'll easily find yourself hanging in there with the quickest at all but the longest circuits (where speeds above 115 are common - not really an issue in the UK except perhaps Silverstone but I really only felt the lack of top-end was a problem at Spa). On the busa vs blade - I've owned both and there really isn't a comparison here, the busa is hugely quicker - the blade really struggles from a lack of torque to pull you out of the corners and it just felt somewhat underpowered in comparison. Don't get me wrong, its still going to be up there with the quickest on a trackday, but side by side the busa is quite a bit better. Cost wise on blade vs busa - a lot of people will say the blade is good enough without being dry sumped and this is perhaps true, but I managed to kill two engines due to oil starvation and was just about to fit an accusump before I moved to the busa. The busa MUST be dry sumped for track, but that itself is complicated, and if done poorly can be problematic in breakdowns, however I do believe that a well set up busa with a good dry sump will be very reliable. In all BECs you need to be careful of the gearbox - I would recommend a flatshifter/trickshifter unless you're very adept at heel/toe (I don't know how anyone could be in a westfield with the horrible pedal arrangement) as even using the clutch is hard on the box, especially coming down the gears...its also easy to miss a gear and overrev etc. I have an aeroscreen, and would always wear at least a facemask....its not about wind, its about the stones/insects you hit at high speed....they f'in hurt! Noise is an issue....my car came with the standard WF silencer with its packing knackered and it was making 110db. After some acoustafil packing it was still 106db, so I went to a local exhaust place and they made a custom silencer with two oval silencers in series...did the job and now get 103db, but would like something more like matt's above, but would mean a custom manifold and a lot of ££££s. Overall it IS a cheap way to be very quick on track, but can be a bit of a process to get the car reliable for track...I'm hoping this year will be my year of reliability (but not off to a good start because of an electrical issue) as I'm starting with a rebuilt engine (full new shells, bearings, gears, selector forks, new dry sump system, new cooling system etc etc). Quote
Terry Everall Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 The 08 blade engine has a slipper clutch and is believed to be easier on the gearbox and it has about 2000rpm more than the Busa My 1548 busa was ballistic so I am waiting to see how good my blade will be in comparison Quote
alex07715 Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 The 02 Megabusa I just looked at has a Westfield wet sump kit fitted and it has been like this from new, it has been tracked a lot, as much use on track as off. I don't know about the wet sump setup but it's lasted 10 years so far so.................... I don't know what they are worth either!!! Quote
Terry Everall Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 Never herad of a westfield wet sump. Factory cars etc all had dry sump system AFAIK Quote
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