Summary spring 2014

Recent trip round Dukes Pass, Trossachs, Scotland

The car was a good one when bought in September 2013 it is an even better car now. I have driven it recently and it performs well and may of the niggles in the driving experience have now gone. Here is a list of improvements over the last 6 months.

* Front mud flaps
* Bodywork repairs (paint and GRP)
* Extra front wing stays
* New shock absorbers
* Improved aero screen
* Front and rear lighting improvements
* Moved battery to better position and plugged up holes in bulkhead
* Rear wing stone guards
* Paddle shift gear change
* Improved exhaust and fitted CAT
* MSA towing hoops
* Boot box for tool storage
* Improved oil catch tank
* Full roll cage
* Half doors
* Gear selected indicator
* ARB's front and back
* Uprated cooling fan

Total cost...... don't ask the wife might be listening!

The plan is to enter a few hill climb events and a few track days, hopefully not making too big an idiot of myself.

Contents

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Cooling fan

I was going to update the cooling fan, possibly next year but the purchase of the Playskool ARB made that upgrade a necessity. The ARB install wanted to share the same space as the Sierra cooling fan location. The Ford cooling fan is big and heavy beast by modern standards at I doubt it is very efficient.

I purchased a 10" low profile suck part from Rally Design. It is spec'd at only 52mm in height. I had to make a new mounting plate and brackets. The brackets are the originals Westfield chassis bits elongated by 30mm.

Bolted it up, connected wiring and pipes all works well, job done. Water temperature gauge is reading wrong, needs investigating (sensor faulty?).

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New alloy mounting bracket

Clearance to ARB now adequate

Old Ford part

ARB (Anti Roll Bar)

I was happy enough with the road holding on my Megabusa but when I spoke to Simon at Sitec Racing he advised me to get some ARB(s). Simon's advice is that the roadholding can be made even better on the track with ARB's. As he is going to be employed to set up my suspension soon, then I guess, I need to take his advice.

I thought about purchasing s/h parts but decided a new set would have all the bits and pieces supplied and be a straightforward fit (wrong!).

I purchased the front and rear ARB kit for a Westfield from Playskool Motorsport. Like all aftermarket products for my model of Westfield (apparently) it did not fit out of the box. The main problem was at the rear bar:

1) The instructions were unclear about the position of the plates to attach the drop arms at the rear to the lower wishbones.

2) The rear upper pivot points requires removing the fuel tank as the bolts cannot be removed and inserted otherwise.

The first problem was easy enough I just posted a thread on the Westfield technical forum and that matter was put to bed almost instantly. There are lots and lots of people who have fitted that kit.

The second problem resulted in me refabricating the rear pivot point brackets by putting an offset into the pivot point. I then mounted them on the rear wishbone mounts instead of the front. I did not want to remove the tank at this stage as the roll cage would have to be removed. I cannot see why this will affect the roll bar performance in any way.

The biggest problem with the front ARB was that the site for the front ARB was obstructed by the radiator,  the bottom hose and the cooling fan.

Nearside front

Offside front

Offside rear

Welded plate

Mod to rear pivot

It is now essential to upgrade the cooling fan as the front ARB occupies the space for the existing one.

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Decals, competition number, the prisioner

Time has come to fit a place to put a competition number (assuming I am to hill climb/sprint this car).  The requirement is for three sites one viewable from the front and one either side below the aero screen. The numbers have to be 9" high so that more or less dictates the size of the white background. You are not allowed to display the numbers on the public highway. I took the view that driving around with blank number sites was a bit bland so I added my own decal design of "the prisoner".

 I can always cover the logo with white background when needed or rip of the decal by applying a little heat.

For those viewing this and don't understand the decal. The prisoner was a cult 60's TV series staring Patrick McGoohan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhnTMxHOWlY

I designed the logo using Painshop pro:

* He drives a Lotus 7 , I drive a 7esk Westfield
* His prisoner number is 6, I do have a 6 in my Q plate (stretching the theme a bit far I guess!)
* The organisation's logo that keeps him detained is a penny farthing with a surrey top. And the Westfield symbol looks something like the spokes of a wheel.
* And my identity on to the forums is "the prisoner".

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Gear indicator

Strange as it may seam to those not familiar with Bike Engine'd Car's (BEC), the car currently does not have a gear indicator other than neutral. That is because in YR2000 they don't fit such things as standard to the Hayabusa engine. Possibly newer bike engines provide such features but not this one.

I purchased an electronic indicator (from ebay) driven off the gearbox selector leaver, a device that claims to be the ultimate fault free solution of course (at least they don't admit to any problems = same thing). If you read the forums they are not perfect esp if you have two attempts at a gear selection. However it does correct the reading when  passing thru neutral.  The company is called SBSMOTO Racing Beijing located in China of course.

Alternative devices exist which compute the gear you are in by measuring the revs produced and the speed you are doing and looking up a table of values. These devices are quite expensive if bought separately from the ecu.

This device works by having two hall sensors one for up and one for down and a signal picked up from the Hayabusa wiring loom which indicates Neutral . A magnet is attached to the gearbox leaver to stimulate the hall sensors. The  neutral feed signal from the gearbox must be some sort of electronic source that does not go all the way to 0V when active. It goes to about 0.7V,  I added a relay to create a proper 0V for the SBS device which it apparently needs.

The magnet is attached to the gear selector leaver fabrication with araldite.

If anyone tells you these things are easy to install they are either lying or they have done it before. I created two parts fabricated in stainless steel (they need to be non magnetic). A plate to mount the hall effect sensors and a bracket to mount the magnet. The plate is mounted on the same bolts as the clutch master cylinder. The magnet bracket is mounted on the rose joint hole for the cable/paddle shift.  There is not a lot of room around in that part of the engine bay. The wiring is poorly documented in my case so sorting that out was time consuming also. I tried to avoid modifying the clutch master cylinder bracket but that turned out to be not possible. Mounting the sensors behind the dashboard was a non starter of an idea. I hate working behind dashboards.

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Gear displayed just above paddles in middle

Gearbox fabrications

Lid for the boot box

After fitting the boot box around the roll cage I was not entirely happy with the overall appearance. I decided to either fit a cover from Softbits or make an alloy cover plate. The need for a boot box is fairly obvious in that you need somewhere tidy to put some tools when road trips are needed to try out development work. Enough room has now been created for a tool kit including some tyre repair stuff. The cover was made out of 1mm thick alloy sheet painted with two pack to match the rest of the car. I also made some closing panels for the cage. I will fix it with rivnuts and dome headed screws. Still need to put a sealing rubber on. Yes you will need an alan key to get at my tools.

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Alloy stage

Painted

In use

Half door attachment method

One minor miracle was that the half doors fitted my old style Westfield bodywork but the rest of the miracle is that they also fit with the Cage. Top marks for Aerodynamix and they look terrific, I cannot wait to try them out. The main reason for fitting them was to reduce buffeting.

Before fitting them I first attached some 15mm U channel around the perimeter using tiger seal. The textured finish on the inside of the Aerodynamix part started to abrade the bodywork especially at the forward most edge.

I first attached the front with some heavy duty Velcro tape ensuring the spikes were attached to the bulge in the bodywork. This also had the beneficial effect of stopping the bodywork becoming abraded.

The rear was attached with an elastic Velcro strap. The Velcro was held in place by an alloy bracket and 5mm rivets.

I also attached some self adhesive hard rubber U channel to the top edge for safety reasons.

The attachments are both simple and can be done from inside the car.

I am sure there are many ways of doing this but I found this minimal effort to implement.

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Velcro front

Rubber edging



Velcro strap