Davemk1

I sent off a deposit and order form yesterday for my new Westfield Mega S2000. Should be a fun and interesting spring! dave

I think that could work very well. dave

I'm a bicycle framebuilder by profession and therefore know more than I care to about steel tubes and water. I agree - submersing the chassis is MUCH different than having water splash on it and even when there are holes in the chassis splashing water won't really enter the tube. If this were my car I'd want to drill small holes - say 1/8" (big enough that surface tension won't keep water from moving through them) at each end of every tube in the chassis and then I would want to tip and tilt it to the most extreme angles I can to allow the water to run to the holes and exit. If you are pulling the drivetrain this would be the time. I'd want to winch the front end high in the air so the water runs to the rear holes and out..........and I'd want to lift the rear end the same way. Then tilt it onto both sides to promote the water getting out. I would guess that there are 'gas holes' that were drilled where ever one tube meets another that are now covered by the joined tubes. These allow the hot gases/air to expand and move out of the area and not blow the final weld beads out due to the escaping air pressure. This means that water may be in most ever tube in the chassis..........and if it's left there in the long term it will corrode the ends of the tubes, where they have been welded, the most due to all the mill scale and oils being cleaned and burned off during the welding process. I doubt in the long run there will be rust holes in the middle of the tubes but I would not be surprised to see tubes, or welds, fail at the ends. I think making the chassis safe and durable in the long run is more than doable but that it will require some real effort and if it's just allowed to dry out on it's own that there will be real issues in the future. Dave

That Top Gear with the 3wheeler was great. Any time they made any quick input the can ended up on its side. Good fun.

What could go wrong? dave

It looks like it has both the front and rear windows out of an Elise. Interesting. dave

Any chance this car is still available? If so where is it? Thanks, dave

EVO magazine has a good test of the car in the newest issue - a good read. dave

I'm a professional bicycle framebuilder by trade and have worked more than I care to admit over the years with titanium. It has some wonderful qualities but stiffness isn't one of them. In fact for a given diameter and wall of tube the Ti is about 30% more flexible than steel. The only real way to make this stiffness up would be to make the tube diameters larger. This isn't in most cases a deal breaker but in some places it could be more difficult to package the tube in the small area it needs to reside. By far the bigger concern would be one of cost.........both in terms of the raw material cost and the much great amount of labor to cut, bend, clean and weld Ti as compared to steel. It goes through cuttings MUCH faster and takes much longer to cut and it needs to be welded in an oxygen free environment. This means purging both the inside and the outside of the tube with argon during all the welding. If this doesn't go well the joint can be very brittle and break without warning. Welding a bike frame is pretty simple but a Seven chassis is another level of PITA. This doesn't even take into consideration the greater weld distortion one gets with Ti and the difficulty in making a straight chassis. In the end one might be able to make a chassis that is about 25-30% lighter with Ti but at a great cost. How much can a steel Seven chassis weigh? Taking 25% off that might not be very cost effective and I think bolting lighter stuff to the chassis might be a more cost effective way to cut down the weight. Just my 2 cents. dave

This thread is interesting and very timely for me. I'm interested in towing a Seven behind my 2013 Jetta TDi wagon and see a lot of contradictory info out there. The US owners manual says that it can tow 1000lbs max while the VW UK website shows the towing capacity to be 1500 kg (3300 lbs) if the trailer has brakes. I'll echo the confusion out there as to why the same car can tow more than twice the weight in England as it can here in the USA. It seems there is no engineering reason for this and the difference needs to be chalked up to some other reason. The Curt hitch I have is rated at 2000 lbs with a 200 lbs tongue weight and it seems that it would be easy to stay below those numbers and be well within the range of the towing weight of the car in England or Europe. If I owned a trailer I'd just try it but it seems I will need to buy one to see it it works. I very much like the idea of a dual axle trailer like you show in your photo and would be interested in learning more about this trailer. I'm surprised that it can be so light with 2 axles and 4 wheels. Can you share a link to the specs of the trailer you are using? I'd love to learn more. Thanks - dave

Thanks for the reply - I just sent you an email at your company address. Thanks again, dave

Does anyone have direct experience with the Westfield Mega S2000? I wonder what your experiences have been - the car looks interesting to me. dave

FWIW - I owned and competed in solo events for 4 years in a Seven and drove to every event in the car. I did local in-town events and out of town events over 100 miles away and I never had a mechanical that left me stranded. I drove to most events with weather gear at least with me and I used my custom tire rack to carry tires. I say the above in case some might think that I'm new to Sevens and didn't know how small they really are. I'm not at all concerned about getting to and from events. I would like a car with the exhaust on the far side of the car (Duratec instead of the Zetec my Birkin had) to keep me a bit cooler during the heat of summer and I want to be able to fit into the car. I'll be keeping my eyes open for a used car that I can make work by lowering the floor and putting a tall bar on or maybe I'll buy a new Birkin kit and lower the floor and put their tall bar on and then have a new top made to fit the tall bar. We'll see.

I think you are probably correct. However I would still very much like the option to compete with weather gear in place. I did an event with my Birkin years ago and it rained over an inch that day - that was really wet and cold. I had the top in place and I stayed reasonably dry. I took the side curtains off for runs and then put them back on so I didn't sit in a puddle. I'm also proud to say I took FTD with the top in place. So for me, a top is important for a number of reasons. Dave

I didn't mean to insinuate that you would have measured incorrectly at all........I just wanted to be sure we were on the same page. Great photo BTW. Thanks so much, Dave

Thanks man - that does help. I assume you measured from the corner made by the floor and the rear bulkhead in a direct line up to the bar? If so that could work with a lowered floor. My Elise is 39" as described above so the 38" plus 1.5" would do it. The Elise, with a Tillet seat mounted on the floor (without slider rails), gives me just enough room so that the helmet just brushes the underside of the top. Not perfect but fine for the occasional rainy solo. Do you have a photo of your car with the FIA bar installed? Do you have a top that fits over it? Thanks again, dave

Thanks again for the towing info. It's good to know there may be options there. But the real issue at hand is getting a car I fit in..........unless I do that getting the car around is really moot. Anyone have a car with a tall bar and/or lowered seat that they can measure for me? Thanks again, dave

Maybe - it would really push the limits of the Jetta so I won't be going that direction. I'll be driving the car to and from events any way you cut it. dave P.S. - I thought it worthwhile to check the manual on the Jetta to see what the tow rating is and they list a max of 1000 lbs. I'm sure one can go past that a bit and still be safe but 1300 lbs of car and 500 lbs of trailer would be pretty darn far over the limit. In the end the real issue isn't driving the car to events but finding a car that I will fit in.........the rest is pretty easy stuff.

Thanks for chiming in gents - I'm pretty darn sure I will never own a tow vehicle and certainly not a 4x4. I've live in snow country and the mountains most of my life and in my experience nothing is worse in the snow than a tall heavy vehicle. I drive a Jetta TDi wagon with studded snows in the winter and you drive past all the trucks and SUV's stuck on the side of the road to get to the ski area. So any Seven will be driven to events. I will definitely need full weather gear for the car. 100 mile drives in temps in the low 30's without it is just ridiculously cold. It's damn cold even with the gear and without it it would be undoable. It looks like the weather gear on the Ultralite might be emergency use only and not something I'd want to deal with for longer drives. I've traded notes with Mr. Brink and he told me of the new larger Birkin. I'd rather stay with the smaller car if I could. If there is no other way to get into a Seven the larger car might make sense but it will not fun in solo as the smaller car would be. That and I don't think I want to be one of the first to buy a new model - i think I'd like to be sure the bugs are fully sorted before I plunk my money down. I think I will just need to find some folks who can get some floor to roll bar measurements from their cars and then take the leap from there. Dave

Anyone know if the WCM Ultralite guys are still in biz? I googled them and the site is down. dave

I had though of the same thing...........cool car. I don't think they offer a full weather gear option though. Years ago they had photos of one and I'm not sure humans would have fit in the car. Does anyone have a ultralite with full weather gear? dave

Thanks so much for the reply and your ideas/thoughts. Here are a few thoughts/responses/answers/questions - Like I said my Birkin had a live axle and there was nothing to hook to but I know a guy with an IRS Birkin and there is a lot of solid looking stuff that the Suby diff bolts to and it seems to locate the diff fore/aft as well as sideways with a descent load path. This is what made me think I might be able to make a hitch mount. The trailer and tires I tow behind the Elise is less than 300 lbs in total and the tongue weight is about 30 pounds. The tongue weight is a none issue and it would just be braking loads that would be the big deal for the hitch. I didn't know that Caterham offers a tall bar and hood. Good info I'll need to look into. Most Caterhams are outside my cost comfort range (I want to remain married) but maybe I could afford a used one and then lower the floor, put a tall bar and hood on it. That might work. Living in Montana has many advantages but it is far from temperate! During race season the temps in the morning can be in the upper 20's and the highs in the afternoon can be in the mid 90's. Not usually on the same day of course but a 50° swing is common with the altitude and very dry air. But 20's to 90's over a season certainly. I also need it to be able to fit full weather gear not only to stay warm but to stay dry during afternoon storms on the way home from events so a shade top wouldn't be enough I'm afraid. Does anyone here have a Caterham with a lowered seat and tall bar? If so a few simple measurements would help me out a lot. Thanks again, Dave

I feel silly for not thinking about that - good idea. But from what I hear he loves the car and would not part with it (smart man) and since it has a live axle I can't see how I could mount a hitch to it..........so even if he did want to sell it wouldn't fit my needs. Thanks for the thought. Dave

Good morning, My name is Dave and I live in Bozeman MT. A number of years ago I was active here and I owned a Birkin and loved the car. I used the car on the street for fun and autocrossed it seriously. At some point I wanted to make a change and have a bit more comfort during trips to and from out of town events so I got rid of the Birkin and got a 2005 Elise. I've been racing the Elise for about 4 years now and have been doing well in it with a few state championships in the bag and while I like it very much I find myself missing the Seven with its lack of weight and a less tail happy weight distribution. Driving the Elise at the limit can become oversteer management and this can become frustrating at times. So the short of it is that I'm considering going back to a Seven. My 'needs' with a Seven can be a bit difficult and this is why I am taking up your time reading - I'd like to get some feedback and ideas from those here with more experience. So in no particular order - 1) I will once again be driving the car on the street and racing solo with it and I need to be able to drive it to and from events up to 100 miles from home. This means I need to be able to carry race tires and tools with me. When I owned a Birkin I made a quick release rack for the rear that held my tires and this worked OK but I didn't love putting that much weight on the back of the car. I would have set it up to tow a very small and light trailer but the car had a live rear axle and this made it very difficult to find anything solid to hook a hitch up to. I have a hitch set-up for the Elise and it makes it super simple to do out of town events. I was thinking that a car with an IRS might have more chassis members to hook to that might allow me to make a custom hitch. Has anyone done this? I've attached photos of the old Birkin set up and the current Elise. It would really rock if I could use this trailer behind a Seven. Buying a truck and trailer so I could trailer the car to events is not an option. 2) I'm tall - 6'4" and I made my 1999 Birkin S3 fit very well with a few mods and while I could do something similar to a new Seven I'm less enthusiastic about making so much stuff. With the Birkin I modified things so that I was sitting directly on the floor to get me as low as possible and then I made a new roll bar that was 3" taller than the stock Birkin bar. And because I needed to drive the car in the rain I had a new top made that fit over the tall bar. It all came out very good but I'm not sure I want to go through that all again. So I'm wondering the following - a) does anyone know of a type of Seven that might fit me in the car with the top in place AND a helmet on right out of the box. I'm sure some Sevens have more head room than others but don't know the details. b) Does anyone know how much the Caterham lowered floor kits actually lower the floor? c) I know that Birkin offers a tall roll bar option but they do not offer a top to fit over said bar. It is 2" taller than the stock bar. If I were able to lower the floor in the Birkin by 1" to 1.5" and get the tall bar it just might be tall enough. I would need to have a new top made again but that is just giving a guy money and while I'm not a wealthy man I might rather spend some money and save some time. 3) Last but not least - the Birkin I owned had a Zetec which put the exhaust headers right near my feet and this was a bit warm when driving 100 miles home on a 95° day. I see many of the newer cars use the Duratec and it has the exhaust on the other side. Do folks find this keeps the driver's foot well somewhat cooler? I'm apologize for the long note and I appreciate your taking the time to read it and look forward to any thoughts and advice you might have. I'm not in a hurry to make the change and would most likely do so at the end of the solo season and either build a new car or modify a used one over the L O N G Montana winter. Thanks again, dave

The dead are always quiet. dave