Davemk1

This may have been addressed but i don't recall seeing it...........but, and this is with all due respect and then some, have you driven a Seven before? If you have then you will have a good idea of what lay ahead of you and that is a very good thing. If not I would suggest doing what you can to take a drive, or get a ride, in one before embarking on your adventure. I've owned two Sevens (a Birkin and my current Westfield) and many friends think it would be really fun to long distance tour in one.........and then I give them a 20 mile ride and they most often change their minds. Many will say something like "I know what it would be like because I got a ride in a Miata once" and the difference between a Seven and a 'normal' car like a Miata is much greater than most would anticipate. To me they are much more like a very low 4 wheeled motorcycle than they are a car. I've loved most every mile I've logged in Sevens over the years (about 30,000 miles and counting) but I've never been seriously tempted to make a long distance road trip or spend any time on an interstate highway. But a sunny and cool weekend morning and some empty back roads and I'm in heaven. I hope it all works out for you regardless of what you end up doing. These things are so much damn fun. Enjoy. dave

You are referring to side-to-side weight which can not be adjusted out using the coil over spring perches. One can however have a car with even ride heights and 50-50 corner weights but you will always end up heavy on the driver's side due to the weight of the driver. dave

That looks great! Did you, or will you, install a clear bar material on the sides? dave

I run a Westfield with an S2000 engine an trans and it's wonderful. I see zero reason to go with boosted brakes on your car. Size the masters right and it will be great. My car has dual masters with a bias bar and of course no booster and the pedal is firm and high and the power and modulation is perfect. As for exhaust - I'm wondering if the Westfield S2000 header might work for you. It of course bolts right up to the Honda engine and comes out the side at a good angle for a seven. I wonder if maybe you could use the entire system - header, second pipe and muffler? Something to consider. dave

I think having her sit in a car would be a good idea........that said I've owned both an Elise and a Birkin S3 and the Elise is like a limo in comparison. You sit in the Elise and you wear a Seven. dave

I insure my Westfield with Grundy and when I spoke them them they were surprised to learn I lived in the state of Montana and didn't just register a car here! Once they found out I actually lived here all was good. dave

Beautiful ride you have there. Have fun! dave

I'll be the first to say that you really need to post a photo or two. Congrats on the purchase! dave

I was so very sorry to hear of your father's passing. I didn't know him beyond some phone calls but I got the sense that he was a good man. I was the previous owner of this car and I just loved it. I sold it to buy an Elise thinking that doors and windows would be a good thing but after a few years moved back into a Seven with a Westfield. Whoever ends up with this car is going to have a lot of fun as the handling is just wonderful and now with that much more power I'll bet it's a real rocket. Good luck with the sale. dave

Have you tried Roger Kraus racing? http://rogerkrausracing.com/ dave

Powder Brake - Butted tubing was first developed for the bicycle business a very long time ago. The outside diameter of the tube remains constant so the tube looks 'normal' but the wall thickness is greater at the ends and thinner in the middle. The thinner middle section (where the stress is low) saves weight and the thicker ends keep the strength where needed. One of the issues one sees when you weld tubes together is that the welded area, due to the heat used during joining, becomes weaker and the added wall thickness is used to keep the strength up in that highly stressed area. So just like with a bike frame butted tubes can cut weight while not lowering the strength or having a significant effect on stiffness. All good stuff. I think the difficult thing for Caterham will be that they will go from using 20' long mill runs of tubing that they just cut to length to having a specific tube for each and every section of the space frame. Managing this inventory and all the SKU's will no doubt be a challenge. I've had a 25 year relationship with the tubing company Reynolds (through the high end bike biz) and know that they can offer cut-to-size services and this might make the whole thing that much easier for Caterham to deal with on the production floor. They could in effect have Reynolds deliver a tube set in a crate with all the tubes needed for a chassis cut to length and mitered at the ends as need be so that Cat would just load the tubes into the jig and start welding. This would no doubt cost an arm and a leg up front but drastically cut down on labor cost in cutting tubes to fit into the jig. I expect to see Reynolds offering special titanium tubes this summer for the upcoming ultra light Ariel Atom. They should be able to cut chassis weight by about 30% compared to the steel they are using but I expect cost to double or more. Ti ain't cheap. dave

I agree - the First Amendment and "freedom of speech" only applies when one of parties involved is the congress/government. If the government is not involved it's just citizens expressing themselves. In this case it boils down to manners and being polite. To my knowledge there is no law that says I can't go to church on sunday morning wearing an anti-religion T shirt.......the only practical thing that keeps this from happening is peer pressure and respect for the institution. I think where the trump thing has come off the rails is that trump himself has shown disrespect and contempt for so many and that they feel compelled to push back and shout him down. He expressed himself and they countered. It's the same with a KKK rally........they get a permit and they say what they say and fly their flag and they are legally within their rights to do so. And likewise those that disagree with the KKK can stand across the street with their own flag. I think the old adage "if you can't take it, don't dish it out" and trump wants a one sided conversation. It doesn't work that way in public life. It may work that way in his private business but once out in public all bets are off. Or as my dad would have said - "don't sh!t where you eat." dave

I've been working on the car getting it ready for the upcoming solo season and doing my best to drop some weight and increase the power a bit. Most weight savings changes don't look like much but this one does. I've installed an aeroscreen in place of the windshield and dropped 20 pounds while reducing drag in a real way. So far I'm up to 67 lbs of savings this winter with another 15-20 to go before the first event. Next up is the carbon dash and lighter battery and then onto the big one - Omex ITB's for the S2000 powerplant. Fun stuff. dave

I don't know what is used statewide but here in southwest Montana no salt is used to my knowledge. One of the big draws to this area is fly fishing and there real concern about what road chemicals can do to the water and the fishing.......and no one wants to risk the big cash fishing brings into this area. It's fun to see 40 year old cars still on the road being used as daily drivers and while the paint is faded rust is extremely rare. We are technically a high alpine desert in this area so the humidity is very low and desert dry so even wood doesn't rot let alone metal. dave

We are lucky that in Montana they do not salt the roads - they put sand and gravel down on corners but nothing on the straights. So there is no worry of corrosion being an issue. I have driven my Westfield over short sections of hard packed, snow covered roads and it's doable and novel for the first 200 yards and then is just seems silly. I think if I had real snow tires on the car it could be fun if there weren't other big cars out there slipping around on all season tires (they suck in all seasons!). But winter is ski and fatbike season and spring will be here soon and I can drive the car the way it's meant to be driven - hard. dave

Living in Montana I'd never drive my car if I waited for warmth.....but I draw the line at snow covered roads. dave

If it dies suddenly that tells me it's electrical. If it was the fuel pump I would think it would sputter for a few seconds as the fuel pressure dropped too low to run. It sounds like a bad coil or an intermittently bad ground. Good luck!! dave

When it dies does it sputter to a stop or does it die suddenly while running normally? dave

I have been loving it for over a year and a half - about 5500 miles on the car since I got it on the road. I look forward to the ITB's adding just a bit of midrange grunt. dave

Why of course I'm still waiting for you to send me one! I have ordered a set of Omex ITB's specifically designed to work with the Westfield. The throttle response is supposed to be very quick and it looks like I'll see about a 15-20 ft/lbs bump at 5000 rpms and 15hp over most of the curve. Should be nice. It won't have the extreme bump that a blower has but it will have better throttle response and keep it legal for my SCCA solo class. I'll know in about 4-6 weeks how it all works. dave

Good question - it's the standard Westfield logo but I don't know the origin of the sunburst design. Maybe it's an homage to all the sun they see in England?........maybe not. I'm sure there could be more Sevens in the state that I know of but to my knowledge there are three - two Birkins in the northern part of the state and mine Westfield in the southwest. That makes 147,000 square miles and three Sevens. I see many exotic cars online and in magazines that have MT plates that I'm sure have never set a wheel on the ground here but no emissions testing makes it a desirable place to register one. I wonder how many Seven's are registered here? dave

Hello All - I just wanted to show off the die-cut Westfield decal that Manik recently had made. I wanted to fly the Westfield flag a bit higher and the big logo certainly does that. Lots of mechanical upgrades and some weight reduction happening this winter and I'm very excited for spring autocross season to come. Happy New Year! dave

Bring-a-trailer has a few listed - http://bringatrailer.com/search/?s=westfield dave

I've lusted after the Eleven for so long and would love one but fear that being 6'4" tall would mean there would be more of me sticking out of the car instead of being in it! I have a Westfield Mega S2000 that I fit very well in so life isn't all that tough dave

For something simple like this I would just go to your local Ace hardware and buy the rivet puller they sell there. It works fine and it's cheap. I wouldn't want to pull hundreds of rivets with it but for general repairs they work more then fine. dave