Fiat Twin-Cam Powered Westfield
Discussion
Right, time for a final season update. A little later than planned, I’ve been off in Iceland for a week doing this:
Anyway, back to the Westfield. Cadwell Park was the last sprint of the season, and allowing for the end-of season awards do the Toyota guys were holding it was being run on a Saturday. Having already had a mid-week panic with the cracked manifold I was still feeling a bit disorganised and out-of-sorts when I headed up the M40, and a traffic-ridden 5-hour drive to the hotel didn’t help much. Still, it was a lovely clear night when I turned up so I had high hopes for a dry day’s racing.
I was woken up at 3am to the sound of rain crashing off the roof of the hotel lodge. Bugrit.
So, off to Cadwell in the rain – we arrived fairly early but the paddock was already quite full, and unloading the trailer on the rain-soaked grass wasn’t much fun. I finally managed to get off and through to scrutineering, whereupon I measured 108dB on the noise test. f
k. A bit of jiggery-pokery and we managed to get through with a barely-on-the-track-limit 105 and I was waved on my sheepish way, protesting cries of “I’ll get a new exhaust!” meeting stony-faced expressions from the Cadwell scrutineers. Oops.
We finally headed out onto the sighting laps, my first time at Cadwell, and it was still soaking wet. There was a lot of standing water along the start/finish straight, and even more along Park straight. Plus there were a lot of leaves on the track through the woodland section. My tyres? R888s that are almost on the wear limits.
Fortunately I had actually done a bit of homework this time round and had spent a fair amount of time learning the track on YouTube, and of course everyone else was in the same boat (almost literally!) as me. My first two runs I managed to keep pretty tidy, and when the timing sheets came out I was very surprised to see I was leading my class – ahead of a Duratec-powered Westfield and a Caterham on wets. My confidence started to build (despite aquaplaning at 100mph down Park a couple of times!) as the track started to dry, but this meant the more powerful Duratec car could get his power down and he ended up knocking a couple of seconds off my time which I couldn’t claw back. Still, I was happy with steady improvements in my times until the rain started again mid-afternoon, at which point I knew I couldn’t beat my best time of 1:50.45. My last two runs of the day were me taking the opportunity to explore the limits of the car in the wet a bit more – leading to a void run after over-steering over the kerb at Mansfield, and then on my final run carrying too much speed through the Gooseneck and cutting off the apex…. Still, you’re not trying hard enough until you fall off, eh?
I ended up runner up in my class but down in 11th overall – not my best result but given that the Westy struggles to get over 100mph on track (@ almost 7,000rpm in 4th) I tend to be less competitive on fast tracks. I was also very chuffed to be awarded overall class runner-up for the season as well
So that’s it for sprinting until March (probably, depending on Javelin’s calendar next year). I’ve enormously enjoyed my first foray into competitive motorsport and will definitely be running in the series next year.
I’ve got a few bits to keep me busy over winter though – after cracking the manifold and, apparently, blowing all of the baffles out of the silencer it’s time to invest in a new system. It has always been a bit noisy (apparently you could hear me going round Cadwell from the main road….) and it has got steadily worse this year, so ideally I’ll be after a system that will see it comfortably under 100dB. On top of that I need to experiment with raising the gearing a bit – the 13” track wheels I have are currently running 185/60/13 R888s all round and one pair are pretty low, so I might try a pair of 205/60/13s on the rear to raise the gearing slightly (this would match the overall diameter of my road wheels, so I’ll try these on a track-day and see if an extra 5-10mph at the top end is enough). On the other hand I think my diff could do with a rebuild, so it may be worth biting the bullet and getting it rebuild with a different final drive. Some head-scratching to do there I think. Other than that it will get some routine servicing and another alignment check to make sure everything’s in order, and hopefully we’ll have some nice sunny winter days so I can get it out and about!
Anyway, back to the Westfield. Cadwell Park was the last sprint of the season, and allowing for the end-of season awards do the Toyota guys were holding it was being run on a Saturday. Having already had a mid-week panic with the cracked manifold I was still feeling a bit disorganised and out-of-sorts when I headed up the M40, and a traffic-ridden 5-hour drive to the hotel didn’t help much. Still, it was a lovely clear night when I turned up so I had high hopes for a dry day’s racing.
I was woken up at 3am to the sound of rain crashing off the roof of the hotel lodge. Bugrit.
So, off to Cadwell in the rain – we arrived fairly early but the paddock was already quite full, and unloading the trailer on the rain-soaked grass wasn’t much fun. I finally managed to get off and through to scrutineering, whereupon I measured 108dB on the noise test. f
k. A bit of jiggery-pokery and we managed to get through with a barely-on-the-track-limit 105 and I was waved on my sheepish way, protesting cries of “I’ll get a new exhaust!” meeting stony-faced expressions from the Cadwell scrutineers. Oops.We finally headed out onto the sighting laps, my first time at Cadwell, and it was still soaking wet. There was a lot of standing water along the start/finish straight, and even more along Park straight. Plus there were a lot of leaves on the track through the woodland section. My tyres? R888s that are almost on the wear limits.
Fortunately I had actually done a bit of homework this time round and had spent a fair amount of time learning the track on YouTube, and of course everyone else was in the same boat (almost literally!) as me. My first two runs I managed to keep pretty tidy, and when the timing sheets came out I was very surprised to see I was leading my class – ahead of a Duratec-powered Westfield and a Caterham on wets. My confidence started to build (despite aquaplaning at 100mph down Park a couple of times!) as the track started to dry, but this meant the more powerful Duratec car could get his power down and he ended up knocking a couple of seconds off my time which I couldn’t claw back. Still, I was happy with steady improvements in my times until the rain started again mid-afternoon, at which point I knew I couldn’t beat my best time of 1:50.45. My last two runs of the day were me taking the opportunity to explore the limits of the car in the wet a bit more – leading to a void run after over-steering over the kerb at Mansfield, and then on my final run carrying too much speed through the Gooseneck and cutting off the apex…. Still, you’re not trying hard enough until you fall off, eh?
I ended up runner up in my class but down in 11th overall – not my best result but given that the Westy struggles to get over 100mph on track (@ almost 7,000rpm in 4th) I tend to be less competitive on fast tracks. I was also very chuffed to be awarded overall class runner-up for the season as well
So that’s it for sprinting until March (probably, depending on Javelin’s calendar next year). I’ve enormously enjoyed my first foray into competitive motorsport and will definitely be running in the series next year.
I’ve got a few bits to keep me busy over winter though – after cracking the manifold and, apparently, blowing all of the baffles out of the silencer it’s time to invest in a new system. It has always been a bit noisy (apparently you could hear me going round Cadwell from the main road….) and it has got steadily worse this year, so ideally I’ll be after a system that will see it comfortably under 100dB. On top of that I need to experiment with raising the gearing a bit – the 13” track wheels I have are currently running 185/60/13 R888s all round and one pair are pretty low, so I might try a pair of 205/60/13s on the rear to raise the gearing slightly (this would match the overall diameter of my road wheels, so I’ll try these on a track-day and see if an extra 5-10mph at the top end is enough). On the other hand I think my diff could do with a rebuild, so it may be worth biting the bullet and getting it rebuild with a different final drive. Some head-scratching to do there I think. Other than that it will get some routine servicing and another alignment check to make sure everything’s in order, and hopefully we’ll have some nice sunny winter days so I can get it out and about!
Nice thread, the springing looks great i wish i had time to do it myself. Did you ever get to the bottom of you fuel leaking out the cap issue? I have the same problem with my westfield. Ive fitted a new cap but its still the same unfortunately, and i have no idea what to do to stop it.
Thanks Steve. Yes, although in my case it was actually the breather that was the issue not the cap. The tank had a breather hose which did a single loop under and over the tank, but the fuel was still sloshing out during hard cornering. I added a second loop of breather hose and one of these which did the trick
stevec33 said:
Thanks, thats very useful info i will look into it. I guess the valve just mounts straight in the top of the tank? And then has a hose coming off it going up higher?
The breather hose mounts to (IIRC) the top-left corner of the tank - the opposite side to the filler. My setup is a loop of breather hose going over and under, then the valve mounted up next to the tank, and then another loop of hose for good measure.Well, it’s been a while since we had an update on the Westfield. Unfortunately the awful winter we’ve had means I haven’t been able to drive it a huge amount, but I have managed to brave the greasy roads once or twice. Had to test out the new GoPro as well 
After this, with Christmas and NY out of the way it was time to set about the winter improvements needed for the next season of the Javelin sprint series. Best take it to bits then…
First on the list to be sorted (again) is the suspension setup. The temporary rear shocks have helped, but are a bit short, and the adjusters on the fronts are shot. A quick call to Nigel @ Avo confirmed that they were serviceable units, and a week and £108 later I received these back in the post:
I’ve since swapped the new, soft springs onto the refurbished longer damper units, so now I have the best of both worlds: decent suspension travel and decent ride height! Kudos to Avo as well, who got the coilovers back to me in half the quoted time and for less than the quoted price
Might need to raise the front up a bit, though…
I’ve also finally gotten round to fitting the tow strap. A minor thing I know, but aside from anything else, this should make loading it up onto the trailer easier!
The exhaust manifold cracked just before Cadwell last year and was quickly patched up by a local garage. It’s also now measuring 105dB, which is too loud for most tracks, so really I need to invest in a new system. I’m still investigating this, but need to get a move on really….
Otherwise, all that’s needed (hopefully!) is a comprehensive fluid service (job for this weekend I think) and a geo setup. Then it can be out terrorising the locals again
After this, with Christmas and NY out of the way it was time to set about the winter improvements needed for the next season of the Javelin sprint series. Best take it to bits then…
First on the list to be sorted (again) is the suspension setup. The temporary rear shocks have helped, but are a bit short, and the adjusters on the fronts are shot. A quick call to Nigel @ Avo confirmed that they were serviceable units, and a week and £108 later I received these back in the post:
I’ve since swapped the new, soft springs onto the refurbished longer damper units, so now I have the best of both worlds: decent suspension travel and decent ride height! Kudos to Avo as well, who got the coilovers back to me in half the quoted time and for less than the quoted price
Might need to raise the front up a bit, though…
I’ve also finally gotten round to fitting the tow strap. A minor thing I know, but aside from anything else, this should make loading it up onto the trailer easier!
The exhaust manifold cracked just before Cadwell last year and was quickly patched up by a local garage. It’s also now measuring 105dB, which is too loud for most tracks, so really I need to invest in a new system. I’m still investigating this, but need to get a move on really….
Otherwise, all that’s needed (hopefully!) is a comprehensive fluid service (job for this weekend I think) and a geo setup. Then it can be out terrorising the locals again
Edited by BenWRXSEi on Monday 1st February 09:42
Totally forgot to update this – not that anyone appears to have noticed 
Things have been picking up for the Westfield over the last few weeks. A week after dropping it up to Graham at EBD I was back to collect. To say I’m pleased with the new exhaust is an understatement – the new 4-2-1 manifold is a work of art and came complete with a much larger re-packable silencer. I’ve not yet had it measured but it’s certainly markedly quieter than before – from the driver’s seat (next to the exhaust) I can now hear a decent amount of induction from the R1 carbs, something I could never hear before. It has also eliminated the terrible exhaust drone I used to get whilst wearing a helmet – on long trips the noise seemed to bounce around inside my lid, meaning I’d turn up places half-deaf….
Coupled with the new suspension I was keen to get it on a pre-season shakedown to see how it handled. Cue a well-timed Silverstone Sunday Service with 40-min ‘taster’ track sessions. An early start in freezing temperatures was a bit of a shock, but we had a good (if cautious) run up with a couple of local PHers. After skating around the icy paddock for a bit it was decided that the first two sessions would be cancelled – meaning our ‘third’ session was to be the first of the day. At this point it was hovering around 2-3 deg C, and the track was soaking wet. After almost missing my slot, getting my paper slip lost in my overalls and then going the wrong way at Becketts on the sighting lap I was beginning to wonder what I’d let myself in for. Fortunately I managed to catch up with the rest of the procession and work out where I was going!
DSC_0019 by Jason.Easton, on Flickr
To say it was slippery is an understatement – I’ll let the below video do the talking!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswoRCiYZc8&fe...
The benefit of the complete lack of grip meant that I could really get to grips with the car’s handling characteristics. I’m please to say that it’s very predictable – a touch of understeer through Luffield would shift very easily to mild oversteer approaching Woodcote (a touch alarming in 4th going past the pit wall!) but it always gives plenty of time to dial in the necessary lock. It’s really very flattering.
After managing to stay out of the pit wall and getting me home safely, I was lucky enough to be invited along with my Dad to the 74th members’ meeting at Goodwood. After driving down to Surrey at Midnight on Friday having spent the evening taking pledges for Sport Relief (driving a car with no windscreen through the woods at night is a surreal experience…) we had another early start. Our little convoy of E-Type, Morgan 4/4 and Westfield had a lovely drive down via Petworth, spent the day watching hedge-fund managers blatting around Goodwood, and then set the nav to twiddly mode for a very enjoyable drive back.
Even stumbled upon my engine’s original home!
Another early start and drive home via the PHSS at Mercedes benz World completed a 250-mile weekend – plenty in a GRP seat
Final jobs this weekend just gone included a service, general check-over, wash (!) and a few miles on the track wheels to scrub off some of the winter storage. The R888s still seem to have plenty of tread, so I imagine I’ll hang onto them for this season. The first Javelin sprint is at Blyton Park next Sunday – there’s a good mix of cars in my class this year so I’m sure it’ll be plenty fun!
Things have been picking up for the Westfield over the last few weeks. A week after dropping it up to Graham at EBD I was back to collect. To say I’m pleased with the new exhaust is an understatement – the new 4-2-1 manifold is a work of art and came complete with a much larger re-packable silencer. I’ve not yet had it measured but it’s certainly markedly quieter than before – from the driver’s seat (next to the exhaust) I can now hear a decent amount of induction from the R1 carbs, something I could never hear before. It has also eliminated the terrible exhaust drone I used to get whilst wearing a helmet – on long trips the noise seemed to bounce around inside my lid, meaning I’d turn up places half-deaf….
Coupled with the new suspension I was keen to get it on a pre-season shakedown to see how it handled. Cue a well-timed Silverstone Sunday Service with 40-min ‘taster’ track sessions. An early start in freezing temperatures was a bit of a shock, but we had a good (if cautious) run up with a couple of local PHers. After skating around the icy paddock for a bit it was decided that the first two sessions would be cancelled – meaning our ‘third’ session was to be the first of the day. At this point it was hovering around 2-3 deg C, and the track was soaking wet. After almost missing my slot, getting my paper slip lost in my overalls and then going the wrong way at Becketts on the sighting lap I was beginning to wonder what I’d let myself in for. Fortunately I managed to catch up with the rest of the procession and work out where I was going!
DSC_0019 by Jason.Easton, on Flickr To say it was slippery is an understatement – I’ll let the below video do the talking!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswoRCiYZc8&fe...
The benefit of the complete lack of grip meant that I could really get to grips with the car’s handling characteristics. I’m please to say that it’s very predictable – a touch of understeer through Luffield would shift very easily to mild oversteer approaching Woodcote (a touch alarming in 4th going past the pit wall!) but it always gives plenty of time to dial in the necessary lock. It’s really very flattering.
After managing to stay out of the pit wall and getting me home safely, I was lucky enough to be invited along with my Dad to the 74th members’ meeting at Goodwood. After driving down to Surrey at Midnight on Friday having spent the evening taking pledges for Sport Relief (driving a car with no windscreen through the woods at night is a surreal experience…) we had another early start. Our little convoy of E-Type, Morgan 4/4 and Westfield had a lovely drive down via Petworth, spent the day watching hedge-fund managers blatting around Goodwood, and then set the nav to twiddly mode for a very enjoyable drive back.
Even stumbled upon my engine’s original home!
Another early start and drive home via the PHSS at Mercedes benz World completed a 250-mile weekend – plenty in a GRP seat
Final jobs this weekend just gone included a service, general check-over, wash (!) and a few miles on the track wheels to scrub off some of the winter storage. The R888s still seem to have plenty of tread, so I imagine I’ll hang onto them for this season. The first Javelin sprint is at Blyton Park next Sunday – there’s a good mix of cars in my class this year so I’m sure it’ll be plenty fun!
First sprint of the season yesterday at Blyton Park. Whilst I’m fairly familiar with Blyton (and competed last year on the Eastern Circuit) this was my first time competing on the main circuit, and the first track outing for the car this year after my very wet and slippery taster at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago.
True to form it rained overnight, but the track was already drying in patches by the time the sighting and practice laps were done. This left some amusing slippery patches at crucial points around the track, one notable patch causing me to lock up and straight-line the chicane on my first practice
My first run was a very tentative 1:19.11, and my second run not much better – but much messier 1:18.38. Fortunately the track kept drying and my times kept falling throughout the day (bar a void run after I got a bit too enthusiastic!) and I managed to get down to 1:13.87 and 15th overall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smS-yXfW7kc
I was less competitive in my own class (6th out of 9) but given that I had one of the least powerful and heaviest cars there I’m not complaining too much
No exciting pics yet, but here’s one showing off this season’s number!
True to form it rained overnight, but the track was already drying in patches by the time the sighting and practice laps were done. This left some amusing slippery patches at crucial points around the track, one notable patch causing me to lock up and straight-line the chicane on my first practice
My first run was a very tentative 1:19.11, and my second run not much better – but much messier 1:18.38. Fortunately the track kept drying and my times kept falling throughout the day (bar a void run after I got a bit too enthusiastic!) and I managed to get down to 1:13.87 and 15th overall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smS-yXfW7kc
I was less competitive in my own class (6th out of 9) but given that I had one of the least powerful and heaviest cars there I’m not complaining too much
No exciting pics yet, but here’s one showing off this season’s number!
And some track pictures - all courtesy of Darren O'Brien of Piston Broke Photography:
And a surprising amount of compression over the finish line!
Blyton round 2 is coming up towards the end of May, and it'll be the first time I've competed on a track layout for the second time (...IYSWIM...). Annoyingly, synchro-mesh on 3rd gear seems to have gone the way of the dodo
Although, judging by the colour of the oil that came out, that's not a huge surprise...
A last-ditch effort was made to cure it by replacing with some Redline MT-90 I had left over. This worked wonders in my old MR2...
God, what a tedious job that was. It's made the rest of the transmission silky-smooth and even cured the mild crunching I used to get if I rushed it into 5th... but 3rd is still crunchier than a crunchy thing. Ah well, lesson learnt and I have a spare gearbox to go in at some point anyway - I'll just drive around it for now and attempt to teach myself to double de-clutch
And a surprising amount of compression over the finish line!
Blyton round 2 is coming up towards the end of May, and it'll be the first time I've competed on a track layout for the second time (...IYSWIM...). Annoyingly, synchro-mesh on 3rd gear seems to have gone the way of the dodo
Although, judging by the colour of the oil that came out, that's not a huge surprise...
A last-ditch effort was made to cure it by replacing with some Redline MT-90 I had left over. This worked wonders in my old MR2...
God, what a tedious job that was. It's made the rest of the transmission silky-smooth and even cured the mild crunching I used to get if I rushed it into 5th... but 3rd is still crunchier than a crunchy thing. Ah well, lesson learnt and I have a spare gearbox to go in at some point anyway - I'll just drive around it for now and attempt to teach myself to double de-clutch
Moar stuff!
The Westy has been kept pretty busy since our last exciting instalment (no thanks to our lovely ‘summer’). First up was a nice road outing organised by my best mate down on the south coast of Kent. Traditionally started as an MR2 run this has attracted various cars over the years, and this time round we were leading the run in our two plastic fantastics. A very enjoyable day with some excellent roads (and a few surprised MR2 Turbos to boot )
Not long after it was time for round 2 of the Javelin Sprint Series, at Blyton Park (again, thanks to some calendar issues with another venue!). This time we were using the Eastern circuit – my preferred layout, and the first circuit I’ve hit in anger with the same car setup as last year. I was very pleased to be far more consistent this time around (gradually improving run-on-run) and ended up taking 0.6 seconds off my best run last year, which felt very much like a bluebird at the time! Class position was low – I simply can’t compete with the 220bhp+ cars that were running in the same class – but I was very happy with my overall 15th position and improvement since last year.
Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTXZSNbloM
After this it was back to the garage for the Westy for a few weeks while I sorted some mild household DIY, and all of a sudden it was a week before round 3 at Croft and it hadn’t turned a wheel in almost a month! I had a quick runout to check everything was still in order (it was) and then popped it up on axle stands to swap over to the track wheels. I’m glad at this point that I did this a few days before-hand, as on the last wheel one of the last remaining original Escort Mk2 wheel-studs decided it didn’t like having thread anymore. fk. No way I was going to pass scrutineering with only three wheelnuts!
‘Never mind’ I thought, ‘I’ll just drill it out and re-tap it. I’ve seen it done before. How hard can it be?’
You can guess what happened at this point.
The pilot hole I drilled wasn’t as straight as I thought it was, so when I went for the bigger drill-bits I just ended up making a mess of the stud.
I should have thrown in the towel at this point (well, really I should have done so much earlier!), but the red mist had already descended and RAGE WAS HAPPENING. Nothing was working. More drill-bits fell to the cause in a shower of sparks, and I even resorted to trying to ‘drift’ the mangled remains out with another bolt and a mallet (I know, it was threaded, what was I thinking?!). At this point, sitting on my garage floor in a puddle of self-pity and flakes of mangled steel, I was gently guided into the house and a cold beer by my OH; a broken, defeated mess.
So, three days before I’m supposed to load it up for a four-hour journey up north, and it’s still sat on axle stands. Hmm. I phoned my usual local indies and had the same conversation several times over:
“Hi. I know it’s a bit short notice, but could you possibly drill out the mangled remains of a Mk2 Escort wheel-stud and re-thread it for me? I need it for a race this weekend and I got angry and things happened and…”
Arse.
Panicking now, I turn to Google to search for a local mobile mechanic. And who do I find but Milan, a local man of Serbian/Croatian origin (he explained this, but his accent was pretty thick so I may have missed an important point here) who promptly turned up at my house at 8pm on Thursday night. After staring at my handiwork in disbelief and muttering “Oh my god, Oh my god, ohmygodohmygodohmygod” over and over he appeared to come to a plan of action. 17 seconds later he emerged from the boot of his car with a grin and an enormous breaker bar and, shortly afterwards had the hub off.
“I’ll take it to my Polish friend, he will fix this in no time!”
“Er, sure! But it’s 9pm now and I’m out all day tomorrow and…”
“Don’t worry! Call me when you’re back tomorrow, I’ll come then!”
And, true to his work, Milan appeared at 8pm on Friday evening, hub in hand, having drilled out the old studs and replaced with new, metric wheel-bolts to match the rest of the car (don’t ask, it’s a bit of a mongrel). Whacked it on the car, charged me a shamefully small amount of money (I had to force a tip on him) and was on his way. Next time I’ll just call him first I think
st photo, but here’s my knight in shining armour!
So, on to Croft! Aside from being bloody miles away from the shires, it’s one of my favourite tracks and well worth the journey. Last time I was here we had both weather and noise issues, so I only had 5 runs (the first three of which I was still learning the track). This time round we had a full nine timed runs, and an excellent day in all. Fortunately my more powerful competition was absent so I managed a far more respectable 2nd in class and 14th overall. There were also two photographers in action this time round, meaning I have some excellent shots of me running out of talent (see below)
Again, very happy to have convincingly beaten my time from last year. Looking at my runs there are still areas I can find more pace – I was about 1.7 seconds off the class win and, while the winner was running slicks, I’m sure I could have made this up somewhere. I’ve briefly thought about slicks myself, but with the additional complication of needing a dry sump, plus additional chassis bracing etc, I think I’d rather just try and be a better driver first.
Youtube vid here of my fastest run, again with some outtakes at the endhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biIsKwXb1zk
The Westy has been kept pretty busy since our last exciting instalment (no thanks to our lovely ‘summer’). First up was a nice road outing organised by my best mate down on the south coast of Kent. Traditionally started as an MR2 run this has attracted various cars over the years, and this time round we were leading the run in our two plastic fantastics. A very enjoyable day with some excellent roads (and a few surprised MR2 Turbos to boot
)
Not long after it was time for round 2 of the Javelin Sprint Series, at Blyton Park (again, thanks to some calendar issues with another venue!). This time we were using the Eastern circuit – my preferred layout, and the first circuit I’ve hit in anger with the same car setup as last year. I was very pleased to be far more consistent this time around (gradually improving run-on-run) and ended up taking 0.6 seconds off my best run last year, which felt very much like a bluebird at the time! Class position was low – I simply can’t compete with the 220bhp+ cars that were running in the same class – but I was very happy with my overall 15th position and improvement since last year.
Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTXZSNbloM
After this it was back to the garage for the Westy for a few weeks while I sorted some mild household DIY, and all of a sudden it was a week before round 3 at Croft and it hadn’t turned a wheel in almost a month! I had a quick runout to check everything was still in order (it was) and then popped it up on axle stands to swap over to the track wheels. I’m glad at this point that I did this a few days before-hand, as on the last wheel one of the last remaining original Escort Mk2 wheel-studs decided it didn’t like having thread anymore. f
k. No way I was going to pass scrutineering with only three wheelnuts!‘Never mind’ I thought, ‘I’ll just drill it out and re-tap it. I’ve seen it done before. How hard can it be?’
You can guess what happened at this point.
The pilot hole I drilled wasn’t as straight as I thought it was, so when I went for the bigger drill-bits I just ended up making a mess of the stud.
I should have thrown in the towel at this point (well, really I should have done so much earlier!), but the red mist had already descended and RAGE WAS HAPPENING. Nothing was working. More drill-bits fell to the cause in a shower of sparks, and I even resorted to trying to ‘drift’ the mangled remains out with another bolt and a mallet (I know, it was threaded, what was I thinking?!). At this point, sitting on my garage floor in a puddle of self-pity and flakes of mangled steel, I was gently guided into the house and a cold beer by my OH; a broken, defeated mess.
So, three days before I’m supposed to load it up for a four-hour journey up north, and it’s still sat on axle stands. Hmm. I phoned my usual local indies and had the same conversation several times over:
“Hi. I know it’s a bit short notice, but could you possibly drill out the mangled remains of a Mk2 Escort wheel-stud and re-thread it for me? I need it for a race this weekend and I got angry and things happened and…”
- sucks teeth* “Ooh, sorry mate. Sounds like a big job. Could maybe take a look in a couple of weeks?”
- mumble mumble feck mumble* “but but but… it’s a ten-minute job with a pillar drill and a thread tap?”
Arse.
Panicking now, I turn to Google to search for a local mobile mechanic. And who do I find but Milan, a local man of Serbian/Croatian origin (he explained this, but his accent was pretty thick so I may have missed an important point here) who promptly turned up at my house at 8pm on Thursday night. After staring at my handiwork in disbelief and muttering “Oh my god, Oh my god, ohmygodohmygodohmygod” over and over he appeared to come to a plan of action. 17 seconds later he emerged from the boot of his car with a grin and an enormous breaker bar and, shortly afterwards had the hub off.
“I’ll take it to my Polish friend, he will fix this in no time!”
“Er, sure! But it’s 9pm now and I’m out all day tomorrow and…”
“Don’t worry! Call me when you’re back tomorrow, I’ll come then!”
And, true to his work, Milan appeared at 8pm on Friday evening, hub in hand, having drilled out the old studs and replaced with new, metric wheel-bolts to match the rest of the car (don’t ask, it’s a bit of a mongrel). Whacked it on the car, charged me a shamefully small amount of money (I had to force a tip on him) and was on his way. Next time I’ll just call him first I think
s
t photo, but here’s my knight in shining armour!
So, on to Croft! Aside from being bloody miles away from the shires, it’s one of my favourite tracks and well worth the journey. Last time I was here we had both weather and noise issues, so I only had 5 runs (the first three of which I was still learning the track). This time round we had a full nine timed runs, and an excellent day in all. Fortunately my more powerful competition was absent so I managed a far more respectable 2nd in class and 14th overall. There were also two photographers in action this time round, meaning I have some excellent shots of me running out of talent (see below)
Again, very happy to have convincingly beaten my time from last year. Looking at my runs there are still areas I can find more pace – I was about 1.7 seconds off the class win and, while the winner was running slicks, I’m sure I could have made this up somewhere. I’ve briefly thought about slicks myself, but with the additional complication of needing a dry sump, plus additional chassis bracing etc, I think I’d rather just try and be a better driver first.
Youtube vid here of my fastest run, again with some outtakes at the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biIsKwXb1zk
Ah yes, I've seen one or two floating around over the last year or two. There was a very tidy twink-engined SEI that sold on eBay last year, think it was a dark green one running twin Webers.
I did think about a Type 9, but mine's running the (currently still crunchy) Fiat box. Will get the spare on at some point and see about getting the original rebuilt...
Glad to see this is still being read
I did think about a Type 9, but mine's running the (currently still crunchy) Fiat box. Will get the spare on at some point and see about getting the original rebuilt...
Glad to see this is still being read
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