You wait ages for a Westfield then two come along at once!

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Deleted member 66701

D

Deleted member 66701

Guy who sits beside me has just bought a 1987 pre-lit Westfield with a 1700 dry sumped Lotus Twin Cam engine in it :-) Lovely little motor but it's tiny - I can't even get my foot on the clutch before my foot hits the steering wheel ;-) Sounds awesome with the twink in it though :-)

His is the blue one - 'scuse the rubbish phone pics:-

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This may be a really idiotic post and i'm really showing my stupidity but aren't they Caterhams?

Ones a Westfield and ones a Lotus 7.

No - they are both Westfields.

what would happen if that Xsara crashed into that little Westfield at say 40MPH?

They'd probably be a new widow in the world.
 
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I fail at car ID

It's an easy mistake to make for the blue one. Pre-lit Westfields are an exact copy of a Series 3 Lotus 7 - as is a Caterham Seven - that's why it's so hard to tell them aprart.

They are called pre-lits becuase Caterham sued Westfield (i.e. litigation) as Caterham owned the designs to the Lotus 7. So, Westfield improved the suspension design and the fibreglass body and that's why modern Westfields look like mine. Hence - all Westfields prior to this redesign are pre-lits. :-)

Why would you put a big number 7 and a Lotus bonnet badge on a Westfield?

That's how the kits/cars were sold - see my above explanation.
 
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I'm not 100% convinced the one on the left is a Caterham to be honest. It's undoubtedly a very early car and most probably produced as a Series 2 Lotus 7, since there's no roll bar and it's a solid bench seat. That also makes me wonder if it could be an early Westfield. But generally the proportions are right for a 7.

Does no one bother reading previous posts anymore?

those aren't the Nildram offices in Aylesbury by an chance are they.....

Nope.

Is sticking a great big '7' grill on a Westfield just as bad as sticking an M3 badge on a 320i?

I'm not sure it's the same when the actual manufacturer does it :-)
 
Now here's a fact Caterham owners wont tell you.

Before he died, Colin Chapman said he regretted selling the rights of the Lotus Seven design to Caterham. He felt it should have gone to the community (i.e. open source as we'd now call it). He felt Caterham had done nothing to advance the design.

It wasn't until Westfield started developing the chassis (including independant rear suspension) that Caterham actually started doing some R&D.

It's still debated which is actually the better handling/better designed marquee. I'm undecided. All I know is you pay a lot more for a Caterham. Twice the price = twice as good? I'm not so sure......






Can of worms opened - popcorn at the ready.....................
 
I reeeeeeeeeeally want a Westie next. I love the yellow with black wheels. It looks fantastic. Not too keen on the more classic looking blue one though.
 
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