JohnCh

Hmm... I wonder if there is some money to be made by auctioning off bans and pardons on Ebay? I may have found a new way to finance upgrades!

I smell a ban coming...

I sent Don a PM last weekend with the interior dimensions for my SEiW, but never heard back. -John

Martin, try this: Click to User CP in upper left hand corner Click on Edit Options abut half way down the left hand navigation Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the last drop box located in the Miscellaneous Options section. What is this set to? If it is set to Basic Editor, then this is the problem. Change it to Enhanced Interface and all will be revealed. -John

Keep it. Just find an equivalent for Ford, Honda, et al. BTW what does this one mean? :svengo: -John

Hey, what's this one doing here?:Chevy_anim: Some of us have Fords under the bonnet! :rant: :jester: -John

Ever wonder what would happen if you placed a quarter inside a coil of wire that was hooked up to really, really big capacitors, and then you discharged them very rapidly? Well… http://intellectualventureslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/qs1.jpg -John

I'm pretty sure the Protechs have a 10 or 13 click range. Definitely more than 5 though. If I am reading your post right and you are running the Protechs full hard, then definitely dial them back. I am running the rear either 2 or 4 clicks (can't remember which at the moment) softer than the fronts and the fronts are somewhere between 1/2 - 3/4 from full soft. Like you I am also running 180# springs out back. By any chance do you notice your car pulls to one side if you are at freeway speeds and lift off the throttle, and then pulls to the other side if you accelerate? I’m just wondering if part of the problem is worn suspension bushings. -John

I’m not a suspension expert, but I’m not sure alignment is the cure for problems with standing start acceleration. I’ve never heard of anyone having the problem you describe and that includes people running insane amounts of power. Do you have an open or limited slip differential? Are your rear suspension bushings all in good shape? As for toe out vs. toe in up front, I find that a little bit of toe out helps with turn in and I don’t find it makes things objectionable at speed in a straight line. YMMV. “10 min Out” means 10 minutes toe out. -John

Unfortunately caster is fixed unless you upgrade to rosejointed suspension arms. -John

Here is a chart I put together. The first 5 rows are factory recommendations for the various models. The last three rows are recommendations I have received from others who have experimented quite a bit. I am currently running the Fraser (street) settings which are a vast improvement over SEiW specs I had run before. Definitely heavy on the front camber, but I am not running ARBs and the tread wear isn’t that bad. BTW one thing I have discovered the hard way is that Westfields are very sensitive to rake. Make sure you measure that carefully. http://john15.web.officelive.com/Documents/alignmentspecs.jpg Cheers, John

Al, don't make the mistake of assuming that I actually know what I am talking about -John

I’ll send you a PM tonight or over the weekend with the measurements. -John

Sorry to hear about your friend’s husband. It’s nice of you to help out. Do you know the year of the chassis? Based on some of the details like the windscreen pillars, it looks like a ’96-’99 car, but I can’t read the digit between the 9 and the S on the VIN plate (if the VIN convention is the same as mine, the two numbers before the SEI denote the chassis year). One thing that does seem a little odd is that the VIN contains the string SEI not SEIW. Westfield used to offer two different chassis: the SEI commonly referred to as the narrow body and the SEIW known as the wide body. The latter offered more interior room and eventually became the only option. Given your VIN, I would ordinarily assume that you have a narrow body, but I had heard that Bob Yarwood (the US distributor at the time) only imported the SEIW. As with any small manufacturer, exceptions are the rule when it comes to these kind of things so the VIN string could be a variable. I am happy to take some measurements from my car so you can determine which version you have. Assuming that it is a stock engine as supplied by Yarwood, then you probably have a 1700cc crossflow with stock head and a Kent 234 cam. He claimed 145hp for that configuration, but 115-120hp is closer to the mark. Not the fastest thing in the world (R&T clocked that spec from 0-60mph in 6.1 seconds) but it sounds fantastic at full throttle! As for price… Very hard to say. Assuming it is a ’96, Yarwood sold that spec new for about $25k. I’ve seen a couple like yours go for mid teens over the last year, but also one that was under $10k (someone got a deal). It’s really a function of how quickly you want to sell it, and timing it right – a little tougher in the current economy. -John

Now does anyone want to guess whose car I drove? -John

I've driven a Caterham with the Freestyle inboard front suspension. Very, very impressive. -John

If you’ve ever wondered how well a roll cage works in a se7en, then check out the photos below taken at last week’s Westfield Race Series at Zandvoort in the Netherlands. Apparently the driver was uninjured. http://www.autosport.nl/cms/images/stories/2009/Nationaal/DNRT/Westfield%20Cup/Crash-Hutzezon/480_westfield_koprol1.jpg http://www.autosport.nl/cms/images/stories/2009/Nationaal/DNRT/Westfield%20Cup/Crash-Hutzezon/480_westfield_koprol2.jpg http://www.autosport.nl/cms/images/stories/2009/Nationaal/DNRT/Westfield%20Cup/Crash-Hutzezon/480_westfield_koprol3.jpg http://www.autosport.nl/cms/images/stories/2009/Nationaal/DNRT/Westfield%20Cup/Crash-Hutzezon/480_westfield_koprol4.jpg Photos were blatantly lifted from here. -John

I’m seriously interested, but also seriously unable to pull the trigger for at least another year. Damn economy -John

Did you see the other XI on that site listed as due in soon? I’m in lust. http://www.pd-go.com/images-pdgo/image-59106.jpg -John

Gert, check with TWM Induction in Goleta. I am using their TPS on my Jenvey's, but not sure if the plug is the same as the one that Jenvey normally supplies with their kit. -John

Soft Bits For Se7ens in the UK sells a bag for the trans tunnel. For my car, I made an aluminum box that sits in front of the gear lever. The lid is upholstered in the same material as the dash and trans cover and blends in which adds a measure of security. The pics below show it from the side and with the lid opened. http://john15.web.officelive.com/Documents/trans%20tunnel%20new%201.jpg http://john15.web.officelive.com/Documents/new%20trans%20tunnel%202.jpg For luggage, some people use dry bags made for kayaking and strap those to the roll bars. When touring, I’ve found that packing clothes in space saver travel bags allows us to store a lot of clothing in the boot. I throw those into duffle bag to transport them to and from the hotel. -John

That's my preference as well. People have a hard enough time seeing such a small, low car that I hate to compound the situation with a dark color. Taking my paranoia one step further, I’d also steer away from red. Last summer while driving behind my Westfield on a very sunny day, I noticed that the brake lights didn’t stand out against the red background as well as I’d hoped. Cue Al or Morgan to extol the virtues of orange -John

Congratulations Hank! I'm looking forward to reading about your first drive. -John

It's not just cones that can get you. I hit a tire carcass in the dark on the freeway when returning from USA2005. http://john15.web.officelive.com/Documents/rearwing.jpg -John

And I thought my Westfield was dirty…