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. : Westfield History : . this page tracks my history of owning Westfields/ Caterhams starting from the beginning right up to date.
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After deciding that riding motorbikes over the summer of 2004 like a
lunatic isnt the answer December 2004 starts the hunt for a bike engined
westfield, looked at Megablades as busas seem a a lot of money and more
money than I plan on spending!! good old ebay comes up trumps and a
last minute bid gets me this westfield fitted with a kawasaki zx12
motor,this is the advert I bought it off.Sounded a good idea but what I
perhaps didnt take into account was the fact the car was over the water in
Ireland!!
in Brg imho the worst colour possible, I bought this car from Ireland in february and drove it back in the snow, was soaked to the skin and freezing cold time I landed home 16 hours after I left on the morning!!
my dislike for the colour leads me to a strip down and a repaint, I paint the car outside my house on the drive, Ive chosen house of colour green/purple.
my first ever time on track is at Croft and to say I was nervous was an understatement , Im on bridgestone tyres and the car is aweful, wont go round corners at all, Im holding up pretty much everything im on track with , lap times are around 1.45! I need some tyres before Ican go any quicker!!
a set of Toyo 888 tyres are fitted and next track day sees my times come down to 1.37 so at least this is a step in the right direction!
Ive got the bug for the track now and Ive decided to replace this car with a hayabusa powered westy . zx12 car now up for sale
Westfield number two!
pictures of the car the day I bought it.
I bought this westfield megabusa 1300cc , full race spec with all the whistles and bells allready fitted, frysumped nitrons 4 pots nitrons, freelander diff etc. this car is In gel coat black. car had been stood for 3 years parked on top of a 2 post ramp and has only done 500 miles from new!! . After getting the car Taxed and mot'd first job was to strip the car down ready for a colour change. I changed the bonnet catches for the key type, so other than repairing the holes the bodywork was a straight forward sand down. I hired a friends booth for the afternoon, the colour I used was the house of colour green/ silver-grey. Paintjob turned out good although I must say I'm a little disappointed in the colour, It doesn't flip as much as i'd hoped. When finished the car was rebuilt adding esp carbon effect rear lights. I have fitted a Geartronics gear indicator as its hard to work out what peg you are in sometimes! Pics of car when painted.
After doing a couple of track-days at Croft it became apparent that the standard westfield set up with the oil cooling system has problems it is mounted behind the water rad and this way gets the hot air and isn't very efficient in its cooling, My solution was to remove the oil-cooler take off from the oil filter and instead take a feed from the dry sump scavenge pump to a 18 row mocul cooler mounted in the nose cone and return the cooled oil to the tank. extra holes cut into the nosecone and a shield around the radiator ensuring all cool air has to pass through the rad. I also replaced the Polo rad with a larger Golf radiator. Pics of harewood hill climb and Croft.
After a couple of over ambitious laps on a track day I invested in a roll cage (just in case) It is the westfield supplied cage and came unassembled so I cut it to fit and got it welded up locally I sprayed it satin black for the time being. To get the best out of the handling I have had the car corner weight set up, giving as close to 50/50 set up as we could get, weight with fuel, water and oil came in at 495kgs. All the settings were changed, front wheels were set at 1 degree neg camber , track was set at 1mm tow out, the rear was set 1mm toe in. brake pads changed to Mintex 1144 as the hawk pads were very aggressive and dusty. to get around the tightening noise regs at circuits like Croft I exchanged the westfield silencer for a Wunoff 6" re-pack able silencer. I've never bonded with the grey/green colour I painted the car in originally , so Christmas 2005 once again the car was stripped down, there was a fair bit of chipping to the sides and rear arches, other than this again it is a straight forward sand down, colour chose this time is extreme blue/ green , again in my pals booth the car is first painted in basecoat black, the extreme paint is applied in 3 full even coats, 2 coats of clear-coat with elastic flex additive. The car is air dried over night as fibre glass can distort in the heat of a bake. this time I decide to colour code the cage also. the image wheels are painted black and a set of Toyo 888s fitted for the road. A set of mud flaps constructed to try and save the new paint...
April 2006, To give the clutch more feel engine was stripped and up-rated clutch springs fitted, whilst in there I fitted a high pressure oil pump to help oil-pressure at idle when hot.
May 2006, Changed the exhaust and manifold for a Tech-craft 7" repack able system.
June 2006, New formula BMW radial slicks fitted and just in-case a set of formula Renault wets. Pictures of Croft and Cadwell summer 2006.
I did my first trackday in the wet at Elvington and struggled on the toyo 888s. I switched to the Formula renault wets and the grip was staggering, I would swear I was going quicker than I was in the dry on my slicks!!
Rest of 2006 including a cool trackday in december is spent doing trackdays at cadwell/croft and Elvington, no mods to the car and other than repacking the exhaust to quietening it down and routine maintaining the car runs spot on. The car is now starting to look untidy around the body, the rear arches have a couple of light cracks where I had a coming together with some cones, the front edges of the panels are stonechipped :-( I did think of re-spraying it to make it mint but as I plan to use the car for its purpose this year it seems a little pointless. January 2007 I registered for the Westfield speed series, other than fit a timing strut and fia cut out switch the car is pretty much ready to go. First track day of 2007 Is Elvington, weather was fine , I had recently changed to 16/53 slicks and I found the turn in much better as well as the overall feel of the car. 
March 25th 07 was a track day at croft first time for quite a while Ive been here, what I suffered from understeer a lot of the day and put it down to the change of tyres but what I didn't realise until later is that I had snapped my rear anti roll bar , you can see the front wheel picking up in this picture. strangely I was lapping at a consistent 1.32 with cool track temps.
Next track day was Teeside go-cart track and it was a hoot. Anti roll bar repaired car went well, I spent a lot of time sideways and came to the conclusion that 16/53 tyres are not man enough for the rear so I've ordered some wider ones. The last 6 months or so the car has been getting brake travel, not sure what it is, Ive switched to a mintex 1166 race pad front and 1144 for the rears, the brakes now feel awesome but Im still loosing the pedal and after a hard 20mins on track I'm having to come in and bleed the air out the front calipers. I'm not sure If im boiling the fluid or If I have a leak somewhere, Ive checked all unions and changed to a high temp fluid and this is not making any difference. I've replaced the reverse gearbox with a new one for no reason really as the old one was fine but It was cheap enough and the old one did the same money on good old ebay so why not :-)) First event for the Westfield speed series was April 9th. I entered in class F which is modified up to 2,000cc running 1b tyres , I used my
toyo 888s but the better choice is acb10s as they heat up much quicker.
Practice lap I set a time of 1.28, 2nd practice I caught up the car in front so I got a 3rd practice , this was my quickest of the day at 1.25.8. I ended up winning my class on this my first event, but on reflection Ive decided this is not for me.. not sure whats next but Sprinting is'nt for me.
To get around my brake woes I have replaced the ap single master cylinder with a twin bias set up, more or less a straight swap, I also raised the reservoir tas high as possible so they are the highest point. after a 5 week break from driving the car. Westfield no. 3
. . August 2007 . Ive bought this Megabusa from Terry Everall , this car was the original factory development car, in 2000 it held the 0-100-0 record, since then Terry got the standard 1300cc engine reworked by Carl at Extreme Engines, a new stroked crank was fitted giving an extra 200cc"s straight away then the block was sent away and bored 48cc gicing a new 1548cc capacity, uprated cams , flowed head as well as other mods gives this engine a quoted 252bhp with ram air , Im not sure how accurate these figures are but its A lump quicker/torquier than the standard busa engine !!! . terry used this car for sprints / hillclimbs , so soon as I got It there was quite a few things I had to change as I plan to use it as a track car and rather than doing a couple of minutes I plan on being on track for 1/2 hour a a time. picture of new car when i picked it up.
Im not keen on the megabusa stickers and the all yellow is a bit much so I paint the corners black leaving the front edge of the nose to help with stone chips a good machine polish gets the bodywork looking spanking again!
before changing anything I do a day at cadwell Park , I have a mare with gear selection, missing on the upchange, brakes are not up to what I expected and a snapped antiroll bar sends me into the gravel trap just missing the barriers! hot oil temps forces early bath so I load on trailer and come home!
first job is replace the oil cooler with one the same size as the radiator , I used a 30 row mocal which is more than man for the job.Ive changed the cooling rad from a polo to a golf one as its slightly larger so should also help. Ive removed the paddle change and revert back to the gearstick, Ive also sent the trickshifter back to the manufacturer to be rebuilt, this sees the gears being spot on never missing up or down with the benefit of full throttle clutchless upshifts and down shifts. the rear rims have been sent away to image to get an extra 2" put in so I can run wider rear tyres. Ive bit the bullet and invested in a full roll cage, Ive gone fr a bespoke caged cage made from lightweight t45, car now feels stiffer andI feel safer so its a win - win situation.
Ive added some cannards , a pair of csr front wings and fitted an stainless floor to help with downforce and to smooth out the air flow at sped, Ive also cut and flared the body to let the air out to stop the parachute effect
Last time at Croft the pulled me for induction noise so I have had to invest in a reverie airbox (carbon fibre) Ive also fitted the carbon nose duct to give the engine ram effect, this supposedly increases power, it really quietens down the noise. Whil Im on I replace the old mainfold with a new westfield supplied one. Ive had the car fully corner weighted by Luke Algar and weight with michelin Slicks and cxr rims comes out at 499kg.
One last trackday at cadwell Park for 2007 , we have some wet conditions and I have a few detours onto the green stuff, car goes well but my new westfield supplied exhaust manifold cracks and snaps off at the 2-1, Anyway weather is changing so its parked up till next year.Only winter mods Ive done is to fit a MHC front splitter, idea is to stop the air from getting under the nose causing lift.
Feb 2008, I go and sit my ards test at Croft, was quite straight forward written exam I score 100% and the 20mins on track with an instructor goes well. The car now has to be prepped ready to race, Ive fitted a plumbed in fire extinguisher (£100) with pull activation, one on the dash and the other on the boot lid. I"ve fitted a transponder and fully fireproofed the bulkhead and boot area. A few other bits and pieces and the car shouldnt be far away. March 2008, Ive decided to fit stiffer spring rates, increasing the front from 250lbs to 320lbs and the rear from 150 up to 200lbs. Another trip to Lukes to get the corner weights sorted again, this time I reduce the rake by 5mm. Ive also gone for a wider/taller rear slick to help on top speed, March 5th I do a trackday at Croft cool day temps around 5degrees so wasnt expecting any good grip and although Im sure the car is slower due to the tyres running cool, Im quite amazed to see me lapping at 1.29.8 on road tyres and 1.28.9 on slicks, something has improved, either the aero mods , springs , new tyres or the instruction when I did the ards test..
my introduction to racing!!! (this is a copy of an article I did
for a magazine.)
2 weeks later as a shakedown I booked a
trackday at oulton Park my favourite circuit, there was a decent turnout
from the wscc boardroom and we had a cracking day, My car was absolutely
flying outpacing everything there, I remarked a couple of times during
the day that it had never gone as well. That cursed it, 5mins from the
end of the day the engine let go throwing a rod through the side of the
block, I was so lucky not to collect any of the scenery as I sped
backwards at 80mph.I was towed back to the paddock where I loaded the
broken car into the trailer.
This put me in a predicament, 2 weeks to my
first race and a non running car. I had a decision of rebuilding the
broken 1548cc engine or fit a standard 1300 , I decided on going to
standard 1300 as that would be easier with time etc. that was until I
watched my video of the Oulton, the pace of the 1548 engine was
incredible and it inspired me to cal Carl at Extreme and set the wheels
in motion of rebuilding the engine.I removed the engine and found that
number 2 piston had failed cracking around the gudgeon pin.Carl couldn't
see a problem timewise so I sent the engine to him in pieces, As he was
busy he didn't get a start on it until the start of the next week, once
he got it he realised the other 3 pistons had signs of hairline cracks
so he had to order another 3 pistons, time was running out, the crank
had been sent away to be balanced and the head away to be skimmed and
valves replaced. whilst waiting for this I sent my Westfield exhaust
manifold away to get replicated and made with wider diameter pipes. this
was being made by Tube engineers, that was due back Thursday. To add to
my woes my kids had been suffering the previous week with a
sickness/diarrhoea bug, yep I got that so was feeling very unwell not
daring to go too far from a toilet. I received a call From Extreme on
Wednesday evening to say all the parts had arrived and he would have the
engine ready for collection on Thursday night. As this was to tight to
get collected by courier I had to jump in a car and collect, I set of
Thursday lunch time with a carrier bag and a roll of toilet roll just
in case set off, I called in to collect my exhaust manifold (very good
job) and set away to Peterborough for the engine, a long day out and I
arrived home 11.00.Well at least I had everything to get me for the race
in 2 days.
Friday with some assistance and a lot of
throwing up and toilet visits I fitted the engine, started off the
button and sounded sweet, the running in procedure was a bit hairy, bike
engines need to be run in on full throttle so on a Friday afternoon I
was blasting up and down a quiet bypass for an hour ! That was it all
done ready for the next day and my first race, I couldn't wait !!!
Another bad nights sleep spending more time
on the pan than in my bed , alarm set for 6.30 , still couldn't stomach
food so munching on ginger biscuits I had a steady drive to Coft, Signed
it had the briefing and then scrutineering was no problem thanks to
Bernie's keen advice. I was a touch nervous as It isn't really clear of
what you have to do and the procedure of events. waiting for qualifying
which was a 15minute session to get you fastest lap which denotes your
place on the grid. Just my luck it started to rain on the first lap and
its one of the first times I've driven on 888s in the wet and I cant say
I was impressed. I was lapping around 10secs slower than I had
previously done on trackdays, 3 laps in someone spun in front of me
causing me to hit the grass at around 80mph, I was a passenger I just
hit the brakes and tried to scrub off speed. I ended up about 80 yards
into a corn field !! I managed to keep the car going and get back onto
track, fair enough I thought still time to get a quick lap in, I nailed
it through a few corners but when I hit the brakes I new there was a
problem, brake pedal was creeping to the floor, I managed another 2 laps
but had no confidence so had to come in early without a decent lap. We
checked the car over and found a front brake pipe had fractured, We
managed to repair it but without a pressure bleeder couldn't get a full
pedal. I managed to qualify amazingly at 12th. there was a couple of
hours to wait before the race , I managed some lunch and was starting to
feel a bit better, the weather was very changeable so I swapped tyres
twice before finally settling back to 888s for the start. Warm up lap
was good there seemed to be a dry line round the track brakes were
working but I had to pump the pedal before braking not ideal but I was
going to be a race.
The race start was the bit that had me
anxious,but once I got there I was buzzing, red lights all on then out
they went and we were off, I could have quite easily out paced the cars
in front of me but I decided to find a safe place on the inside going
into the first corner, it was very hectic with cars all over the place
nothing like I had experienced in my trackday experiences, the next
straight I overtook a couple of cars then darted down the inside of
another going into tower corner, this was awesome , like grown up
carting ! the next 3 laps had me up to 6th place and my lap times were
right down within 1 second of the lap record and for some reason the car
didn't feel like it was handling as well as it had it felt like the
tyres were flat almost, I was sideways an awful lot , anyway I thought
just keep it on the black stuff and I'm in with a chance and then it
happened, floored the throttle and the car started cutting out and
misfiring I got as far as Tower and burrrrrrrrrrrrr nothing, I snook
across and parked up and waited for the race to finish, I was devastated
all my chew over the week for 3laps of qualifying and 3 laps of a
race.10mins later the car restarted so I drove it back to parc ferme.
although disappointed I was buzzing from the race I couldn't wait to get
back the following day for race 2.I loaded the car into the trailer and
set off home, I decided to leave the car and sort it Sunday morning, I
was sure the missing was the trickshifter acting up cutting the ignition
so I decided I would remove it for the race.
Sunday morning I got up and pushed the car
out the trailer to be greeted by a huge puddle of water/antifreeze.
after my off at Tower I must have punctured the rad. Not to panic I had
a spare so I went to get it while my pal stripped the front off to
remove it, when I returned he had more bad news the off had also torn
the mount for the wishbone, Not fazed we rung around for a welder but
without success best we could do was an arc welder, stripped all the
side panels of and undertrays to get access but the welder was too
powerful and it blew a hole straight away. That was it race two was a
non starter.To say I was gutted was an understatement with the week I
had with illness and hassle etc but to be honest once I decided I wasn't
going to make the race and another month till my next race it was like
a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
the following few weeks I welded up the
lower arm and reinforced the mounting just in case it did it again, I
checked all the trickshifter connections resoldered them and at the
same time put a bypass switch in so if it did start to play up I could
simply flick the switch and it would override it, I did a few road miles
in the car and it behaved spot on , when I was in the Paddock I noticed
all the road cars were running Kumho v70 tyres, strange I thought as the
look like a normal tyre nothing special but I did notice they were
lapping quick on them, I managed to get a set of 215/50/13 rears and
175/13 fronts and decided to do a trackday in my Busa to try them back
to back against my toyos, unfortunately I failed noise in the busa so
instead I did the same test on My Duratec powered Westfield, the results
quite surprised me the Jumbos were indeed quicker than the 888s and
almost as quick as used slicks I was running, decision made a new set of
Kumhos ordered and on advice given and looking at what everyone else was
running I went with 235/45/13 rears 215/50/13 fronts (I normally run
205 rears/ 185/60/13 fronts) I fitted them to the busa and run them in
on the road.
The weather was looking good and I couldn't
wait for Saturday race day, car now all sorted, I was chilled out as I
had no rushing about to do and was really looking forward to getting
back on track , It was the BARC day so a pretty major event with some
very quick cars out, Our group was qualifying first we were on track at
9.30 so another early morning for me, I don't normally get up until 8.30
so this is a shock to the system!
I had a finicky scrutineer this time and he
made me change a bolt in the steering rack, a quick fix and I was ready
to go, there wasn't a lot of entrants for this race and optimistically I
had a good feeling about not only a class win but comparing how quick I
can lap on track days I actually fancied my chances of being in the top
3 of the race . Qualifying was cool but dry, so off we went, first few
corners I was understeering like crazy and was really struggling with
front end grip, even on lap 3 this was still the case and I was 6
seconds under what I could do on trackdays on my 888s. I was hoping this
was going to improve once I got them hot but have to say at that point I
felt I had made the wrong choice! lap 3 I exited the hairpin and I'm
sure the car hesitated, nailing it down the pit straight I held a 300bhp
Duratec matched it into the chicane then burrrrrrrrrr engine cut out, I
immediately thought here we go trickshifter again , I eased off and
flicked the switch that I fitted to over ride it, no different, f***
F*** F*** I was screaming the car set away again and I was off again but
only managed another lap before it started backfiring and missing, I
limped it back to the paddock, Once again devasted. I had a quick look
around all the engine connections but couldn't see anything, I made a
decision there and then that I was selling the car. I loaded it in the
trailer and set off home , came through the door and put a for sale ad
on the boardroom.
I ended up removing the 1548cc engine and
selling the car as a standard 1300 , the cutting out turned out to be a
crank sensor which I replaced before I sold the car. It was maybe a bit
quick and short sited of me to sell the car but a serious of hassles
over the last few months was enough and It was getting me down.
Westfield 4.
Sick of bec Ive bought a Westfield Duratec. good spec with all the right bits on.this car has been bumped at the front by its previous owner, very little damage and an afternoons work its back on the road again, Have to say with only circa 170bhp its pedestrian slow compared to my busa but after doing half a dozen trackdays in it its one of the most fun westys Ive owned, as its so slow I fing myself driving the socks off it and suprised myself by keeping up with pretty much everything I put it against. Ive changed the gearbox from an Mt75 to a type 9, replaced the diff with a 3.9 lsd , and upgraded the brakes all round. As a road car this is streets ahead of the bike engined cars and unbelieveable on fuel! A reluctant sale after only 3 months but Ive just bought a Caterham Duratec so onwards and upwards!
The next Chapter Caterham duratec.
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