Davemk1

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

Are you asking if I added vents? No....I didn't cut in any additional vents. I wondered about the airflow after it passed through the radiator so I did some string tests so i could see the way the air was moving. I suspect that much of the air that came in through the rad (as well as the openings inboard of the front wheels) went out the bottom of the engine compartment. This would of course raise the air pressure under the car and help create both lift and drag. When I closed off the underside of the car it changed the way the air flowed through the engine compartment. I now have air coming out the side openings inboard of the front wheels (on a Westie these are very big). I also have air coming out the vents at the top rear of the engine cover. These smaller triangular vents actually pulled air in before enclosing the underside of the engine compartment and now air rushes out of them. This would seem to be an indication that I used to have a low pressure area in the engine compartment largely caused by the open bottom and now I have a high pressure area that pushes air out the sides and top. Does that make sense? dave

I did this on my Westfield a number of years ago....a splitter at the front, filled in around the sump in the engine bay, stock flat floor pan, and then a diffuser out the rear. Many will say that it's a waste of time given that a Seven is shaped like a brick and I completely disagree. To me it means that there's some big low hanging fruit and the flat bottom was easiest to pick. I get MUCH less lift at speed, it's quieter, and it doesn't feel like you've hit the brakes when you drop the throttle at speed. It works. Why wouldn't it? It's worth the time - go for it. dave

I have a 2015 VW Golf wagon TDi. One of the nicest cars I've owned. More than quick enough, has the firm suspension of the handling package and I've averaged 43 mpg over the past 35,000 miles. Quiet and composed and the seats fit me very well (I'm 6'4"). It's awesome for road trips or running around town. The other 'daily' is a 2006 Honda Ridgeline truck that is used to two my Westie around. Many will poo poo it for not being a 'real truck' and I get it. But I don't need a real truck and this truck-lite is awesome for my needs. Default FWD (slips into 4 wheel of the fronts loose traction) means it handles great in the snow and it's got more than enough grunt to tow my Westie up and over Montana mountain passes all while getting 15 mpg towing and 20 around town. It's a pleasant place to spend time and the handling is surprisingly good for the size of the thing. I'd buy another in a heartbeat. dave

Merry Christmas from Montana! dave

That's interesting and I guess not all that surprising. I was looking at the Federals some time back after a friend said he liked them for autocross and noticed that in most sizes the treadware rating is 260....but for some odd reason 13" tires have a treadware rating of 460. They might not have much grip at 460 but I'll bet that they will last an annoyingly long time. dave

Cool - I wouldn't worry about maintaining a small amount of toe-in....there's no tipping point that happens when you cross from toe-in to toe-out. In fact when the car moves up and down with weight shift the toe changes anyway. And unless you have solid suspension bushings they deflect when you hit the brakes to change the toe. So toe is kind of all over the place and there's nothing sacred about it. I have rivnuts that are mounted in the nose to support my front splitter and i just take these out and the string box bolts into those inserts. In the rear the bar affixes to the top of my rear diffuser. Dave

Right you are - I must have been thinking of the other guy with the understeer. Sorry about that. You are right on - weight shift is everything. Good on you for getting the feel for that! The attached photo show how much grip one can get with weight shift....the weight has shifted to the rear allowing it to hang on tight. Just look at the sidewall flex on that rear tire. It's working very hard. I've not found tramlining to be a real issue on the road when using lots of camber. Toe out can make it feel funny but camber has never been an issue for me. Unfortunately it seems very unlikely that you can make major changes in camber up front without messing with the toe a lot. Dues to the geometry of most front suspension and the Ackerman effect any changes in camber typically result in large toe changes. So I'd say that you might need to pick a camber setting and then set the toe to that. Speaking of front toe-in....1/8" is a good bit - I suspect too much. I'll bet if you back that off to 1/16" - 0" toe in that it would feel better on the road and solo course. Front toe tends to make them feel a bit numb and you're no doubt leaving some of the fun on the table. Having 1/8" toe-in in the rear is a great place to start. One thing about alignment - most alignment shops will charge you real money and you may, or may not, get what you want. It's not rocket surgery if you have basic tools. One tool you can make for small money is a string box. I made one for my Westie using electrical conduit and the two sections bolt directly to the car. The conduit has shallow hacksaw slots on each end to hold the string in place. I can bolt it on and check alignment in less than 5 minutes. It takes more time to put the ballast in the driver's seat (worthless without this on a light car) than it does to set up the bars. There's no reason to pay for an alignment when you can do it at home with tools that cost less than $20. Want to make a change for the weekend's solo event?....no problem. It becomes so fast and easy that you can tweak and learn and get very quick and cheap feedback. I hope that helps. dave

Cool - these are my random thoughts based on what ran on a Birkin years ago and what I've learned with my current Westfield - - if you are running any kind of DOT radial tire (even something like a Hoosier A7) you could benefit from more camber all around. Those tires need a good bit, especially in front, for them to work as intended. If the car turns in well but then fades into understeer my first thought is front camber. I run a non-DOT bias ply tire and they need much different alignment....but if I were running 888's or A7's I'd set my car up with a good 2.5° in the front and maybe 2.0° camber in the rear and see how it goes. - I see you measured the toe in degrees and off the top of my head I don't know how that translates to millimeters at the rim. That said I would not be running any toe-in in the front. I'd set it for 0 toe-in in front. Some will go with toe out (I use 1 mm toe out each side in the front) and it aides in quick turn-in but can make the car feel twitchy. But having toe-in in the front is a quick way to understeer. - I don't see any toe numbers for the rear listed. I'd be looking at setting them at about 1-2mm toe in each side. This aides in high speed stability and helps tame snap oversteer in slaloms and transitions. - I know nothing about your ARB's but I will say that in general you can take the rear one off and make a lamp out of it. If you are driving aggressively (as one needs to do to put down quick times) it will only hurt you in the snap oversteer department. You want to keep the front one as it helps keep the inside rear tire from lifting while cornering. ------------------------ So - as I recall you are having issues with understeer.....is that right? If so the car set up certainly could be a large factor in that. Your driving could also be a big factor. Tires don't grip unless they have weight on them and if you enter a corner and just fade off the gas and then turn it will understeer. One needs to brake hard to get a weight shift to the front to get those tires to bit. Charge into the corner, lift off the gas and hit the brake as fast as your foot will move and brake hard.....come off the brake and as you turn the wheel. With all that braking shifting weight forward it will not understeer even a little bit. And...If you pass the apex of the turn and with the wheel still turned nail the gas it will probably understeer a lot. Getting onto the gas shifts weight rearward and off the front tires so they will push....while the rears have lots of weight and they will grip....and then you have understeer. If you'd done the above and braked hard and late into the turn and carried as much speed as possible you can start adding gas as you unwind the wheel and you won't make a big weight shift this way. The caveat here is if you have enough grunt you can give it the boot and get the car to rotate on the gas and point in the direction you want to go without much push. This feels fast but can be slow. Showboating is slow. In the end you need to be aggressive to get the most out of it. At first you will do it wrong because you are human like the rest of us and this will result in silly moves like spinning. But you'll feel it and the car will respond with more practice. I hope that makes the water clearer and not muddier. dave

Support.....enable....not much difference in my book. Tell us about your alignment....what are you running for camber and toe front and rear? dave

It really is fun autocrossing these things isn't it? My season has ended with fall/winter weather having moved in but even after 20 years I still get sad when it ends. I might suggest that one of the things hurting your consistency is the old tires. It's very hard to drive around having old tires. Do yourself a favor and get some new tires (yes.....7 years is old) and your driving will improve to match the new grip. Worth every cent. dave

Under what conditions does it understeer? Corner entry? Mid corner? Corner exit? What tires are you using? dave

I've found that the increments provided by the castle nut are too broad and that one position is too loose and the next is too tight. So I made thin shim washers to put behind the nut that that allow for a more fine tuned adjustment. If you're good with scissors you can make shims out of a coke can which is typically about .003" thick. This has worked very well for me in eliminating any play while not having any binding. dave

I'll echo Scannon's input....the Quaiffe makes it sound like there's too much backlash in the gearing. I had one in an Elise and it sounded the same way. dave