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ISSUE ONE 2011
STFIELD WORLD THE MAGAZINE OF THE WESTFIELD SPORTS CAR CLUB
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CHAIRMAN'S RAMBLINGS hank God all the snow has gone, at least from my neck of the woods in Staffordshire anyway. Thanks also to my good wife (aka "the small angry woman") for lending me her intrepid 4x4 Suzuki Vitara for about two weeks. This enabled me to ferry my staff around to my key clients in some of the more remote parts of the county. I was truly amazed at where this little 2 litre diesel took me when the second gearstick was engaged in low ratio diff lock - and I think the guy in the lorry that I helped to tow up a hill was surprised too. I hope the snow didn't cause you too many problems. We just had the one burst pipe in an outbuilding, but I know of people who came home to ceilings down and all sorts. I hope all is well with you. I expect most of you have your trusty j Westfields and other exotica SORN'd at I this time of year like me? I am doing the
usual checking and fettling of stuff in grey-haired old bloke hanging around the preparation for another year in the WSCC bar with an empty glass, if we have not Speed Series. My fettling consists of an met yet... oil change and a good polish - kick the There have been a few comments tyres and off we go. Hope to get into my forwarded to me regarding our annual first event of the new season at Castle WSCC Track Day events and I feel the Combe in March - never been there, so need to explain what is happening, should be fun — so look forward to seeing particularly for those who do not have you there if you are going. access to the WSCC Boardroom. Of course, the prime event in the In short, we are faced with a number near future is the WSCC Annual Dinner of hurdles in trying to organise these and Dance incorporating the 2010 Speed events; costs are increasing sharply Series Awards Ceremony. This will be/ and (the most important) insurance for was (depending on when you get this these events is becoming an issue. No issue!!) held on February 5th at the Moor doubt most of you will have noticed that Hall Hotel in Sutton Coldfield, probably the cosy village bonfire party no longer starting at around 2:00pm if previous takes place on November 5th due to years are any measure! 'Health and Safety' clauses in their Public I am delighted to report that a number Liability insurance? Well - we are up of non-Speed Series members will be against similar issues — but more so joining the event - all can be sure of a as "motor sport is dangerous"! In light very warm welcome. BTW, I am the fat of this, we are looking to partner with
COVER PICTURE
a reputable Track Day organiser(s) to bring you the same amount of fun and track time, along with track guidance I if you need it. So, please bear with us and we will communicate the venues and dates as soon as we have finalised the arrangements. So ladies and gents, whether your I pleasure is competing in the Speed Series or you simply take pleasure from your ownership of your 'special' car, it's time to polish off the spanners, get the oil change stuff organised and gear up for a blisteringly hot spring and summer which i will last from March 1st to November 31st. I I have it on good authority that this will definitely happen! Whatever you do - drive safely and I look forward to meeting you sometime soon. Paul Edden
IN THIS ISSUE:
No, it's not the 'Ring -it's the Charade circuit at Clermont Ferrand in France. Site of the French GP in 1965, 1969, 1970 and 1972. During the 1972 race a stone thrown up by Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus hit Helmut Marko in the eye ending his, and the circuit's, F1 career. Considerably shorter now than the original 8 km lap, Charade is still a challenging drive and was one of four circuits visited during the Cotswold area's French Frolics tour of France which you can read about on page 2.
Chairman's Ramblings
1
Les Quatres Mousquetaires
2
Anti-roll bars - the theory
4
Drive a Westfield?
5 6
Around the World — news from the Area Organisers
14
ECU - DIY or not? NMS Pre-sales check
16
Classified Ads
20
Area Contact Details
21
WSCC COMMITTEE MEMBERS
COPY DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE:
CHAIRMAN
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FRIDAY, MARCH 18th. 2011
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The disclaimer bit... No material or photographs etc. that appear in Westfield World may be reproduced, in any form whatsoever without prior permission of the committee. Westfield World is published in good faith, and the views expressed therein are not necessarily those held by the Editor or Committee. The Club, Committee, Editor or contributors cannot be held liable for any loss, injury or damage alleged to have been caused by following advice contained in this publication. Where appropriate names have been changed to protect the guilty. The Westfield Sports Car Club logo and the MSA logo are registered trade marks and must not be used without prior permission.
WESTFIELD WORLD - ISSUE ONE 2011
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DRIVE A WESTFIELD? "I'd rather eat wasps!" — Reflections on a Fifth Gear track test, by RobWharton to their point allocation system (albeit by 'nter had arrivecl- lt;was a dark> cold November Friday night the smallest of margins). The Westfield but at least I could sit down Sport Turbo was therefore crowned Car I at the end of a tiring week and watch of the Year. the Fifth Gear test of the Westfield Sport So, just what did happen at the Fifth [ Turbo with eager anticipation. Gear track test? To me, it's a lot to do The car may have had the Vauxhall with context. The CKC reviewers are I Astra VXR turbo engine but the colour first of all enthusiasts of the kit-car scheme and FW bodywork was similar to scene, they are also very experienced I my recently completed Duratec version, at driving such cars, unlike Jason Plato so I felt a degree of attachment to the who will have very significant experience I featured car. of driving race cars and supercars Jason Plato was at the helm and he indeed, he probably owns one (one at I was duly despatched with said Westfield least!). j to a bleak, grey, wind-swept track. Some There is the obvious question of I lappery ensued, followed by a drag whether the Fifth Gear car was properly start with the real Astra, and then his prepared. The interior components ' conclusions: "I'd rather eat wasps than as manipulated by Jason did seem drive a Westfield on the road." rather naff. The problems with throttle N e e d l e s s to say I was a tad Iresponse and turbo power delivery were disappointed. Was driving a Westfield I not highlighted by the CKC reviewers, ! really that bad? Did Mr Plato know but | of course, that's not to say it wasn't anything about the kit-car scene? Were | an issue, especially on track. his vilifications of build quality, handling, j Perhaps one of the most disconcerting throttle responsiveness, and showroom Iaspects of the Plato test were his car cost fair? It set me thinking. comments on build quality on a car As readers of Complete Kit Car (CKC) • costing £25,000. As we all know, as a magazine will know, ironically Tiff J kit-car any given Westy can be poorly Needell (a fellow Fifth Gear presenter) and hastily built, or it can be well put has recently begun writing a regular together. When all parts are new and monthly column in said mag. Perhaps factory fresh there is really no excuse his approach would have been a little other than having a finished car that's more sympathetic, or was Jason Plato fully fit for purpose. And there's the rub. just being coldly objective about what What is the purpose of a Westfield? he found? Firstly, of course, in essence the In January 2010 CKC reviewed the Westfield borrows heavily from the Lotus Westfield Sports Turbo, together with the 7 heritage. Exposure to the elements and Gardner Douglas GD427 and MEV's Sonic flimsy 'doors' is how it is on a car like 7. The Westfield Turbo in this case was this. When purchasing any Westfield you said to deliver 195 bhp and therefore not buy into that heritage of un-cosseted, as powerful as the Fifth Gear test car. bare-bones motoring in which you The magazine writers described it as: enjoy the premium of low weight, high power and significant performance. It "A very well-considered installation for a turn-key car." The handling was said to is also true that any vehicle produced without production car manufacturing have been characterised by: "Superlative spring/damper balance, a firm but tolerances will need a degree of fettling controlled ride, precise steering and an to maximize potential. overall wholly accomplished feel." The When it comes to cost, yes £25,000 is interior is described as "exceptional", a lot of money for a car like a Westfield the dash mouldings as "superb", and the but so is the amount you'd pay for a trim finish "exemplary". Caterham which has it's own quirky build In summary they considered the features. What you spend on buying a Westfield the best of the three according car is about the person paying the price.
The journey took a long ten hours, longer for Chris V whose satnav took him to the top of a nearby mountain, so it was great relief to reach our luxury hotel where we enjoyed two days of great food, comfortable rooms and not having to get up early! We played tennis of a kind and frolicked in the pool
There are plenty of beautiful classic cars that you could pay big bucks for yet would have poor acceleration, handling, braking etc. and would therefore not be a rewarding drive for many of us. Ultimately a turnkey vehicle from a small volume manufacturer is bound to be more expensive than a production sports car; not that, to my mind, you can really form a valid comparison as the starting basis is so wildly different. Surely the whole point in buying a Westfield is to purchase it as a kit so that you can give it its own unique character by way of colour, trim, body shape, mechanicals and budget? Certainly the desirability of a Westfield as a car that can be custom built and specified was lost on our Fifth Gear presenter. The discrepancy between Fifth Gear and Complete Kit Car reviews of, what should be, two similar cars does call into question modern TV car journalism. As we all know Top Gear has changed significantly over the last decade or so. Gordon Murray recently described the programme as more to do with entertainment than cars; enough said. S So what of Fifth Gear's approach? The opening feature of the episode containing the Westfield track test showed Tiff comparing the Dodge Challenger and Chevy Camaro. It now seems de rigueur that any test involves little more than thrashing the nuts of a car on the race track. It's difficult not to conclude that much of the essence of these programmes involves simply having car fun. Nothing wrong with that, but if a car doesn't deliver your anticipated fun trip is that necessarily the fault of the car? Perhaps the approach tells us something of the presenters themselves. How can there be much balance in a programme in which the top three presenters are either professional or amateur race drivers? Their whole attitude of testing the merits of any car will be slanted. Little wonder that most conclusions about a vehicle become centred around how it performs on a race track. How is this relevant for anything other than a
before departing to catch the Monday evening Santander ferry. This is a truly luxurious ferry compared to the crosschannel ones and we disembarked at Portsmouth for the drive home after a wonderful motoring holiday experience.
Imagining being a 1960's F1 Pilots on the Charade circuit
WESTFIELD WORLD - ISSUE ONE 2011
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car specifically designed and marketed j for track day use? It would be interesting to know I whether Fifth Gear has reviewed any similar cars to the Westfield. There are j two Caterham tests on their website. One involves Vicki Butler-Henderson j track testing (what else?) a Lotus Exige vs a Caterham. This really didn't tell us much about the Caterham other than it I was indecently quick and at high speed | the hood fasteners came adrift. The second was Tiff delivering organ i donor parts to hospitals on a hot summer | day. This was supposedly to assess the | cars practicality. We learnt that Tiff enjoyed using an open top car on a sunny j day and that he had a sore elbow from j resting it on the side panel edge as he | drove. All very illuminating! No doubt j the Fifth Gear series editors would tell | us that we shouldn't take these things I too seriously. The concern for a small volume manufacturer like Westfield is that too high a proportion of viewers may take the contrary attitude i.e. Westfields are rubbish because Jason Plato says so, to paraphrase. So, are our beloved Westfields above criticism? Of course not. However TV personalities like Jeremy Clarkson can rubbish Vauxhalls or any other multinational car manufacturer and it would have little if any effect on lost sales. But when a UK-based, vulnerable, small volume manufacturer is reviewed on national television without any thought to the heritage on which the car calls, the context of the car's construction and the appropriateness of only assessing the worth of the car through a track test on a cold autumn day, it cannot be regarded as anything other than, at best, TV car fodder and at worst poor, irresponsible journalism. A Westfield is a car for enthusiasts to enjoy building, driving or racing. So the initiated amongst us will be looking forward to spring days and summer blats!
ROUND THE WORLD News from the WSCC Areas
See Page 21 for area meet and contact details
Black Country www.wscc.org.uk
F
irst of all I would like to wish everyone a happy New Year; I hope Santa brought you lots of | Westfield related goodies! Our December meeting was cancelled as our Christmas meal was only a couple I of days prior to it. Everyone had a good i time and enjoyed the seasonal carvery and the odd drink or two, we were also ! pleased to have Dave and Val Preston I join us from the Warwickshire Area - We
must be doing something right! I must say, looking back at the photo's of out Xmas do it did strike me how fast the Black Country Area members are
thieving benefit cheats, waste etc, it | I has pushed the price of petrol to almost | www.wscc-bathandbristol.co.uk £1.27 per litre! When I first started | driving it was 'fill it up' or a pounds \ • I ^ell, 2010 was not the best year j worth, which ever came first. Now on ; ^f^f for the area with a combination i my road car we are talking £100 fill ups. " of work, members selling cars, i So if we look at a typical track day : ; and accidents all conspiring to make the ' especially if you add on tow costs will ; : year less active than we would like. be something like this, As the recession and spending cuts etc Entrance £150 bite I suspect this year will see more of : Travel £100 ' the same as those still in work look at Fuel on track £60 what they can do. Food £25 As I write, between the bloodsucking Total £335 oil producers, the immoral oil profiteers This probably applies to the Speed pushing the price up by speculating and Series guys as well, but every month at the government taking a huge slice of least, so it is easy to see why we have tax to pay for unmarried chavs with kids, so many people selling cars as spirited
Bristol & Bath
Cambridgeshire www.wscc.co.uk/area/cambridge have sat in front the keyboard now for about 20 minutes and I'll have to / admit that I'm pretty stuck for copy for this issue of WW. Our last meeting was on the 24th October as reported in the last copy of WW and since then little has happened. The meetings for November and December were cancelled due to lack of numbers, and the Xmas awards bash was also canned because I couldn't get a date that suited enough of the regulars to make it worthwhile doing (even though there was plenty of interest over the three dates that I'd put forward) On Sunday 9th Jan Mark J, Langly and Cleggy managed to get a blat out and about the B660 area and, judging by the pics that Cleggy posted up, they had a good afternoon's entertainment. Mark reports that his Westy is quicker then Cleggy's STI but had a shade less traction which made keeping up on the greasy roads a bit of a challenge. Elsewhere Jason let Mark J do a bit of work on his car. Now the last time this happened I ended up fitting a new set of cycle wings to it so Jason obviously hasn't wised up yet. The first I got know about this was via a 'phone call from Mark (whilst I was working in my own garage on the single seater) asking the best way to fit
PAGE 6
new terminals to Jason's battery leads as he'd fitted a gel battery and a few things needed modding. Once I'd persuaded him that mole grips and a hammer were probably not the best option for crimping up the terminals and pointed him in the direction of a blowlamp and solder in the absence of a set of pucker cable crimpers he seemed happy be able to justify to Jason that he did indeed need to "play with fire" to get the job done. I exited my own garage at about 10:30pm and in the absence of an orange crimson glow in the sky from the general direction of Peterborough took it that a) all had gone well, b) Jason bottled out and had wrestled the blowlamp and matches from Mark's grasp and sent him home c) Jason had managed to douse the flames himself and was filling in the insurance claim forms d) Jason had booked the car in with Troy to do the Job. It was not until a few days later that Mark called me up and said the job had all gone well and that he'd measured, cut, filed drilled and riveted exactly as he'd been taught and that Jason didn't in fact need a new car as a result and was pleased with the work. Has mark turned a new leaf for the new year?????? Tony (Housebutition) entrusted his Pinto SEiW to Dave (LocoRI) to have the head and block re-conditioned as the car had been doing a passable impression of a battle ship laying down a diversionary
maturing (me included). I half expected to see a 'Ring & Ride' bus on the car park as we left. I also decided to cancel our January
meeting, because it clashed with the New Year weekend and I felt most people would still have too much alcohol in their systems to drive. Looking ahead, you'll find the 2011 Black Country Area events page is now on our website: www.wscc.org.uk. It's not complete, and will be added to/ amended as new events are announced. That's about it. Here's hoping for a great summer. Don
driving on the road costs much, much more if you lose your licence. So why do we still have people committed to them and buying new builds? Well I think it because if you compare with other hobbies it still gives good value. A track day gives eight hours of fun, a football match cost £60 for 90 minutes for example and you have nothing to show for it. At the end of the track day you still have a car. The pleasure of driving, the pride in ownership is priceless to many 1i including me. 2011 will hopefully see more activities that we do as a group with several track days in the planning. We have two new members who are starting builds and Rob
Crossland whose first year in the speed | series has seen the bug bite. At the moment his car is stripped j down for top secret modifications to get | even more speed and drivability out of his car ready for the first day of the new j season at Castle Combe in March. Many others members have completed ] upgrades and rebuilds over the last month, so as you see not all is doom and gloom in • the world and if the long term forecasts ; are correct we may even have some good • weather to look forward to as well. I look forward to seeing some of you out and about this year. Jeff
smokescreen for a while (that and it running a bit rich made it a bit difficult to follow as your eyes would start to water and you eventually passed out due to oxygen starvation) Tony picked the car up at the beginning of January and reported that Dave had done his usual high quality work and it was running better then ever. Dave had even got around to painting up the block and giving the engine bay a bit of a tidy to boot. This is just another example of the area cooperation that is common with the Cambs chaps. Dave has welded, cleaned and re-built this and that over the last few years and there are plenty of us that have him to thank for keeping us on the road. Mark J has been busy splitting coolant hoses covering the car in coolant in the process, it seems that stopping the leaks is rather like pushing a bubble down on a bit of badly hung wall paper, it just pops up elsewhere, same with the leaks. Still the thing is hardly ever below 7,000 rpm so maybe it's just fair wear and tear I have sent Emails to all the regular chaps about what we would like to be doing in 2011 and have had a good response, the next meeting is on 30th Jan and from then on we'll be putting in a mid-week meeting on the 2nd Wednesday of each month so February's meetings will be on Wednesday February 9th at 6pm at the Old Ferryboat and Sunday Feb 27th again at the Old
Ferryboat (time TBA) If you would like to be added to the Email list please email me at chazpowerslide@hotmail.com. Please include your mobile number in the email if you want to be added to my SMS texting list. The first 'official' run out will be on Sunday March 27th which will be a brekkies run to the Comfy Cafe at Burnham Deepdale, we usually meet up with a few of the Norfolk Chaps on this one so it's usually a good meeting. I picked up my car from the selling agent at the beginning of the month, taxed it and have vowed to get some use out of it for the next six months, sort out the few remaining niggling issues and learn to drive it again. Getting back in after six months was like getting to know an old friend again and a gentle drive home became a spirited blat across some of my favourite A and B roads in the Haverhill/ Cambs area. Since then I have had a few runs out with the kids and a couple of blats on my own and have thoroughly enjoyed myself so I'm really looking forward the next few months of Westy driving. I'm hoping to have more to report in the next issue of WW and should be able to publish a rough calendar for the coming year. A belated Happy New Year to you all, stay safe and enjoy your driving. Chaz.
www.wscc.co.uk
WESTFIELD WORLD - ISSUE ONE 2011
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WESTFIELD WORLD - ISSUE ONE 2011
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