Westfield Sportscars acquired by trackday operator
Westfield Chesil Ltd's time at Bicester is over - its salvation has come from the most unlikely place
Like many low-volume, English manufacturers, Westfield has been through several deep-seated changes since it was founded in 1982 as a Caterham-rivalling maker of Lotus Seven-style cars. Often the underdog (its legal battle with its closest rival, and the ongoing requirement to do things a little differently, helped it to carve a niche for itself), the firm proved itself willing to try many different routes to success, encompassing everything from knockdown kits to autonomous electric pods.
While this made for some genuinely interesting and exciting cars (and even the autonomous division proved innovative enough to be hived off), the firm has endured very tough times in recent years. Indeed its latest brush with total liquidation occurred in April of this year, when Westfield Chesil Ltd - the entity which reanimated the brand as a going concern in Bicester - announced that it was going into administration while its directors attempted to find a buyer.
That search, it seems, ended on the continent. Today, Driving-Fun.com, which describes itself as one of Europe’s largest organisers of track days and the operator of Circuit Meppen in Germany (though the company was incorporated in the Netherlands), has confirmed its acquisition of Westfield Sportscars. Good news for fans of the brand and current customers, as the new owner suggests that it will work to restart the supply of spare parts for existing models - and even continue production of the current lineup; bad news for those of us who like our low-volume English sports cars to actually herald from England. The new manufacturing facility will be adjacent to Circuit Meppen in Lower Saxony.
So while it is a new dawn for Westfield Sportscars as a carmaker, it is plainly the end of an era in a broader sense, which is a shame for a company that made a good go of it for more than four decades. Still, its new guardian reckons that ‘work is already underway on several new models designed for use on both road and track’ and promises a completely new website in due course. Can a relatively modest track day organiser really hope to also own and operate a successful track car company? Only time will tell.
However, when I got into conversation with the new owners my heart sank when they revealed the starting price would be in the region of 80-90 k for the revised 11. They talked a good game about improved quality ( not that the original was poor ) and bespoke suspension etc, but for me the writing was on the wall
It's a real shame the business has gone bust twice in the last few years. But there has been little innovation, over pricing, and the competition has improved, for example MK Sports cars and GBS.
Hopefully the new owners of the brand will remember it's roots. Simple, fun, kit cars.
Regulations are making it harder for the kit car business to survive, but I don't think the Westfield brand is strong enough to launch an expensive turn key car, caterham have that market sewn up.
Built my Westfield in the early nineties When founder Chris Smith was at the helm and John Grosvenor was the workshop manager.
we also had many good days with some members of the forum in Germany on the Autobahn or track day fun on the Ring.
I knew he organizes a lot of track days more and more over the years, I thought he must be nuts, thats a lot of work and responsibility hanging on your shoulders and now he/they also buying/going into Westfiels hahah, cool Peter.
ah, look at this old picture we from DF (driving-fun.com) DF run DLD4 GTRene en Peter and other car nuts back then at a Autobahn run Germany with DF
good old times and for fun we brought our special sun glasses with us which looks like a bar over the eyes
Built my Westfield in the early nineties When founder Chris Smith was at the helm and John Grosvenor was the workshop manager.
Bought it when I was 22, used it as a daily for 3 years and 4 trips to le mans. Many a happy memory.
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To give you an idea of the past 20 years and because it is nice to pause for a moment to reflect on exactly what DF is and does.
From a small forum where people could chat with each other without troublemakers, an organization emerged that organizes +/- 120 track days per year. We possess a rental fleet of +/- 150 race and track cars (please don't ask me exactly how many, because I have no idea), we were the importer of Radical in the Benelux and Germany for a while, we are currently setting up our own racing team in the Westfield Cup and already have 6 or 7 fully race-spec Westfield Cup racers for that, we still operate two hotels in Nürburg, and we have the fastest Business Club in the Netherlands. We organize licensing courses, training people to become fully-fledged race drivers in just two days, and alongside the Time Attack championship, we also organize the annual Dream Car Day for sick children. Additionally, we once acquired Blackwell Sportscars, which builds super fun TVR-style cars based on the Mazda MX5, and we operate the kart track, the off-road terrain, the hospitality facilities with capacity for up to 1,200 guests, and of course the circuit in Meppen, where we have ambitious plans for the coming years. Oh yes, we are also the importer of ZAMP racing apparel and helmets in the Netherlands and Germany.
https://forum.driving-fun.com/viewtopic.php?t=4575...
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