modification and racing
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Sport vs race seat.
[photo 272]
We have a race seat to try out. It's absolutely beautifully made. And a bit of a tight fit. Definitely not for the big kids.
[photo 271]
A late arrival, the heatshield for the exhaust.
[photo 270]
Because the car will eventually be making ridiculous amounts of horsepower, we're considering an oil cooler. There's a nice mounting spot where the factory intake is supposed to go, although it won't get ideal airflow.
[photo 269]
We were happy to discover that Flyin' Miata's aftermarket fans will bolt right up to the Westfield radiator.
[photo 268]
We have a series of magazine tests coming up, so it's time for some serious work on the Westie. One of the things we're going to do is install a 1.8 engine, so out comes the faithful 1.6.
[photo 267]
With Keith driving, the Westfield posted the fastest time of the day by a margin of 1.7 seconds!
[photo 266]
Bill tries his first autocross in five years. The course involved doing two laps of the lower section of the course. Bill was having so much fun he made three laps on one run.
[photo 265]
While there haven't been a lot of updates recently, the car isn't sitting in the garage. After another trip to Moab for a big Miata event, the Westfield came out for an autocross over the weekend.
[photo 264]
Bill relocated the battery on the Westfield from the factory location to the passenger's footwell. At the same time, the battery was replaced with an Odyssey PC680, about half the size and weight of a stock unit. Lower center of gravity and less weight? Sounds like a plan. There's no real loss of legroom, most people can just barely touch the battery with their feet.
[photo 263]
How do you hold the grilles in place when you're working on them? If you're Bill, you go a little crazy with extra bits of wood and zipties.
[photo 262]
To secure the grille, Bill tried gluing it with seam sealer.
[photo 261]
As you can see, the Westfield fit right in in Moab. However, we got about 40 mpg on the trip in to Moab. It's unlikely any of these trucks did.
[photo 260]
Road testing, yes. We took the two lightweights down to the Moab car show. 200 miles round trip, twisty roads, brilliant sunshine and warm weather. Bill reports that the intake temperatures were a bit higher than he would prefer, but they're not out of line for a car with the intake underhood. He also needed a bit more damping in the rear with two people on board. The quality of the ride was exceptional other than the odd bottoming out in the rear. The car performed flawlessly on the whole trip, with the only failure being one of the grilles coming loose in the nose. We'd tried holding them in with hot glue, that isn't the right choice.
[photo 259]
The Westfield sailed through the inspection, and is just waiting for an assigned ID. In the meantime, we're doing a bit of road testing on dealer tags. And finally, our Westfield meets Keith's Seven.
[photo 258]
Before the inspection, Bill shines up the Westfield. The naked chassis next to it is a complete Miata powertrain. In the Westfield, the engine is much further back.
[photo 257]
Our hazard light switch is one of the only parts we had to buy for the car. It integrates nicely into the dashboard. The trim around the shifter was added by Keith to clean up the interior a little.
[photo 256]
The Westfield uses the cutest little wipers you've ever seen. Awwww. Bill's working his way through the few things that need to be done for a roadworthiness inspection on Friday.
[photo 255]
The front indicators mounted. These are in a nice solid casing. For those who lust after the Ariel Atom, you'll be surprised to know that the Westfield turn indicator mounts are a much better made piece.
[photo 254]
More holes, this time for the front indicators.
[photo 253]
The motor is mounted under the scuttle. It drives a cable that's inside the copper piping. A couple of wheelboxes then translate the movement into wiper sweeps.
[photo 252]
The wiper wheelboxes and windshield squirter in place.
[photo 251]
Step one for installing the wipers - drill holes. We seem to be doing a lot of this.
[photo 250]
Time to install the wipers! The Lucas wiper motor and drive are very flexible, perfect for using on a car like ours. In fact, it's probably what was fitted to the very first Lotus Sevens.
[photo 249]
Our battery is mounted fairly high on the scuttle. The car has prodigious passenger legroom so we're considering moving it to the passenger footwell.
[photo 248]
Diving into the Corkscrew. Bill reports that almost nothing else was able to keep up with the Westfield on track, although he did wish for more horsepower on the long straights. With the alignment changes, the car had much more front end grip and was well balanced. Our cornerweighting helped with a right front that was eager to lock up as did a more aggressive rear pad. Basically, Bill spent two days in the car and didn't want to leave when he was done, he was having so much fun.
[photo 247]
Turn two. This is almost a before and after shot with the Miata when you think about it. Later in the day Bill dialed in a touch more negative camber up front.
[photo 246]
The Westfield in full dive bombing mode.
[photo 245]
Laguna Seca photos! Bill comes over the top of the Corkscrew.
[photo 244]
Every car looks sexy under a car cover. Westfields look super-exotic. This is a cover from California Car Covers, intended for a Caterham.
[photo 243]
Some people don't like the way the rear on this kind of car looks under-tired. That's no longer a problem with our car - those wheels are pushed out right to the edge of the standard fenders.
[photo 242]
We mounted a set of 205/50-15 Toyo RA-1s on the car for a couple of track days at Laguna Seca. The offset on these wheels is about +35 and everything clears nicely.
[photo 241]
Weigh-in time! The car comes in at 1315 lbs with a nearly-full tank of gas. This is right about where Keith expected it to be, as it's almost identical to his car. Installing the windshield wipers and the trunk will add a few pounds as will a stock intake system. More importantly, the car has an excellent left-right weight distribution and a slight rear weight bias - 52% empty, about 55% with occupants. We adjusted the suspension to even out the cornerweights, adding quite a bit of traction to the right front tire. That should help braking. Before adjustment, there was a 70 lb difference between the front wheels. Now there's only 9.
[photo 240]
Bill and Turbodog head home for the night in their new car. Other than a lot of wind, Bill found the car extremely streetable. Can you tell he's happy?
[photo 239]
The side view.
[photo 238]
That's a big logo on the back, mister!
[photo 237]
Presenting the very-close-to-finished FM Westfield.
[photo 236]
Keith applies some decals to the car.
[photo 235]
The hinged, belighted hood is installed. It's a lot easier to access the engine now than the temporary solution we used before.
[photo 234]
While the nose is up for the hinge installation, we attached the headlights. There are some fairings that go around these but we're not installing them right now.
[photo 233]
Bill drills into his fibreglass one more time for the hinge.
[photo 232]
The windshield in place. This was a very quick and easy job - we only had to drill two holes on each side, then attach the glass with grub screws. There is a trim panel that goes along the base of the windshield that's not installed yet.
[photo 231]
Time to install the windshield. First, we have to fit the mirrors to the stancions.
[photo 230]
A good day behind us. Now that we know the car is fundamentally good, it's going to Laguna Seca for two days. We have three days to prepare it - time to get back into the shop!
[photo 229]
Dynamically, the biggest concern is probably the brakes. They work pretty well, but the right front wheel always locks first and we suspect that the car could use more rear bias. Overall, the car worked better than expected for a first outing. Right now, it's stable, forgiving and quick enough to run with any other car there. At the end of the day, Keith and Bill went out to play. Keith was driving a supercharged Miata making approximately 150-155 hp at the rear wheels, with a full FM suspension package (FM springs and sways, FM shock mounts, Tokico Illumina shocks) and a set of RA-1 race tires. Bill was in the Westfield on the Falken Azenis and with approximately 95 hp at the wheels. Lap times were identical, with the Westfield pulling out of the hairpin a bit more quickly and the Miata regaining lost ground under braking and over 90 mph. The Miata won't get any faster, as it's pretty well sorted. The Westfield has several seconds a lap to gain from suspension and brake setup. Not bad for a car that hadn't run a week ago!
[photo 228]
On track. The balance of the car is very good out of the box - we were quite happy. Understeer in high-speed sweepers improved with some shock adjustments, and we'll dial some camber in to try to improve that. Acceleration is very good. Down the front straight, the car was running at the same speed as a supercharged 1.6 Miata up to about 90 mph where the aerodynamics started to hurt the Westfield. Not bad, given that it's running about a 60 hp deficit.
[photo 227]
Bill heads out to try the car. The exhaust sounds great, by the way. It has a nice purr without being obnoxiously loud and should not have problems with sound levels at our local track. The car is very comfortable to sit in and all the controls are well placed. The whole car feels surprisingly solid, with the only rattles coming from Keith's temporary aluminum plate in the back.
[photo 226]
Bill spends a bit of time looking for a wiring fault while fending off onlookers. For some odd reason, the stock case for the ECU was shorting out the idle switch. Since the car thought it was at idle, it wouldn't let the engine rev over 2000 rpm. It took a few minutes to figure it out. The same ECU and the same case work just fine in a Miata, go figure.
[photo 225]
At the track with the nose off. The final look of the engine bay is very clean. We had the nose off to fix a problem with the charcoal canister filling with fuel - a check valve from the factory tank will solve that problem.
[photo 224]
Loaded up on Keith's trailer, it's time to head for the track. It's been less than a week since the engine fired up for the first time. We're impatient people. The wheels, by the way, are stock 1990 wheels that have been painted and polished. Inexpensive and they look good on the car.
[photo 223]
Even more product identification. Well, we have to brag don't we?
[photo 222]
A bit of product identification.
[photo 221]
The seats and 4-point 3" Westfield harnesses in place.
[photo 220]
We didn't have time to trim the boot box to fit our RAC roll bar, and the tonneau cover wasn't cut for the RAC bar either. So Keith fabricated this aluminum cover for temporary use.
[photo 219]
The completed interior. The floormats have been removed for the track. We haven't installed the boot for the handbrake and we're planning on a trim ring for the shifter.
[photo 218]
Bill installs the passenger's seat. You can tell he's not really very excited.
[photo 217]
Installing the carpet finishes off the interior nicely. This is held in with Velcro so it's easy to remove if required.
[photo 216]
After hearing a number of suggestions for how to affix the grilles to the nose cone, we decided to ignore them all and use hot-melt glue. It worked very well.
[photo 215]
The fender in place over a 195-60/14 wheel.
[photo 214]
The reprofiled fender stay.
[photo 213]
By using a couple of large wrenches, it's an easy job to shape the fender stays.
[photo 212]
We've decided to run front fenders at the track this weekend. We have a set of 195/60-14 Falken Azenis mounted to 1990 wheels. Here's how the unmodified fender stays fit over the slightly tall tire.
[photo 211]
Time for an alignment. The car runs very little negative camber up front, but it's a fairly easy adjustment if we decide to run a bit more. The car's heading to the track this weekend so we'll see how it all works out.
[photo 210]
There's enough adjustment in the seat for a 5'4" driver to fit easily. Teri appreciates that.
[photo 209]
Bill discovers that no windshield and no front fenders equals lots of debris in the air. The brake pedal doesn't feel great, but the pads aren't bedded yet. The clutch pedal has too much travel and the arc proves to be awkward for your foot, but a stop behind the pedal solved that problem. Otherwise, it was a successful test! The exhaust sounds really nice.
[photo 208]
And away we go! Bill heads out for the first test drive.
[photo 207]
Keith checks tire pressures (an even 0 all the way around, it turns out) while Bill cleans the debris out of the passenger's side of the car.
[photo 206]
...and it's on the ground!
[photo 205]
Halfway down...
[photo 204]
We are a go for the first drive! But first we have to lower the altitude of the car by about 2 feet. The solution? An engine hoist!
[photo 203]
The grilles are fitted.
[photo 202]
Keith does the final fitting of the FW nose. Due to the Miata fan, a fair bit of trimming was required underneath.
[photo 201]
A nice touch for quality control. Every piece of bodywork is well labelled so you can easily get a duplicate. The quality of the fibreglass is top-notch.
[photo 200]
This fibreglass piece is required to clear the driveshaft.
[photo 199]
A bit of heat shielding for our brake lines.
[photo 198]
Some small aluminum panels are fitted inside the rear fenders to prevent the bodywork from filling up with rocks. These aren't fastened down yet.
[photo 197]
These clamps are really useful for building.
[photo 196]
The rear exhaust support in place.
[photo 195]
Keith fits up the muffler. The sound of the car is really nice, at least at idle. It's not silent, but it's a nice deep throb. We'll see how it sounds on the road soon.
[photo 194]
Another hole needs to be drilled for the rear support, then a collection of brackets assembled. After taking the picture, Keith turned the L bracket over so it was the correct way up.
[photo 193]
Success! The pipe is perfectly centered, and there's room for it to move around a bit as the engine rocks.
[photo 192]
Time to cut the exhaust hole. Thanks to the duct tape trick used earlier, it was straightforward to locate the hole. Still, it's always unnerving taking a hole saw to your bodywork!
[photo 191]
The dashboard in place and covered in dust.
[photo 190]
Bill does the final (for now) wire routing under the scuttle.
[photo 189]
Before mounting the eyebolts for the harnesses, we ran a tap down the threads. This is a good idea with any fasteners, really.
[photo 188]
The fuel filler looks gorgeous! It's almost enough to make you leave the gas cap off all the time.
[photo 187]
The fuel filler is in place.
[photo 186]
The wiring is all sorted out. Now it's time to start wrapping it up and tucking it away.
[photo 185]
The stays were designed to fit the 1990-93 wheels (+45 offset, 14x5.5) with stock tires. That's a start, but we're not the sort of people that use stock tire sizes. The stays will need a bit of a tweak to run the sort of rubber we're considering. Because of this, we're going to run without front fenders (and with eye protection!) at the track this weekend.
[photo 184]
Those pretty fender stays don't fit a 1994 wheel (+45 offset, 14x6).
[photo 183]
Testing tire fitment.
[photo 182]
The mounting stays for the front fenders have a simple and effective method of bolting to the upright. Very nice! One bracket is held on by the upper ball joint bolt, the other goes to the lower bolt for the brake caliper bracket.
[photo 181]
These front fenders are supposed to fit a 205-series tire. So we tried them on a set of 225s. Nope. But it sure looks cool.
[photo 180]
Bill spends more time sorting out the wiring, chasing a couple of small problems.
[photo 179]
Elsewhere, rivets with oversize heads help spread the load over the fibreglass.
[photo 178]
The main body has to butt up against the hood, so these nice little countersunk rivets are included.
[photo 177]
Now that it's running, it's time to install the body. Bill rivets away.
[photo 176]
Oil in the engine? That's something you do when you're almost ready to fire up the engine! And so we are. The car fired up a few minutes later and we were able to make the rear wheels turn. It's not exactly street-legal at this point, but it's running! We did find a couple of small problems with our wiring harness but overall, it was easier than we expected. Big smiles all around!
[photo 175]
With the rear wiring sorted out, Bill installs the fuel tank for the final time.
[photo 174]
In order to figure out where to cut the body for the exhaust, we outlined the desired hole with duct tape. Now we'll put the body over the car, transfer the cutout to the fibreglass and start cutting.
[photo 173]
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