Davemk1

Car makers have been smoothing out shifting with weighted knobs for a long time. It in effect it's a mass-damper that resists vibration. The extra mass also gives it more momentum once moving across the open gate so that it moves into the next gear with less force. It takes more force to get it moving but then it uses that force to move into the next gear. I have a very light wooden knob on my Honda shifter and noticed it feeling a bit notchier than the stock alloy knob. I use it because on a hot, sunny autocross the metal knob can get really hot...but the wood feels much cooler to the touch. But the heavier alloy knob shifted a bit better. dave

It looks as if that is a fitting for a fuel tank vent hose. One would typically fit a piece of rubber hose and run it up above the tank as high as possible. The hose can be left open on the end or you can fit a filter (a good idea to keep bugs and stuff out of it) and this will allow for air to replace the space taken up by used fuel without it creating a vacuum. It will also allow the air to escape when the air in the tank expands due to a temperature change. If you get the end of the vent hose as high as possible fuel should not come out of it. dave

There are of course three ways to add comfort/compliance to your car - - you can change the spring rate - you can change the damping - you can change the height of the tire sidewall Springs - One needs to keep in mind that most Sevens have very limited suspension travel and that fitting soft springs might allow the suspension to bottom out more easily. The stiffness of the spring will dictate how far the suspension moves when it encounters a bump and not how easy it will move. This is very often misunderstood. Damping - where spring stiffness dictates how far the system will move it's the damping that will dictate how quickly the suspension moves and this is something that can easily be felt. It matters little how stiff the spring is if the damping is set so stiff that the system can't move quickly enough to adsorb a bump. A car that is "over damped" will feel hard, harsh, and will lack a connected feel to the surface. Traction will be compromised. If, on the other hand, the damping is too soft the car will wallow and float as the suspension will still be reacting to one bump when it hits the next. This is where the time factor of damping comes in. Also...if the damping it too soft the car will have a greater tendency to run through all of its travel and bottom out. The system will work best when the spring rates and the damping are working well together....stiff springs and soft damping will suck just as much as too soft springs and too hard damping. The two work together in conjunction and it's best to look at them as a system. A given spring rate needs a given amount of damping to control that force. Tire sidewall - if we are talking about a traditional Seven like a Caterham, Westfield, Birkin...etc many of these cars will come with 15" wheels and a tire with a low profile sidewall. The height of the sidewall will have a real effect on ride comfort. It makes sense when you think about it...tires are an air-spring and a smaller volume spring will have a higher spring rate and it will be more progressive. One thing that can be done is to replace the 15" wheels with 13's and a tire with a taller sidewall. The tire will be the same outside diameter and this means that the sidewall is a full 1" taller and this does a great job of taking the buzz out of the ride by absorbing road imperfections before the suspension can even deal with it. There are also real-world handling benefits of the taller sidewall with a lightweight car and that is a topic of it's own. One of the best things I ever did with my Westfield was to ditch the 15's and put on 13's with a taller tire...better ride quality, better handling and lower un-sprung weight. A win-win-win if ever there was one. Just my 2 cents. Have fun with it. dave

I have two sets of wheels for my Westfield. The street wheels are Revolutions in the 13 x 7 size and they are fitted with 205/60-13 Toyos. The autocross wheels are Real Racing Wheels and they are 13 x 10 and I use Avon slicks on them. I have to say that the car corners pretty darn well on 10" wide slicks! dave

It does "get out of the way in a hurry" as my dad would have said. I have ITB's on the S2000 engine so it makes 230 hp at the wheels (260ish at the crank?) and I've worked very hard at getting it down to minimum weight for my SCCA solo class....meaning that it weighs 1230 pounds with the race wheel/tire installed. It's a lot of fun and goes like hell around an autocross course. dave

I also have a set for my street set up. I've always loved this design. dave

What a beauty - congrats. It would be fun to see under the engine cover and of course the interior. dave

I seriously doubt that a change in diameter will have any effect. If the cable slides through the housing without drag that leaves a few other possibilities - - the pivot on the gas pedal is binding - the cable is dragging on the hole where it passes through the firewall - a fitting at either end of the housing is tight or has a burr and the cable is dragging though it - the throttle body on the intake is biding - the place where the cast-on cable end pivots in the gas pedal or throttle body binds and won't pivot freely - there's a burr where the outer housing of the cable was cut to length In the end it's a simple system where small parts slide or pivot under load and something is binding. Go from one end of the system to the other - you'll find it. dave

It sounds like there cable and housing don't have a smooth and kink-free path from the pedal to the intake. Buy a good teflon lined bicycle brake cable and make sure that there are no tight bends or kinks and I'll bet that will take care of it. dave

Praise the Lord. dave

Look at that - I'm internet famous! That is my car, with me driving it, at a local autocross event a few weeks back. The parking lot is at a local church and they allow us to run there on some Saturdays when church is not in session. Frankly it's almost too small for a good course but we make the most of it. My car is Honda S2000 powered and has Omex ITB's which add some grunt in the mid range and they make it really fun to drive and give it a fun sound. My main competition is a friend of mine who races an Ariel Atom with a supercharged 2.4L Honda in it. It pulls so damn hard that it's hard to process....and on 13" wide Avon slicks it hooks up in a big way. I beat him on this course by 2.7 seconds on a roughly 52 second course to take FTD. I've raced him 3 times so far this season (with many more days to come no doubt) and set FTD at each event. I don't have the big grunt he has but the handling balance is better and I have to slow less for everything and that's what really counts in autocross. Last season I raced my car 18 days and set FTD 16 times...the other two days I placed second. Westfield makes an awesome car that is very tunable and can be made to handle so very well that it's very easy to drive at the limit. And that it wicked fun. If I end up with more video I'll be sure to share it here. dave

Many years ago I owned a Birkin and I needed new glass. The local glass shop was able to use my old glass as a pattern and they cut me a new one and installed it in the frame for a very reasonable price. They had the proper type and thickness of safety glass in stock. dave

It sounds like a sticky or seized ball joint/rod end or that the lube in the rack lube had dried up and gotten sticky. In any case it sounds like a friction issue. dave

I own a Westfield Mega S2000 that runs the Honda S2000 engine and trans and I have a friend that has a WCM. One thing that I think could cause as issue with the WCM is that there is no provision for fitting a sway bar front or rear. This can make it harder to fine tune the balance of the car at the limit - so if you are tracking or autocrossing the car it could be a real frustration. You can get pretty far into chassis tuning with springs and shocks but that last bit of balance can be very hard to find without the ability to adjust a bar. Have you considered a Westfield? I'm 6'4" and 185 lbs and I fit very well in the Westfield even with a narrow Tillet seat. My guess is that at 200 lbs you might favor the stock seats as they are wider and you should slip right into place. It could be an alternative if you've not considered it. dave

thank you! I'll get on it. dave

Good morning - I tried to send these in a PM but the system wouldn't let me for some reason. Take a look and let me know if you're interested and we'll make i9t happen. dave

Hello - I have a Westfield carbon exhaust that I don't need and I'd be willing to sell it. It has 200 miles at the most and is in very good shape. The inlet is 2.500". It was mounted on the right side of the car and the underside has the usual slightly sandblasted look that one would expect. I was underweight for SCCA autocross class and adding a heavy muffler was the perfect way to bring it up to weight....that's why this light carbon muffler is available. If you'd like photos let me know. I'll be out over the weekend but could get some for you on Monday. dave

When the contact patch of the tire is pushed to one side due to cornering forces it drags some of the rest of the radial structure in that same direction....and oddly it makes the upper part of the tire move in the opposite direction. Think of the tread area and it's belts as a stiff ring around the outside of the tire...when you push part of it one way it will tilt the entire ring and this will move it inward at times toward the stay. I'll bet if you slalom right/left/right and lean out and watch the driver's side tire you'll be able to see it happen. dave

https://www.carbon-nv.co.uk/ dave

The max allowable weight for a Seven to feel like a Seven is an interesting question. Before I built my Westfield (1220 lbs) I owned a supercharged Lotus Elise (1900 lbs) and while compared to most anything else on the road the Elise felt light it feels heavy compared to my Seven....which of course it is. Both are seriously quick and fun but they are different. What I wonder about is how light could an electric Seven be made. My Westfield has an S2000 engine and trans and they are not light and heavier than most 4 cylinder cars would have. On the other hand an electric motor would be much lighter than the Honda unit and it won't even need the trans. If one takes the weight loss of the engine and trans and put that weight into batteries what would the car end up weighing? I have no idea but I'm sure it would be far south of the ICE Elise.....which is an awesome car. And the torque and throttle response would make the ICE set up feel slow witted. It's an interesting question and I look forward to seeing what Caterham comes up with. My wild-assed-guess would be that to get the needed range that it will weigh about 1400-1500 lbs and do 0-60 in about 3 seconds. Would it be as flickable as a 1250 lbs car? Nope. Would it be wicked fun? Yep....I think it would. Time will tell. dave

A sincere question.....how much do you think a Seven could weigh before it loses it's agility? dave

The 13" tire will give a nice ride on the rough stuff due to the taller sidewall. If you pick tire size correctly the OD of a 15" tire and a 13" tire will be nearly the same. dave

My Westfield has a Honda S2000 engine that revs to 9000 rpms and it sounds awesome. I love the feeling of the power building as the rpm's climb and everything gets frantic and fuzzy. It's awesome. It weighs 1220 lbs and makes 230+ hp at the wheels and very few cars will provide such fun and pace. And I'd give it up in a minute for an electric version if the weight can be kept reasonable. Being able to pull out of the driveway at 6:00 without waking the neighbors and launching at the local autocross and not pegging the dB meter and pissing off the people that live nearby would be very cool. Hearing the whine of the motor and the tires straining against the pavement would be awesome. The instant pull out of a tight solo corner and getting thrown down the course would be FTD stuff for sure. And to come home after a blat or day of autocross and plug it in to the solar panel system on my roof to recharge it carbon-free sounds even better. It's coming and I welcome it. dave

The wheels have been sold. dave

These have been sitting around too long and I have no use for them so they need to go. The are Diamond Racing wheels lightweight steel wheels that I autocrossed on for 2 seasons with my Westfield. Never used on the street and no damage. They have a green stripe that is just pinstripe tape so if it's not to your liking it can be easily removed. The specs - 13" x 10" 4 x 4 1/4" bolt circle 4 1/2" backspace These wheels with some 10" slicks will make your Seven feel like it's getting swung around the corner on a rope. Great autocross wheel. I have the original boxes to ship them in so you can rest assured that they will be packed well. I just want $100 plus shipping for them. I've had them gathering dust too long. Someone buy these things and go racing. dave