Davemk1

Not many great days left in the season before the snow takes a firm hold but today was stunning. dave

You know Len?! Very cool. I hope he's feeling somewhat better now - Please give him my best. dave

It's that time of year - snow is forecast for tomorrow which means the road will all be sanded so even if/when the snow melts the corners will all be gritty and slippery. So despite the fact that it was only 43° today I went out for a blat through Bridger Canyon and out to some of my favorite roads going to Sedan, Montana. The drive was just about 70 miles and it ended all too soon. I'd better get to work now! Dave

I'm looking forward to more details on the Omex/Honda throttle bodies with some dyno numbers. dave

Cool stuff. I'm a bicycle framebuilder who has a decades long relationship with Reynolds and their top guy Keith who is named in the article. I use Reynolds tubes exclusively on my bikes and they make many of the tubes I use just for me and to my specs. I can see no reason why they can't cut the chassis weight by 10% while making is stronger at the same time....no doubt in a true space frame there are a long of places the tube walls could be significantly thinner and since they should be in tension of compression only they can deal with the stresses well. I know Westfield uses Reynolds tubes on their wide track front A arms with great success and expect that this kind of thing will spread. The only problem is that the cost will go up in a serious way. DOM steel tubes are as cheap as dirt but good high strength butted steel isn't....not even close. dave

Very Nice! Dave

2014 Westfield Mega S2000 - 1375 lbs with a brim full tank. dave

Have you spent much time in a Seven? I love mine and use it a lot but it does take some time to get used to how low and exposed you are. If you by chance haven't spend much time in one then I would catch a ride in one and do it in the type of traffic you might see on a commute and see how it feels. It's not for everyone. FWIW - my wife loves my car on a country road or the autocross course but will not get in it if we are headed into any traffic at all. dave

If they offered that for sale it would make my very short list. dave

How much is involved in fitting a Duratech? Obviously exhaust and motor mounts.....ECU I assume also. It should would be tempting to have the simple grunt of a Duratech and have the exhaust on the other side. dave

Bummer. Thanks for making my place a stop. I hope you enjoyed your time here before heading off into the heat. dave

Cool car - what size/brand rubber are you using? dave

With the live axle car you can improve things in a HUGE way by getting rid of the stock control arms and putting in arms with rose joints on the end. They benefit the car it two significant ways. First is that you get ride of a large amount of stiction so that the axle can move up and down with ease and not have all those rubber joints adding resistance. This will help keep the rear wheels stuck to the floor which of course is a challenge in a live axle car due to the unsprung weight of the set up. Next is harder to explain......the rubber bushed ends in the stock arms rotate in a barely acceptable way but they do not allow the car to lean to one side very well. This is due to the ends not wanting to let the axle come out of plane with the chassis. Off the cuff this would seem to be a good thing as it helps keep the car from leaning as much.......but it's really not a good thing as it acts like a very stuff anti-roll bar (sway bar) and it does a vey good job of over-weighting the outside tire and nearly lifting the inside tire. This means one tire (inside) is doing very little work and the other tire (outside) is trying to do too much and can't handle the load. The combination of the two is a car with a rough and bouncy ride that does not feel connected to the road and when pushed at all in a corner it tends to snap oversteer and wants to go backward into the shrubs. I owned a live axle Birkin years ago and it was tough to drive anywhere near the limit and then I replaced the crap control arms and the car came alive and felt like it should. A much smoother ride and a higher limit if traction .......and......and easier time approaching the limit. A win-win-win. I bought mine from a guy who made Birkin parts named Woody and his business was in Vacaville CA. I don't recall the name of the biz. Good luck and have fun. dave

Does your car have a live rear axle or IRS? dave

I did that on my Birkin whose fenders felt like they were made of paper mache. The one side is protected by the exhaust pretty well and that helps.....combine that with the fact that Westfield made the things really strong and heavy and it seems to be a non-issue so far. I opted for the detachable rear fenders (stock they are moulded one piece with the main body) so I can remove them if repair is needed or I can just replace the if need be. All that said I've hit a few with the rear fenders and they didn't show and sign of stress. dave

Thanks so much. It's funny - one can drive most anything that rolls on the highway here in Montana as long as it has a front plate - it seems to be the only thing the cops really care about and I got pulled over a few times for not having one on the Birkin and Elise I'd owned in the past and thought it best to not 'invite' such visits in the future. But finding a way to attach a plate to the front of the Westy was problematic. I didn't want to drill any holes in the bodywork and I didn't want the attachment or the plate to damage the car should I whack a cone with that part of the car. So the plate has a few bends it in and it is only attached to the splitter and had a foam backing where it sits against the nose. This allows the splitter to flex upward and the plate with it doing no damage to the nose and for the most part the plate looks normal to a cop passing by. State law says the plate can't be modified in size or shape but it doesn't say it can't be bent....and it seems that 1/2 the front plates on cars here are bent up pretty good from being pushed into snow banks during the winter and no one gets pulled over for this reason. As for the different tire/wheel sizes - it works out well that the skinny street tires are taller and they allow room to get over speed bumps and the such and the smaller race wheels/tires lower the car by just over an inch and of course lower the weight and gearing so that it will pull much harder out of slow corners. So I use the 205/50-15's on the street and the 9 x 20 - 13 tires for solo and I get ground clearance on the street and low ride height on course. The smaller tires would limit top speed on track but this isn't a concern with solo. I'm looking forward to this weekend and come canyon carving and next weekend for some solo. dave

Hey - A post in a different thread suggested I post a few more current photos of my Westfield Mega S2000. I've had it on the road for about 10 months and 3300 miles now and it's been nearly flawless. Nothing big has fallen off, the fluids haven't all gushed out in hot anger and it's never even hesitated to start. All good stuff. I built it to use as a mixed street/autocross car and did a few events late last summer on street tires just to make sure everything worked and to get a good baseline. This spring I put it on rather fat slicks and the grip went up more than just a little bit as you might imagine. I opted for wide tires that are smaller in diameter to lower both the car and the gearing and it's working very well so far. My first event of the year I took my class and FTD and it should get better as I get the alignment optimized for the bias ply slicks (Hoosier 20 x 9 - 13's). The wheels are lightweight steel 13 x 10. Over the winter I pulled the engine and installed a baffle in the sump and an aluminum flywheel and it rev's a good bit quicker now with a flywheel that weighs 1/2 of the stock Honda part. I also installed a new replacement limited slip diff sent by Westfield when the original started making evil banging noises. The new one is a Quaiffe and works perfectly and is quiet. One thing that is new to me is trailering the car to events. I've always driven my race car to events......I had a Birkin S3 and a Lotus Elise that I drove 100 miles one way to events and rather liked it. But my wife liked it much less and wanted me to buy a trailer and start towing so that I wouldn't be on the interstate in the Westy. She gives me all the support in this odd hobby I could ever ask for so I got the trailer and at the first event backed the trailer into my own car - don't worry the trailer wasn't damaged! The damage to the nose cone was really limited and I got very lucky that I really just tapped the Seven. The tough part of repairing the Westy is that it's not painted but instead has a gel-coat finish that it near impossible to match. So I made zero attempt to match it and instead masked off the lips and had the body shop spray it the same color as my daily driver a Mini Cooper S. The color is Liquid Yellow. I like how it came out and took the opportunity of having the grill out to spray the Westfield logo white so that few folks would stare blankly at the car and ask what brand it is. I'll be going back in at least one more time to tweak the alignment to work with the race tires (lowering ride height just a tad and reducing camber a bit) and then checking the corner weights and I should be good for a while. Dinner time here - stay well. dave

I solo my Westfield a good bit........it's as much a street car as a race car but I love racing it. We have events that take place at a very large facility and speeds are consistently pretty high with 70 mph slaloms being common. My Westfield would get front end lift and dramatic understeer at 65-70 mph under full throttle and it would barely change direction. I think is is largely due to the rearward weight shift of being full on with the throttle as it will cruise and turn at 70 mph and the front didn't feel overly light. I designed and built the front splitter to reduce the front end lift and it seems to do the job. It feels much more connected and the high speed understeer is gone. On the road it has a more settled and hunkered down feeling at speed. So does aero make a difference in solo? I'd say it depends. If the solo is being held in a small lot with just s short burst to 60 mph in a straight line and turns being taken at 35 mph then I would guess there is little to be gained.......if on the other and the event is big and open and one is making turns at 70+ mph then my experience says that yes it makes a difference. dave

The Seven shape is pretty darn good at creating front end lift - my Westy would lift and understeer in a big way when accelerating hard above 70 mph. I then made a very simple splitter and the push is gone and things are nice and stable at speed. dave

Looks good! dave

PM sent. dave

You might also consider a Westfield. I've owned a Birkin (1999 small body) and I'm 6'4" and it was a very tight fit in that car. I built my Westfield about a year ago and I chose it for two reasons - the first is that the longer cockpit fits me perfectly and secondly they offer a version that uses the Honda S2000 engine and trans and it's one of the finest lumps ever made....it really suits the character of a Seven IMHO. The finished product is a ball to drive and very quick. Something to consider. dave

I realize I will be in the minority here but I think Lotus offering an SUV is a very good thing. Mind you I will never buy any SUV regardless of brand but SUV sales very well could shore up the bottom line at Lotus allowing them to continue to produce the cars I love the brand for. I recall the uproar when Porsche announced their SUV and many said this would be the death of their sports cars but of course the exact opposite has been true. The SUV profits allowed Porsche to survive and continue to make the cars that sports car fans know them for. I think there is almost no way that Lotus can keep the lights on with the very small number of specialty sports cars they currently put out the door and if the SUV diversifies the product range enough to turn the bottom line from red to black that can only be a good thing. dave

It's an interesting question and so far most responses have concerned themselves with the supply side of things......I think this wrongly assumes there is demand and that "if you build it they will come....." I don't think this is the case. I think many a car builder has gotten into the biz thinking that they can't be the only ones that think a certain design would be really popular just because they themselves like it so much only to find out that no one feels as strongly as they do and that the phone never rings. These are very cool cars with very limited appeal and my guess is that the supply and demand are pretty well balanced. dave

Very cool to see another one about to hit the road. I'm having a great time with mine. dave