JohnCh

Does anyone have experience with the Braille Battery? At 6.5lb it makes my PC680 look downright portly! Thanks, John

Bob/Gert, Thanks for the feedback. Although a kill switch is a nice feature, I am really just looking for a remote battery disconnect. My battery is not easily accessible and I did have a small under bonnet fire a couple of years ago when the throttle cable broke, landed on the 12V+ connection to the alternator while touching the air filter. In case anyone is wondering, yes, a red hot cable will ignite an oil impregnated air filter. Quickly. I would really like to have a battery disconnect switch in the cockpit in case I have a similar problem in the future. I hadn’t considered the fact that the solenoid draws power whenever the switch is flicked to the on position. That will be a learning curve… Thanks, John

Does anyone have any experience with this remote kill switch from Painless Wiring Products? I like the idea that I can have an unobtrusive switch in the cockpit to turn off the electrical system, so this seems to fit the bill. Thanks, John

I know Westfield owners in the in the UK who are 6’4” and have no issues, but my friend who is 6’5” and all leg doesn’t fit in my car. As for foot room, again it varies a lot by car. My size 11.5s won’t fit in a normal Caterham unless I am wearing my SpeedCats, but I can wear normal street shoes in my Westfield. I know of someone with a Caterham SV who has no problems driving his car in his size 12 street shoes. Take Stan’s advice and contact the CCC contingent. They’re a great bunch of guys who would be happy to show you their cars. -John

Keith, do you know in which issue the article will appear? Thanks, John

I just watched it too, and Mazda is correct. That is a Canadian car and the speedo is in km/hr. BTW if that is the stretch of road I think it is, then he is barely travelling above the posted limit and is slower than the flow of traffic. It was too freaking cold through there to drive fast! -John

It is listed here in the archives, but only active subscribers can view it. -John

Welcome David! I live in Sammamish, so not that far from you. Westfields are quite a bit roomier than a narrow body Caterham, but smaller than the SV. Unfortunately it sounds like you won't fit in my car though thanks to the Mog seats, which are pretty unforgiving. However, if you would like to see a Westfield up close, then feel free to send me a PM. Oh, and I second Mazda's request for pics of the E-type. -John

The FM Westfield uses Miata uprights which have better geometry than the Cortina units on my car. There is an upright upgrade available through Westfield and the aftermarket that improves the Ackerman geometry, and also some upgrades through the aftermarket that address castor. I will probably do the former upgrade over the winter, but the castor upgrade is too much for my pocketbook. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think my Westfield has poor steering, but I think my other cars fare a little better overall in the feel department. Where the Westfield wins out is in steering quickness and turn in speed. -John

I ran Yokohama A032R on my Westfield until the rebuild. I’m personally not a fan of those for the street. They were really slick when cold and I had trouble getting heat into them unless it was a hot day or I had strung together a *lot* of corners at speed. The sidewalls are also really stiff, which don’t match that well with such a light car. I have driven a Caterham on Kumho V700s (now the V70A) and was impressed. Granted the weather was hot (low 90’s) but they stuck well from cold and the sidewalls didn’t seem as stiff as the Yokos. I plan to upgrade to the V70A this spring. -John

Good steering feel is a wonderful thing, but I also find it is a personal thing. I’ve heard people, including automotive journalists, rave about the steering feel of specific cars, but after driving those same vehicles I’ve been left unimpressed. It’s not that those folks are wrong and I am right (well maybe it is ), but rather we may each value different qualities when turning the wheel. For me brilliant steering provides great feel of the road surface. You feel what the front tires are experiencing as it happens. It also has good weight (again, very subjective on what is too heavy or too light) and a linearity that is a little tough to describe. You can feel the steering weight up as the cornering forces build, but the progression is very smooth, very linear, and very mechanical. The two best steering vehicles I have driven are a Caterham fitted with the Freestyle inboard front suspension and an ’87 Porsche 911 with a modified front suspension. Both were simply brilliant and pushed all my buttons. My Westfield has good, but not great steering. It is something that I am working on and hope to improve over the winter. I also have a Porsche 993 and 944 turbo. For me, they both have great steering with the nod going to the 993. Another thing that I have found is that tires can really effect steering feel. When I bought my 993, the steering was good, but a notch below the 944 turbo. Upgrading the tires from Pirelli P-Zero Nero M&S to Bridgestone RE-050A made a huge difference. BTW the 911 and Caterham I mentioned earlier both ran R-compound tires which tend to have better road feel. One of the major magazines (Car & Driver?) did an article about steering a couple of years ago that tried to answer the question “Why do some cars have great steering feel?” I’ll dig through my stack of magazines later this week to see if I can find it. -John

That is essential. Along that same line, another thing to consider about the hubs is to choose ones that are airport friendly (small airport within an hour drive from the hub). On both USA2005 and PNW2007, we had co-drivers join/exit mid tour. It would also help those of us who are happy to drive hard for a couple of days to reach/leave the hub, but there is no way our wives are willing to cover 1500 miles in 2 days in a se7en. This way they can simply hop a flight and meet us there. -John

Al, Is the current thinking to do the national meet as a tour that goes from point A to point B like USA2005 & PNW2007, or as a convention where we entrench in one area and do daily drives and perhaps some organized track/autocross events? I suppose a third option is to combine the two – i.e. we could meet in one area, stay there for a few days, do some daily drives/events, and then travel a couple of days to another area where we do it all over again. Thanks, John

That's what I thought when I bought my Westfield which had been registered for the previous 5 years in CA. I even checked with WA state prior to buying the car to confirm my assumption was correct, and I was told there was no problem. The car would only need to undergo a basic safety inspection (wipers, signals work, etc.) and a VIN check to make sure it wasn't stolen. However, when I brought the car in for the inspection, they took one look at it and told me I needed to make an appointment to see the specialist. When I questioned this and pointed out that the car was currently legally registered in CA, the person trumped me with "This is not California." Kind of hard to argue with that logic. I was able to eventually register the car, but it was a bit of a hassle. -John

Don’t let the interior design of any Se7en hold you back. Part of the fun of owning these cars is that you can always modify things to suit your taste. For example, I didn’t like my Westfield’s interior, so when I rebuilt the car, I did a total redesign (before and after photos are in this post). It still isn’t quite what I want, so this winter I will give it another shot, but it is pretty easy to do. My advice is to make the effort to see, drive/ride in as many different se7ens as possible before pulling the trigger. You certainly won't go wrong with a Caterham, but you may find that you actually prefer something else. -John

That was a very camouflaged police car. My jaw dropped when I saw the lights go on.

You mean like the guy in the dark blue/black Tahoe after we crossed into WA? -John

We seemed to run into a number of folks who didn't appreciate being passed by our cars. They would speed up after the first person had gone by in an annoying effort to prevent the rest of the group from following suit. Employing a blocking protocol like some of the UK guys use would have solved that problem. It also would allow more cars to get by in a short stretch which is useful when you are running with so many cars.

Here are a few top-of-mind suggestions for future tours: • Avoid metropolitan areas. Cities are nice, but security and traffic concerns dull that experience a bit for me. The small towns were more fun and added to the feeling that we were venturing into the great unknown. • As Stan mentioned, the small, casual motels have more charm, but I think one nice hotel mid-late in the route is kind of nice as a reprieve. • Drivers meeting at the start of the tour to discuss passing procedures. E.g. is it every car for itself, or is the process for the lead car to complete the pass and then block traffic for the next car and so on? I believe the UK tourers have procedures they follow which we may want to investigate. It might not be a bad idea to also agree upon a few hand signals for car-to-car communication. It would certainly be easier than trying to figure out at 70 mph what the heck other guy is trying to tell you with his creative hand gestures • A second support car that can keep pace with the Se7ens. As Stan mentioned above it was great having someone with a locking car who could stay with the group. I don’t think I would want the support truck and trailer to match our pace on some of those roads… • Get volunteers to research each day of the route including the destination to identify interesting things to do/see along the way, and possible restaurants or evening activities. Asking one person do all of this is crazy, but if each person did one day and put together a little data sheet then the effort is manageable. • Put together tour planning kit for participants to ease the burden for the organizer(s). This can be a living document that includes suggested tools/spares/packing lists, maintenance check list to be completed x weeks prior to tour, route book template, links to relevant research sites (hotels, routes, restaurants, etc), past tour logos to help jumpstart that design process, information on getting shirts printed (options, lead times, etc.), locations for photo sharing, etc. • To take Stan’s half-joking information sheet concept one step further, perhaps we print answers to frequent questions on the back of the tour T-shirts? -John

Actually I think Ed is the only person to attend all three major US se7en events: PNW2007, 7-7-7, and the one that started it all, USA2005. He should probably update his resume to reflect this achievement Big thanks to Gert & Rosie for organizing, Stan for handling some of the hotels, and Mike for driving the support truck. That last job had to be frustrating given he has a perfectly good Westfield sitting in the garage. -John

Is that Sturgis? Interesting...

A subject of dinner and beer conversations throughout the tour was "What's next?" A long tour like this is a lot of fun, but the length makes it hard for many people to commit, and joining midway can be difficult since we aren't always traveling through areas that have easy access. One idea that was tossed out was to find a central point where we set up base camp and then take day trips from there (much like 7-7-7). This makes it easy for people to join for any part of the tour and it can remove some of the Great Race feeling from some of the days. This kind of setup is also much easier to organize and makes for a great regional event. For those of us in the Pacific region, I think Northern California has a lot of potential. Great roads, no more than one long day of travel for people to join up or leave, and there are a lot of cool little towns that would make a great base camp. Perhaps this is the way forward? We could always supplement these with a national tour every 2-4 years? Oh, BTW...sorry for the hijack -John

Al, my car isn't that quick (it only has about 210hp). Now Ed's car...that's a different story -John

Doh! I just discovered that Canon doesn't make Vista compatible drivers for my camera. Oh well, it looks like no pics from me on this thread. :banghead: -John

The only other car I’ve owned that would qualify as a project was my ’69 Alfa Romeo GTV. Other than the Panasports, I never really touched the exterior, but did freshen up the interior and completely rebuilt all the mechanicals with an eye towards track days. The engine was a 2.0L with twin 45DCOEs, Electromotive distributorless ignition, lots of headwork, etc. Very fun car, but after I bought the Westfield I stopped driving her ( http://home.comcast.net/~cobar/images/alfa.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~cobar/images/sparco.jpg -John