Westfield working on all-new car
'Advanced carbon fibre structure' and 'incredibly light rotary engine' promised for all-new Westfield sports car
"While there have been lots of attempts to make fuel efficient cars for the future all too often these have been rather too worthy and rather too little fun," says the press release. "Westfield Sports Cars is determined to address this challenge by building on its own heritage of high excitement cars together with new technology from Axon Automotive and AIE."
What technology might that be then, and where on earth are they going to get this lightweight rotary engine from? A little Googling on AIE reveals a historical link with Norton motorbikes and - therein - a clue, given that Norton famously pioneered the use of rotary engines on motorbikes. An interesting choice for a project claiming low emissions are a priority, CO2 and noise being two things rotaries traditionally chuck out in large quantities.
Axon Automotive, meanwhile, has extensive experience of developing affordable, production friendly carbon fibre platforms designed specifically for manufacturers seeking an off-the-shelf basis on which to design their own lightweight cars. Its patented Axontex 'beam', which can be used to build carbon fibre space frames but is also adaptable into many different forms. From electric city cars to motor show concepts - the 2014 Hyundai Intrado was built using Axon's technology - it's clearly a firm with bold ideas, including its 'Far Platform Chassis'. This is described as "a generic carbon fibre chassis designed for niche carmakers to use as the platform for their cars. The structure is strong enough pass the Euro NCAP crash test on its own and is available as a kit of parts or as a finished chassis."
All very enticing, a contact able to confirm the new car "will look like a Westfield" but little more beyond that. More when we have it!
[Sources: Axon Automotive; AIE]
http://www.speedhunters.com/2010/03/car_feature_gt...
What's ironic/laughable/frustrating is that the makers of a car that sells in very small numbers and gets driven circa 2000 miles a year by the average owner needs to worry about fecking emissions just because all manufacturers have to battle with broad brush euro regs etc. I'm all for a cleaner sustainable planet but lets just leave sports cars out of the strategy shall we as their contribution to C02 levels etc must be the square root of naff all!
The same thing has happened to F1 - cleaner more efficient cars being hauled around the world by thousands of people in convoys of dirty great trucks, planes, trains etc! I appreciate the green technology cascades down to road cars but if that has become the primary driver over and above max performance, noise, excitement, racing, spectacle etc then whats the point - just scrap the racing and spend the money on green/hybrid r&d?
Yes Westfield - rotary power, possibly with a blower( ! ) - but for the right reasons...
What's ironic/laughable/frustrating is that the makers of a car that sells in very small numbers and gets driven circa 2000 miles a year by the average owner needs to worry about fecking emissions just because all manufacturers have to battle with broad brush euro regs etc. I'm all for a cleaner sustainable planet but lets just leave sports cars out of the strategy shall we as their contribution to C02 levels etc must be the square root of naff all!
The same thing has happened to F1 - cleaner more efficient cars being hauled around the world by thousands of people in convoys of dirty great trucks, planes, trains etc! I appreciate the green technology cascades down to road cars but if that has become the primary driver over and above max performance, noise, excitement, racing, spectacle etc then whats the point - just scrap the racing and spend the money on green/hybrid r&d?
Yes Westfield - rotary power, possibly with a blower( ! ) - but for the right reasons...
What's ironic/laughable/frustrating is that the makers of a car that sells in very small numbers and gets driven circa 2000 miles a year by the average owner needs to worry about fecking emissions just because all manufacturers have to battle with broad brush euro regs etc. I'm all for a cleaner sustainable planet but lets just leave sports cars out of the strategy shall we as their contribution to C02 levels etc must be the square root of naff all!
The same thing has happened to F1 - cleaner more efficient cars being hauled around the world by thousands of people in convoys of dirty great trucks, planes, trains etc! I appreciate the green technology cascades down to road cars but if that has become the primary driver over and above max performance, noise, excitement, racing, spectacle etc then whats the point - just scrap the racing and spend the money on green/hybrid r&d?
Yes Westfield - rotary power possibly, with a blower( ! ) - but for the right reasons...
If you have ever owned a Westfield or tried to build a kit and tried to get parts off them you will know what I mean!
Companies that tried to develop a workable rotary engine and gave up: GM, Mercedes, Nissan, Citroen, AMC
Companies that succeeded: Mazda, Norton
Companies that went bankrupt as a result: NSU
Mazda's dedication to the rotary goes far beyond any economic rationale, it is more like a religious dedication among their engineers. Yet they still don't currently sell any rotary-powered cars.
Chances that a couple of tiny companies can make a reliable, economical, driveable, clean, affordable rotary engine? Honestly, it would be truly, incredibly surprising if this ever comes to fruition.
The Renesis engine in the RX8 can happy do 250k if cared for so longevity isn't an issue, espcially on a car that's mainly going to be used once a week on average at most over the course of the year.
Not too sure about co2 but surely the displacement must count in the rotarys favour in some markets? It's a shame they don't allow small scale production to go passed without all the hassle and eco bs that's required for the big manufacturers that produce hundreds of thousands of engines.
Please tell me that no-one has been daft enough to try and put a -real- rotary piston engine, as used in Sopwith Camels and the like, in a bike!
To maximise the life of my rotary MX5, I went for a separate oil injection supply, better coils and oil/water cooling upgrades. I also had it ported by BDC motorsports for 240bhp and it runs up to 9500rpm. It's good fun in an MX5 (mine is 1028kg), it would be great in a Westfield as the engine can sit very low.
A 60K mile rebuild interval would be plenty for me. It's taken me 20 years to do that in mine.
But what on earth is wrong with the green car at the top of the article?
It looks like it has been fitted with some house architrave along the underside, and the wheels seem comically tall and way too big too?
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