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My Westfield
I built my Westfield for the Road and Track Days after driving my mate Andy McBlip's Megabusa at numerous Trackdays; and the first time I drove his car I was hooked. The sound and feel of the revving bike engine, the feel of the sequential gears, the acceleration, braking, and cornering forces all attacked my senses so much I had to build my own.
Plan A
To build a Westfield Mega with Suzuki Hayabusa engine was obviously what I wanted, when I looked into building a Westfield with all the right parts and with a Suzuki Hayabusa engine with the associated dry sump etc. I realised that the price would me more than I could afford.
Plan B
Find out if I could get a good quality cheaper kit and save a lot of money there! Because I wasn't into the kit car scene I did a bit of investigation checked out a couple of different manufacturers Caterham, etc. Birkin, Fisher Fury, Locost (building my own chassis) although easy enough to do would take quite a lot of time by the time all brackets and mountings were installed, and Stuart Taylor Motorsport cars any kit would have to be built with a motorbike engine.
I decided on the Westfield due to good kit quality, and the fact that I already had a good feel for the Westfield because of driving my friend's car at various track days as his was a factory built full spec car, this would give me something to aim for performance wise.
The chosen kit
I decided on a WESTFIELD basic starter kit with V8 bonnet and removable rear wings and slightly lighter lay-up fibreglass body, I also asked for a lightweight chassis made out of 18 gauge metal same as their race car chassis but Westfield told me they wouldn't sell me one if I was going to put the vehicle on the road, they told me that the chassis would crack with road use.
I personally didn't belief that as I thought the bike engined kits all had the lightweight chassis, I couldn't persuade him to sell me one even though he knew I was putting a bike engine in the car, this annoyed me but I just wanted to get on and order the kit.
Finding the Money
I used to Drag Race a Beetle in the VWDRC and I was building a Tube Frame Car to enable me to run a street legal car into the 9 sec bracket, my old conventional chassied steel bodied street car had run 10.65 et in 1/4 mile racing before with a turbo beetle engine. I sold all the bits off, and my old Ford Prefect Street Rod which I had built and owned for 23 years to get enough money for the new project. I had forgotten that whatever you think the cost of building the car would be you can double it, and that will be much closer to the final cost. (maybe I was in denial) but I thought I had enough money to build my Westfield. I decided to start with what I had accumulated and gradually save as and when.
Ordering the kit
I ordered a basic starter kit for the sierra engine, steering wheel, steering rack, steering column, and various other little parts. One interesting point worth noting was that I wanted a V8 bonnet for the bike engine when I asked if I could have it instead of the standard bonnet I was told that would be £50 extra for that bonnet!!!!! I phoned the stores and they quoted me the same price for either bonnet so I told the salesman and he said he was told to charge more, he then changed his mind. I also managed to get a price reduction on the extra parts of another £50 because I didn't want the boot box or spare wheel carrier. I also had the chassis powder coated along with the wishbones. I was told the kit would be 6 weeks but it was ready in 3 weeks I was pretty chuffed. Oh yes it also had to be orange.
The Build
I am not going to bore everyone with a nut and bolt build as there are numerous build sites far better than I can do also I haven't got a job in I.T. where I can sit there all day doing my own thing on the P.C and get paid for it like some lucky kit builders out there, so time is important.
The things I am going to concentrate on are the modifications I have made to the chassis mounting the engine etc etc, just in case other people out there might have an interest in carrying out similar mods.
Click here to go to the Basic Spec of my Westfield
with build modification list and pictures.
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