Westfield Narrow Body vrs Wide Body ?

[ground-rush]

Hi Guys,

I have tried out a narrow bodied car built 1991. Not been in a wide body yet. I just fitted in, a bit tight around the steering wheel.

What are the real differences between them, especially diameter wise?

When did wide bodies come in?

Is it just down to personal preference?

Are they both easy to work on?

Any SVA issues with a narrow one that's not been finished yet?

Thanks as always.

Ben

[dern]

I've had one of each and while I have no measurements for you the widebody is hugely more spacious than the narrowbody. I fitted in my narrow car but my knees hit the wheel which compromised control. I had no problems fitting in the wide car and didn't even have the seat all the way back ( I'm 6'2" ). You could potentially solve the clearance issues with the narrow car by moving the wheel or lowering the seat.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you buy the narrow car and modify it to fit yourself there will usually be even bigger people that can't fit it in which restricts your market come selling time. I had people who had money and wanted to buy but couldn't get in the car.

Edited by dern on Tuesday 27th March 15:23

[shedman]

I've owned and raced both and the narrow's slightly more compact dimensions make it potentially a faster turning/livelier car but the transmission tunnel is narrower than a wide so you can't easily locate the engine as far back (without either modifying the transmission tunnel or the gearbox bell housing or both) which will increase understeer and negates some of the potential benefits so ultimatley from a dynamic point there's not much between them. You can do things to improve this through wide track front suspension and other geometry set ups if you want to extract maximum performance.

On the inside the wide is really much more spacious everywhere, there's more space across the shoulders but also around the knees and elbows which is useful if you have the roof or sidescreens in place. With a seat on runners you can easily fit someone over 6ft in the wide but not in the narrow.