JohnCh

Looks like the same ones I have on my car: Land Rover style 3" lights. -John

I looked into this when I had a crossflow powered car and was told by one of the top crossflow tuners in the UK, that money is best spent elsewhere. He was a big advocate of a programmable 3D ignition system. According to him benefits were twofold: Significantly better mpg. Although that's not why we buy these cars, it does mean you have longer touring range Much better driveability. He said that an engine with a Kent 244 and 3d ignition has better driveability than an engine running the milder 234 cam. -John

That was my guess as well, which is why I didn't worry about using Redline. The other thing that wasn't clear to me from my conversations with Chris at BGH is how many Redline filled gearboxes he has seen and how many of those actually had premature wear. Without that data it is hard to say if his guidance is based on a trend or merely a coincidence. -John

BGH recommends a GL4 semi-synthetic, followed by GL4 fully synthetic, but states to never use a GL4/5 blend. Their brand of choice is Comma, followed by Shell, Mobile, Silkolene, and Miller. I was unable to find any of those brand/weight combos in the US, so I went with Redline MT-90 which is their 75W90 GL4. It shifts great, but it is important to note that BGH specifically recommends against using that brand due to high wear seen in some customer gearboxes that used it. I've run Redline engine and gear oils in my cars for many years without any complaints, so I am not too concerned about this warning, but YMMV -John

I put together a little gear comparison chart a while ago to quantify the difference between various options that might be helpful. It shows the speeds in gear, rpm after an upshift, and the rpm when cruising at 70 mph for the Caterham 6-speed, the BGH long 1st gear and two versions of the BGH Sporting close: one with the tightest 1st & 5th combo and the other with the shorter 1st and the tallest 5th. The speeds in gear assume a 7500rpm redline and 205/60-13 rear tires. I ended up keeping my 3.62 LSD diff and going with the BGH long 1st gearbox. The Duratec has such a broad torque curve that the 6-speed was pointless and although I would prefer the E7, it really requires a switch to a 3.92 to keep the gearing length reasonable. No complaints. http://john15.web.officelive.com/Documents/gearcomparison.jpg -John

Hank, I wouldn’t necessarily trust the factory supplied height settings. The key figure is the delta from rear to front. The actual ride height will vary based on tire selection and tread wear, both of which will impact the measured height. On a Westfield you want to make sure that the imaginary line drawn between the inner and outer pivot points of the lower front control arm is parallel to the ground. The arm itself should be pointing down a little bit because the center of the outer pivot point is in the ball joint that sits on top of the arm. This drawing highlights what I mean. -John

Hank, I am running the following settings on the street and haven’t noticed any uneven wear. Camber Front: -2.5 Rear:: -1.5 Total Toe Front: 16 min toe out Rear: 24 min toe in 205/60-13 Toyo R888 My car isn’t fitted with ARBs, so has a fair amount of roll and really seems to benefit from extra camber, particularly up front. Another thing to be careful of is chassis rake. Westfields are very sensitive to this and the handling can really suffer if you get it wrong. General consensus is to run 15-25mm higher in the rear using the factory measuring points. My car is in the middle at 20mm. -John

Happy Birthday Mazda! Glad you were able to meet your goal and exercise the car a bit. How does it feel after all the changes? -John

Check out this thread. Might be worth contacting Dick Brink, or perhaps PM'ing Southwind25 to see what he finally did for his car. -John

Sounds like you have one of the Yarwood-era cars. As far as I know he didn’t do anything oddball with his installations, so it should be the same as what the Caterham guys are running. If no one chimes in with a good source, then I’d start with Dave Bean Engineering and RD Enterprises. They can probably help out or steer you in the right direction. -John

Self control is overrated. Just buy it! -John

It looks like Mr. Orange's garage mate just made Bring a Trailer. It must be painful to part with such a beautiful, well sorted Elan. Of course, the replacement is no slouch. Good luck with the sale MoPho! -John

Looks like a YES Cup/R. More info here. -John

With 190lb of ballast in the driver's seat and about 4 gallons of fuel, my car came in at 46.9% front, 53.1% rear. -John

That car is scheduled to appear at our local version of cars and coffee this Saturday. Although it’s not really my style, I'm still looking forward to seeing it in the flesh. -John

Is the car currently registered in MD? if so, then my guess is that you would be fine, but if the registration has lapsed or if it is currently registered in another state, then you should definitely look into it. I found out (nearly the hard way) to take nothing at face value when dealing with kit cars and registration. Before I purchased my first Westfield, the car was legally registered in CA and had the coveted smog barcode. I assumed registering it in WA would be straight forward, but before completing the purchase, I called up the proper authorities here in WA to check if it was the same as a normal car. I was told “No problem. No differences. We’ll just do a VIN check to make sure the car isn’t stolen and a brake light inspection.” When I actually showed up with the car, however, the story changed. I had to see someone called “The Specialist” (really) at the Highway Patrol station who made me jump through a lot of hoops before he finally allowed me to license the car in WA. -John

In that case, the amount of time you will spend accelerating at really high speed probably won’t be that significant, so I bet the 185hp will be more than enough in the beginning. Given that you are trading a car that you like for something that is radically different and has its own set of unique challenges though, I recommend you do the following: Find out the registration requirements for MD. Some states will require you to pass emissions for the year of your engine. Although Webers don’t necessarily cause big problems in that situation for an old crossflow, the zetec is a different story. Again, might not be an issue where you live, but if it is, then you don’t want to find out after you have swapped the 996. Mazda (slngsht) may be able to offer some advice here. Go for a ride, or better yet, drive a se7en. They aren't for everyone, and some people just aren’t comfortable driving them on the street. I have some friends who are instructors with my local PCA chapter. They love driving my Westfield, but none of them would ever consider buying a se7en of any type for themselves. They feel they are just too small, raw, and exposed for their liking. Drive that particular car. If you are using it primarily for street use, then you want to make sure you are okay coming from a car with a sophisticated engine management system to something with a pair of Webers. Webers add their own additional level of character to the driving experience. For you that could be good, or it could be bad. Only you can answer that. -John

In that case, I should definitely stay away from a programmable ECU. There is a lot more to screw up than with a pair of DCOEs -John

That 0-100mph time seems really quick for a 185hp road car, even if fitted with an aeroscreen. Power to weight ratio is great for acceleration, but acceleration at higher speeds is more dependent on absolute hp and aerodynamics. Consequently modern high hp cars that may lose out to a se7en in the 0-60 dash will often claw back an advantage at 80+. The Car and Driver article pksurveyor linked to earlier tests a Caterham Superlight R with the SVT engine. I didn’t notice any hp claims in the article, but as I recall the plug and play SVT engine in a Caterham was rated at 185hp, more if it has cams. CD clocked that car from 0-60 in 4.0 and from 0-100 in 11.8. The car you are considering looks very nice, but I’d think hard about buying a zetec on carbs unless the price reflected that setup and you were sure you wouldn’t have emission issues in your state. Don’t get me wrong, I love Webers and have owned three cars with dual DCOEs, but they are hard to tune for clean running and the more radical you take the rest of the engine in pursuit of more power, the harder it is to maintain civility in low rpm, part throttle situations. Converting to fuel injection can be very expensive. Throttle bodies, ECU, wiring harness, fuel injectors, high pressure fuel pump, and other items add up very fast. There are cheaper options such as motorcycle throttle bodies and Megasquirt, but that will also require more work on your part. How do you plan to use the car? Is it primarily a track weapon with street mileage mostly to get you to the track and back, or do you plan to use it a lot on the street? As for the Porsche comparison, the Caterham will certainly make your 996 feel bloated and slow to react to inputs. I have 993 and getting in that after driving the Westfield for a few days straight is always an eye opener. -John

Another vote for shift lights to replace the need for a high visibility tach. I mounted my shift light module to the windscreen so that it is in my line of sight but not blocking the view of the road. It's very easy to see in your peripheral vision, so no need to take your eyes off the road and focus on a needle swinging around on the dashboard. The photo below is a fairly accurate representation of my view from the driver’s seat, although the shift lights do appear a bit high. In reality the top of the module is about even with the top of the head light bucket. Edited to add: ignore the disclaimer above that the photo doesn't accurately show where the shiftlights sit. I'm currently in the garage so I took a new photo that recreates my view pretty closely. New photo is below. http://john15.web.officelive.com/Documents/driversview1024.jpg -John

Or we have outstanding peripheral vision -John

The mud flaps definitely made things better in my car. Powderbrake, I suspect part of the reason you had increased debris thrown out the front may have something to do with the size and location of the your WCM cycle wings. If you look at where the front ends on this picture of your car, it is just forward of the vertical centerline of the wheel, whereas the front of my car's wings extend much further forward and covers more of the tire. Regarding cycle vs swept wings, I’ve had both. Although I love the more vintage look of swept wings, I was sold on the cycle fenders the first time I drove down a winding road with them in place. For me, seeing the front wheels rise and fall with the bumps and turn into the corners adds to the driving involvment. http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20070112_150149_5.JPG -John

One of the nice things about the new forum software is that you can link to a specific post. Post #35. -John

Alaskossie, go to User CP > Edit Options, scroll down to Default Thread Subscription Mode and set the drop down box to "instant e-mail notification" and click Save changes at the bottom of the page. -John

This link will take you to a high res photo taken on US2005 that shows how some of the folks handled extra storage on tour. This particular car has the Soft Bits for Sevens E-bag on top of the boot and small backpacks bungee corded to the roll bar’s rear stays. Rather than backpacks, some folks attached dry bags in that location, which do a great job to keep things dry when you hit the inevitable rainstorm (it isn’t a proper se7en tour if you don’t experience any inclement weather). Space saver travel bags are another great way to extend your luggage space. It’s amazing how many clothes you can pack in a small space using those. -John