I never really gave much thought to kit cars until a friend bought a part-built Dax Cobra. This could be fun I thought but Cobras are too costly so opted for the Lotus Seven styled Westfield as my preferred choice of steed. I joined the club & scoured the quarterly club magazine for suitable candidates. Cost was always going to be the main factor as I was not prepared (or allowed to actually) spend a great deal of money on a "Toy". Then saw it "Pre-Lit Westfield 7 in need of tender loving care & a good home." Living in Scotland & the car being in Liverpool the deal was done on the phone & the following weekend I hired a trailer to collect my new pride & joy. Originally red but with badly faded paintwork I could see that this was a rebuild job however the potential was there so I bought the car without even driving it....The pedals were so high I couldn't get to the brake without hitting the steering wheel.

Within hours of arriving home the car was stripped down and the bodywork removed. Not being a fibreglass expert, the body was given to a local garage while I did the mechanicals myself. With the best intentions I thought let's not go overboard here however that didn't last long. To date I have fitted new brakes, suspension,springs, stage-three cylinder head, high-lift cam & twin 40 Weber carbs & just recently ultra-sticky soft compound tyres. End result - Goes like a rocket, Handles like a Race-Kart & great for pulling the ladies (except the car's so small you can't do anything with them)......What a toy!!!!

But wait it gets better. The spirit of all se7ens is to be small, light & powerful so out has gone the heavy 1600cc Ford engine complete with gearbox & bellhousing & in has gone something smaller....only 1100cc??

We now have 1100cc of Honda's finest Blackbird motorcycle engine. 160bhp, half the weight of the old engine & a 6 speed sequential gearbox thrown in for free!

What was already a quick little sports car, now revs to 12,000 RPM and accelerates 0-60mph in under 4 seconds....wickedly fast :)) Well they do say that too much power is just enough :))

Click on the photo below to see pictures of the engine conversion to bike power.
 
My little car is now over 20 years old and still going strong. In the nine years I've owned her, I've made literally hundreds of new friends through the se7ens internet mailing list and between us, we have organised some fantastic tours in our cars including Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany Austria and even a lap of the Grand Prix circuit in Monaco!! The ultimate tour had to be in 2005 when we shipped 40 cars over to the USA for a monster 3 week tour from Houston to San Francisco. There's some fantastic pictures of some of our tours, including our most recent round Spain and up to Classic Le Mans on my good friend myles' site here.