JohnCh

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…

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