RE: Westfield SEIGHT | Spotted
Discussion
dhutch said:
NewUsername said:
1.6 cvh with turbo with intercooler and all pipework etc
edit, thinking about it it probably had all fluids in too.
Yes but you didn't say turbo cvh, and the rv8 will likely have fluids in two. It's a small light V8 but it would have to be a hell of a I4 to be almost half the engine and heavier than it! Essex V6 is heavier I understand, but thats a heavy V6!edit, thinking about it it probably had all fluids in too.
Daniel
I built the prototype Wildcat Rover V8 5 litre and 6 litre engines with my friend Simon and Ian Richardson. The big problem with the standard engine is the head design, sort that out and you have a great engine. It really needs a roller cam to make it work properly, but even on none roller setup you can get very decent power out of them. Stick a Wildcat based engine in one of these and it would be ballistic.
I used to own the factory ZEi220 Westfield with the cosworth turbo engine, that was a lot of fun.
If you are interested in the Seight, this website gives you some info, this page gives some performance specs. https://www.seight.com/perf.html
I used to own the factory ZEi220 Westfield with the cosworth turbo engine, that was a lot of fun.
If you are interested in the Seight, this website gives you some info, this page gives some performance specs. https://www.seight.com/perf.html
dhutch said:
Yes but you didn't say turbo cvh, and the rv8 will likely have fluids in two. It's a small light V8 but it would have to be a hell of a I4 to be almost half the engine and heavier than it! Essex V6 is heavier I understand, but thats a heavy V6!
Daniel
1.6cvh Turbo with an inter cooler still won’t be heavier than a Rover V8 ( a t3 Turbo weighs approximately 10kg and the inter cooler a lot less )Daniel
m444ttb said:
I tried to buy an SEiGHT back in 2012. The cheapest were at the absolute top of my budget so it was slim pickings but I just missed out on one. In the end I gave up and bought a 1.8 Zetec on DCOE 40s, which wasn't quite the same. Still an itch I'd love to scratch.
I drove a 4-pot Caterham years later Matt......and yes, you’re right, it certainly isn’t the same! jsf said:
If you are interested in the Seight, this website gives you some info, this page gives some performance specs. https://www.seight.com/perf.html
The figures for the Graham Smith car are before it was dry sumped and before it had head work - the car it became was the car I bought and it came with the printout from Santa Pod of the improved 1/4 mile time. Whilst the power was incredible it was the flexibility and torque that I will remember mosts m said:
dhutch said:
Yes but you didn't say turbo cvh, and the rv8 will likely have fluids in two. It's a small light V8 but it would have to be a hell of a I4 to be almost half the engine and heavier than it! Essex V6 is heavier I understand, but thats a heavy V6!
Daniel
1.6cvh Turbo with an inter cooler still won’t be heavier than a Rover V8 ( a t3 Turbo weighs approximately 10kg and the inter cooler a lot less )Daniel
Andy665 said:
jsf said:
If you are interested in the Seight, this website gives you some info, this page gives some performance specs. https://www.seight.com/perf.html
The figures for the Graham Smith car are before it was dry sumped and before it had head work - the car it became was the car I bought and it came with the printout from Santa Pod of the improved 1/4 mile time. Whilst the power was incredible it was the flexibility and torque that I will remember mostbinnerboy said:
There was a chap who had a yellow westfield seight who I saw at a track day and he used to compete in the sprints at castle combe.
His towcar was an audi RS2 Avant :-)
he was definitely an OAP.
very nice bloke
He drove his car well and was quick , it also sounded awesome , though I think the engine was a more modern v8, possibly a 4.2.
As a fellow Westie owner, I met this gent and he gave me a passenger ride around Castle Combe. Even wearing a helmet,it was loud! His towcar was an audi RS2 Avant :-)
he was definitely an OAP.
very nice bloke
He drove his car well and was quick , it also sounded awesome , though I think the engine was a more modern v8, possibly a 4.2.
It was sign written with ‘Awesome Hairy Beastie’ on the boot
I believe the gent later got himself an Ultima. Lucky barsteward.
That particular engine does nothing for me and calling it 'stonking' is a bit weird other than its larger dimensions.
A tuner near me built one with a Tuscan race engine. The owner went out in it once and decided there was no way it could ever be any actual fun so asked him to sell it for him.
A tuner near me built one with a Tuscan race engine. The owner went out in it once and decided there was no way it could ever be any actual fun so asked him to sell it for him.
Perfect timing for this thread......
Im currently finishing off my Seight build, and actually took it to get Mapped on Monday.
interesting reading all the comments and opinions.......I think lots of people miss the point of a car like this, and also the appeal of this engine. True, the rover v8 will never light up the charts for bhp, in standard tune, they are lazy engines. Reality is, in the same car, a standard zetec would probably be quicker around a track.....but, the almost instant throttle response you get with a light car and lots of low down torque is genuinely thrilling. add to that the sound, and it does make for an interesting drive. Handling is no doubt compromised over a standard 4 cyl westfield, but westfields handle fantastically well in all guises (assuming the suspension has been set up correctly), so it's still very, very good.
The engines are an absolute delight to work on, parts are easy to come by and there are so many varients and configurations, most can find the right parts to enable them to shoe horn them into their car. The engine has been around for almost 60yrs, so chances are some has already done it :-)
And the noise.....the noise:
https://www.facebook.com/LloydSpecialistDevelopmen...
Im currently finishing off my Seight build, and actually took it to get Mapped on Monday.
interesting reading all the comments and opinions.......I think lots of people miss the point of a car like this, and also the appeal of this engine. True, the rover v8 will never light up the charts for bhp, in standard tune, they are lazy engines. Reality is, in the same car, a standard zetec would probably be quicker around a track.....but, the almost instant throttle response you get with a light car and lots of low down torque is genuinely thrilling. add to that the sound, and it does make for an interesting drive. Handling is no doubt compromised over a standard 4 cyl westfield, but westfields handle fantastically well in all guises (assuming the suspension has been set up correctly), so it's still very, very good.
The engines are an absolute delight to work on, parts are easy to come by and there are so many varients and configurations, most can find the right parts to enable them to shoe horn them into their car. The engine has been around for almost 60yrs, so chances are some has already done it :-)
And the noise.....the noise:
https://www.facebook.com/LloydSpecialistDevelopmen...
jenkosrugby said:
True, the rover v8 will never light up the charts for bhp, in standard tune, they are lazy engines. Reality is, in the same car, a standard zetec would probably be quicker around a track.....but, the almost instant throttle response you get with a light car and lots of low down torque is genuinely thrilling.
I have owned a Westfield that would out-accelerate all but the most extreme SEights (and on twisty roads or around a track they just wouldn't see which way it went), but its very 'linear' acceleration didn't feel anything like as brutal as the SEight 330 - or even that of the 5.0 litre RV8 in the (much heavier) TVR Griffith I owned.
Truth be told, the RV8 turns a light car into a bit of a knuckle-dragging moron - a Rugby Prop-Forward instead of a sprinter - but there's no denying that there can be a thrill to it, and they can be a great way to travel at 6/10ths and half throttle...
Edited by Equus on Thursday 16th July 14:22
ChezzaV8 said:
The rover V8 was used because it was cheap and plentiful, but I've never understood the love for it. I had one in my Capri a few years ago, great fun, sounded nice, but it would have been quicker with a half decent twin cam. Yes TVR got some average power out of them, but realistically 300bhp from a 5 litre engine is average at best.
What spec engine were you running? And were you matching realistic expectations with reality?The Rover V8 is a good engine, tunable. And will offer about the same performance per litre as the Ford 302. The big difference is, the RV8 was never intended for that displacement. So the Rover is at the top of it's game to be on par with the starting point of the 302.
BTW - how many twin cam n/a 4 pots make near to 300bhp? Let alone ones that would be period for a Capri...
jenkosrugby said:
Perfect timing for this thread......
Im currently finishing off my Seight build, and actually took it to get Mapped on Monday.
interesting reading all the comments and opinions.......I think lots of people miss the point of a car like this, and also the appeal of this engine. True, the rover v8 will never light up the charts for bhp, in standard tune, they are lazy engines. Reality is, in the same car, a standard zetec would probably be quicker around a track.....but, the almost instant throttle response you get with a light car and lots of low down torque is genuinely thrilling. add to that the sound, and it does make for an interesting drive. Handling is no doubt compromised over a standard 4 cyl westfield, but westfields handle fantastically well in all guises (assuming the suspension has been set up correctly), so it's still very, very good.
The engines are an absolute delight to work on, parts are easy to come by and there are so many varients and configurations, most can find the right parts to enable them to shoe horn them into their car. The engine has been around for almost 60yrs, so chances are some has already done it :-)
And the noise.....the noise:
https://www.facebook.com/LloydSpecialistDevelopmen...
Cant fault that at all!Im currently finishing off my Seight build, and actually took it to get Mapped on Monday.
interesting reading all the comments and opinions.......I think lots of people miss the point of a car like this, and also the appeal of this engine. True, the rover v8 will never light up the charts for bhp, in standard tune, they are lazy engines. Reality is, in the same car, a standard zetec would probably be quicker around a track.....but, the almost instant throttle response you get with a light car and lots of low down torque is genuinely thrilling. add to that the sound, and it does make for an interesting drive. Handling is no doubt compromised over a standard 4 cyl westfield, but westfields handle fantastically well in all guises (assuming the suspension has been set up correctly), so it's still very, very good.
The engines are an absolute delight to work on, parts are easy to come by and there are so many varients and configurations, most can find the right parts to enable them to shoe horn them into their car. The engine has been around for almost 60yrs, so chances are some has already done it :-)
And the noise.....the noise:
https://www.facebook.com/LloydSpecialistDevelopmen...
motco said:
Instinctively, I would have thought that bike engines notwithstanding, the ideal currently readily available engine is the Honda S2000 c/w it's magnificent gearbox. No worries about low torque in such a lightweight chassis, and the red line at c.9,000 need I say more? Such a car exists by the way.
I'd personally like to put the RX-8 into such a beast. For the same reasons but also because they're dirt cheap to pick up an entire car and because any questions over engine longevity, oil consumption or mpg really don't come into it for a car that will likely do a handful of miles a year. Lets be utterly unrealistic and say an RX-8 needs a rebuild every 10k (more like 5x that)...at the same kind of use as this SEIGHT has seen that's 26 years use, checking oil once a year and only two fill ups!
Fastdruid said:
I'd personally like to put the RX-8 into such a beast. For the same reasons but also because they're dirt cheap to pick up an entire car and because any questions over engine longevity, oil consumption or mpg really don't come into it for a car that will likely do a handful of miles a year.
Lets be utterly unrealistic and say an RX-8 needs a rebuild every 10k (more like 5x that)...at the same kind of use as this SEIGHT has seen that's 26 years use, checking oil once a year and only two fill ups!
Chris Marries used to race one with that setup. Biggest issue was the noise tripping the circuit limits, both induction and exhaust. It needed an exhaust repack every run using high temp packing material because the distance to the silencer was so short. It was very quick but it would be a lot of agro for a trackday car.Lets be utterly unrealistic and say an RX-8 needs a rebuild every 10k (more like 5x that)...at the same kind of use as this SEIGHT has seen that's 26 years use, checking oil once a year and only two fill ups!
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