Mr. Westfield is only wearing street rubber at the moment, so there isn't much grip, but they seem to be indestructible! I did so much sideways stuff my neck was getting sore, and it didn't seem to wear them out at all, despite the clouds of vaporized rubber - the car is that light. I do have a set of R888 performance tyres, but didn't want to fit them prior to having the baffle in place.
Will be back at the track on the 16th and 17th next month. The baffle should be welded to the sump, so I will fit the better tyres. Watch this space. . . In the meantime, here is one of the early laps - still taking it gingerly and not going up to the red line. Was toying with the Elise at the end of the straightaway - wanted to keep Alex in front to get some footage of him (honest)!
And here is Alex doing his best to destroy the tires:
My younger son, Alex, flew in from Montreal to help get the car to the track and do the dynamic testing!
Someone is ready for the track
I had previously set up the geo(short for suspension geometry - basically ensuring everything is pointing vaguely in the right direction) myself using a homemade camber gauge (the results were consistent with the results from an iPhone app) and the "string box" method of setting the toe-in. I rechecked everything now to ensure everything was OK, as I had had to make some adjustments to the front after the quick-release hub was fitted to the column as the wheels were not pointing straight ahead. I stiffened up the dampers (to maximum clicks at the front and 2 less at the back) as with two-up, the mounting plates of the side-impact bars were grounding (grinding?) out. I don't particularly want to increase the ride height, so we will see what that does. Everything has been set up assuming there will be just a driver (me) in the car.
Once I have everything shaken down at the track, I plan to get the geo done properly, along with proper corner-weighting. Time for a quick spin:
Time for some sticky-backed plastic
I had to take the car back to Signature Graphics to have the nosecone attended to (there was a slight ripple in the wrap around the nose), so while we were there, I had 3M protective film applied to the rear wings and the side of the body where they attach. The film is really tough and practically invisible, so we will see how it holds up. It's worth having the professionals apply this stuff!
So, with the Mini support vehicle loaded up with tools and every spare part we could lay our hands on, along with several jerry cans of race fuel, we set off for the track, which is about 250 miles away - not a bad distance for the first long drive. The car was impeccable, cruising comfortably at 85 (Officer, I had to go faster because there was a vibration in the cycle wing at 80!). My only gripe being a numb bum after 90 minutes or so and an ache in my left leg due to the fact there is no room for a footrest in an LHD car. Both were sorted with a pitstop required because of the tiny fuel tank (must be why they designed it that way). Was getting over 30 mpg (that's a US gallon), so not that bad at all. I drove with a helmet on the highway - quite glad I did as I got pinged with a few small rocks along the way. There were a lot of stares from the other vehicles on the road. Surprisingly, I didn't get pulled over. When we stopped for gas, I was immediately surrounded by a small crowd (mostly of older ladies) who wanted to know what it was.
The track in question is Inde Motorsports Ranch in Willcox, Arizona, a private member facility, which is probably one of the finest in the country. We were fortunate to have the track completely to ourselves on Wednesday and Thursday, which was ideal for setting up and testing the limits of the car. A number of other members were down on Friday, so that gave us the chance to see how the Westfield stacked up.
Ready for action
That car is made for the track - the engine has a significant amount of grunt at higher revs and that combined with the light weight of the car meant that my Lotus Elise couldn't keep up with it on the straightaway (or pulling out of fast corners), however, the Elise was initially quicker around the track, due to superior aerodynamics, better tyres, and the ability to brake harder, (more about that later), but nowhere near the grin-factor of the Westfield. Apart from anything else, you just feel you are going way faster in the Westfield.
Westfields seem to feed on large bugs!
The Westfield takes some getting used to though - and it was not helped by the fact we were only running with street tyres - a good set of track tyres will help immensely. Because of the light weight, you have to be very careful to match the revs when changing down, or you will spin! Initially, we had a big problem with the rears locking up under heavy braking, remembering there is no ABS (which is why I felt I couldn't brake as hard as in the Elise). Plus you have to remember to get on the gas gradually, or you will end up going sideways quickly! I spun off in places I didn't know existed.
We spent some time moving the brake bias towards the front (a bias bar is essential for a track car), and we got it to the point where the front was locking up just before the rear, then dialed it back a bit (you do not want the fronts locking up first on track), so the rears would grab a fraction early. We also softened up the suspension slightly (8 clicks on the front and 5 on the rear) which seemed to help. It only bottomed out with two us in the car. With driver only it was fine.
The changes to the brakes and dampers made a huge difference to the handling, which meant the other adjustments to make were to driving style (more smoothness on brakes and throttle input coming out of corners. After three days we both had more confidence in taking the car near (or past its limits) and could keep pace with the Elise (which was running on slicks, and we have been driving for 10 years so we know what its limits are). In fact, I believe the Westfield was marginally faster, even on street tyres, as we caught the Elise easily on the straight.
The only problems we had during three hard days on the track was the gear knob came loose (fixed with some lock-tite on the grub screws) and, annoyingly, the bolt attaching the upper steering column to the middle section at the U-joint kept coming loose slightly, which resulted in a small amount of for-aft play in the wheel, but not enough to be dangerous. I am not sure to address this, as it seems the groove in the column is bigger than the diameter of the bolt - I will see if a larger bolt fits the UJ. After a hard session I did notice the oil pressure was low. I don't have a baffle fitted in the sump yet (being rectified this week), but I think an oil cooler and/or dry sump may be in the offing. When the car was low on gas it did lean out and splutter a couple of times, so it looks like I will have to fit the swirl pot after all. Oh, and Alex hit the ignition toggle once and shut everything off as he changed down from 4th to 3rd, which was quite amusing. I did notice one of the cycle wings was rubbing on the tyre slightly, so I will have to keep an eye on that.
The baffling sump issue
The factory-supplied baffle isn't a great fit, but it should do the job. I presume it just needs tacking in place - no need to weld all the way round, I suppose?
If going sideways is your idea of fun (it is mine), the car is unbelievable, if you have the LSD fitted. It is very chuckable, and steers easily on the throttle - a drifter's dream. That is the main reason I kept the street tyres on!
The head instructor at the track took the Westfield out and came back with a huge grin on his face - he said he wouldn't change a thing - mind you, he did need his legs shortening a bit, with the seat as far back as I could get it, his left knee was close to the wheel
(The seat fouls on the rear seatbelt mount, so stops about 2" short of the full travel - it's fine for me, so that's all that really matters).
the side impact bars came back from the fabricator and powder coating - they fitted the car perfectly, or so I thought.
We hadn't actually fitted up the half-cage with the side bars in place, and when the fabricator moved the rear mounting plate so that the front mounting holes would line up, he had to weld in additional plating at the back for the bars to mount to. Once I realized what the problem was there was much swearing. After much thought and more swearing, I decided the only solution was to cut the freshly powder coated bars - the half-cage sits on top of the bars and spreads out slightly from the bottom, so the cage was fouling on the additional plating - the bottom mounting plate on the half-cage was about 15 mm above where it needed to be. So I cut as much as I could out of the additional plating, trying not to go as far as the fresh welding (I did go through it slightly, so had to reweld a small portion, but it should not affect the integrity of the joint). I fine tuned it with a flap disc on an angle grinder and went down as far as I dared, but it still wasn't quite enough. Fortunately, the side impact bars come with spacers to level out the cage if you only fit a side impact bar to one side - the spacers were just enough to bridge the gap. So a lucky escape and all fitted up nicely, except that the addition of a spacer now meant that the holes I had previously drilled in the lower stays didn't align any more, so they needed enlarging.
All in all, it was a great, but frustrating, workout, as I must have tried to fit the half cage at least a dozen times, if not more. It took a Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to complete the whole job.
Quite a lot of plumbing
The fabricator's welds weren't the neatest, I have to say. I used spray paint to cover where I cut/welded/ground the powder coat off. I doesn't show to the casual observer. but I think I will now have to paint all of the bars, as the colour doesn't quite match.
There is very little clearance to the body:
You can just about slide a sheet of paper in there
Having these bars on gives a greater sense of security on the road as they provide a nice cage around your elbows! Hopefully they will never be put to use on the track.
So here is the finished product:
Fancy seeing that in the rearview mirror?
Fake Lotus or Fake Porsche?
Interesting comparison of 1950s British and German sportscar design!
