Why Westfield XI, 11, Eleven?

[11admire]

What was your reason for getting a Westfield XI, 11, Eleven?

I bought mine because the original Lotus XI, 11, Eleven was out of reach financialy, so I have done what I could to make it feel as a sportsracer from the 1950/60's.
I sat in an original Lotus XI series 1 back in 1960 and watched racing on Roskilde Ring when Classic racing was not thought of yet as we know it today. So for me it was a timemachine.

Jorn

[Daggers-xi]

Jorn,
My reason was that many years ago I had the opertunity to purchase an original XI at a very reasonable price but turned it down as I has just started a restoration on another car and only had one garage. We all make mistakes.
Later I started making steam locos and got rid of my car stuff, then when I saw the advert for the Westfield XI I had to requip my garage from scratch, we all make mistakes(twice).
Daggers

[11admire]

I understand Daggers
Back in the seventies I could buy a Maserati 3500 GT for next to nothing, but i was only 18 and did'nt have neither the money or the place to fix it.
I have seen some advets about Lotus Elevens where price was just around 1200£, but that was also e few years ago.

[Westfield 129]

I wanted something simple. light, small. I had a lot of fun with the Lotus 7 Series 1 that I had enjoyed previously. I had thought about another 7, but the Catherhams I was looking at were a bit too dear.

I was familiar with the W11, but I had never seen one in person. Also, there had not been a reliable dealer for the Westfield line here in the US for many years.

My original intent was to find a Morgan 4/4 and put an SVT Focus engine in it, as I had one laying around. Maybe a Catrham or a Mk I Lotus Cortina. A real 11 was expensive, and hard to find a good one.

The reality was that I could not find a Morgan at the right price. I was talking to my friend, a Morgan dealer, and asked what he had in stock. I also asked if he had a Westfield 11, mostly as a joke...

"Well, one came in yesterday" he said. I was off to Santa Monica within an hour, saw the car, made an offer without driving it (it was DREADFUL, but not crashed, so I took a chance...). The Westfield was much like my Lotus 7 in layout, and had a 1275 with a Weber (which I later found to conceal a Longman big valve cylinder head) I asked that the car be fixed (the throttle cable was broken) so that I could drive it. When I came to the dealer with the check (Yes, I paid too much, but not too too much). The mechanics asked where my trailer was. I mentioned that I just purchased a fully registered W11 that was supposed to be "drivable", and that I intended to drive it the 40 miles home. The guys looked a bit skeptical, but I put foam pad on the seat back (brought along so that I could reach the pedals in the elongated footbox LHD chassis), started the engine, and headed for home.

It was, in fact, dreadful. The steering was darty, the suspension was a disaster, no damper control, the brakes were dodgy, and the rear axle rattled around. The engine had, um, inconstant throttle response, and it was geared very short on the 13" wheels. BUT, it did make it home, on the most entertaining of routs, and was evidently invisible to police radar (said my friend in the chase car as he watched the motorcycle officer aim his radar gun at me as I passed at the speed limit plus 15.

I did make it home, uneventfully, and then went to measure the car, and see if it had a nice, straight chassis .The chassis was dead straight. I was very happy.

Over the next month, I drove the car and fixed the problems, including rewiring, increasing the ride height, new suspension setup/corner weighting, installing new dampers and bushings, replacing a couple of bad O rings in the vibration isolator for the Weber. The header was next when the wrapped header was found to be cracked, and that leaky slip coupling for the exhaust pipe.

Eventually, the engine went, a victim of the short gears and constant 5000 RPM on the freeway. The top ring land on #2 failed...

Now, it's close to 60K miles later, with a 1380 putting out 125 HP, 5 speed Datsun gearbox, TranX LSD, and a very different chassis setup procedure. The car has been rewarding, fun and reliable. I use it as a daily driver when weather permits.

The problems have been minimal. Bushings have been a problem, but setting up the suspension with the bushing bolts set to less than 10 lb.ft (5 lb.ft is perfect) has increased metaistic bushing life on the front suspension to 10K miles. The rears have been problematic as well, but a loose setup gives about 3~4K miles, which is an improvement over the previous 300 miles before rear arm bushing replacement. The new Powerflex bushings should fix this problem completely, with bushing life increasing to 10s of 1000s of miles front and rear.

Replacing the seized, leaky SPAX dampers helped with the ride and handling.

The inconsistent brake feel was fixed with a set of Timken taper roller front wheel bearings. The braking with the single master cylinder is actually quite good, with excellent feel and modulation.

I wold like to say that this was all done over a weekend, but it took a couple of years to learn how to fix everything so that it actually improved the car.

Tires were a problem until I found that easily available 180/70/13s fit just fine on the 5" Rims, and give plenty of grip and predictability for drifting around. The lack of rear traction off of the corners was cured with the LSD. 15" wheels are planned. I am not sure if I am going to go with the 15" wire wheels that I have been fitting to the W11s that I have built for friends, or try a set of 5.5" front and 6" rear magnesium bolt on wheels from Panasport or other vintage race wheel manufacturer. They will fit with the 4.5 and 5.00 Dunlop vintage race tires. No problem.

I have had the thing for 10 years, and it has been an excellent decade, indeed. I am now installing some more of the Powerflex rear bushings, and planning on a new set of the competition front spindles with new kingpins. I may try a rear disc setup, but other than that, refreshing the body and paint would be nice,

I already have most of a new interior done. All I have to do is install the new seats, and replace the instrument panel. That is, when I am not driving it.

While I keep my cars for a long time, there are few that have given me as much pleasure as the W11.

One more thing... Just look at it! Few cars say "race car" like the lovely Costin designed body of the W11. Put it on 15" wheels with the Dunlop vintage race tires, and it just looks right. Drives right, with the right feel, too. Oh... And women seem to like it quite a bit as well.

[M400too]

Had a Elise mk 1 and wanted something lotus but not what everyone else has oringinal car just to much so naturally Westfield is best option

[alleggerita]

Until 1989 I had only had classic Alfa Bertones because that was the only true sportscar brand in my eyes, despite a friend’s continuous hammering on the brilliance of Chapman designed Lotusses.

Money no object and no kids yet, my wife and I lived the adventurous life so we decided to go to the Silverstone historic grand prix with the Alfa in that year, the year that the hoovercraft was still in service.

The deal was that we would do tourist stuff on the Saturday like going to Oxford and vegetable markets in tiny villages in the Midlands, and Sunday for a Day at the Races.

And on that Saturday we chased a car for a while that changed my views completely. The out-of-space design and fastness of a tiny green flat road going racing car that turned out to be an Eleven struck me by complete surprise and I said to my wife: that is what I am going to get one day.

Fast forward 2015: I am still with my wife, 3 kids left the house, I had another couple of old Alfas, an Elan+2 and I have a ’59 Anglia in the barn right now. Beginning of next year I will finally start the build of my Eleven. The Anglia is donor, mainly for the sidevalve engine + 3-speed gearbox and the S1 look-al-like front suspension. Chances to drive it to Le mans Classic 2016 are getting flimsy though.

Unless I come across a high-spec Westfield at a fair price.

[Westfield 129]

I had a few Alfas as well. 'Currently looking at a 4C Coupe, maybe.

In any case there is a top line Westfield in Denmark, at a good price. It doesn't need much, and will handle much better than a swing axle 11. It also has about twice the power of a side valve Anglia.

Nothing like immediate gratification.

[M400too]

Like 4c too when is it out in UK or is it out already

[stricor]

Had a lot of cars, built a few seven look alikes from scratch. When my wife and son crashed our cobra replica it was time to become more sensible.
I bought an elise for her and soon we had 3 of them. One of the elises was sold and another one we rebuilt using a highly tuned audi drivetrain (becoming less sensible again).
Got carried away with the lotus disease so in time we bought an old europa and esprit, all in a bad shape. The biggest part of the hobby is to restore the cars.

One day i followed the westfield eleven of pluscat and decided we had to have one too....
Have built my own interpretation using the original lotus eleven drawings and ford mechanicals.
Body was purschased at westfield. Had a lot of fun building it and we think of building a second one.

Perhaps we have the most fun with driving the eleven, been to classic le mans last year in it.
We also visited a few shows with it where it always gets a lot of attention.