Pat’s Westfield MegaBird

(simulation….)

My mate Pat got his Westfield just a week or so before I took delivery of the SLR. He’s gone for a bike (Blackbird) powered car with a few choice options. As you can see from the shots below, he’s got a lot more work to do than me!

The quality of the car kit seems excellent, with the finish on the parts seemingly equally as good as my 7.

Pictures courtesy of Soya.

This first shot is of the plastic body plopped over the spaceframe for effect. The iron gate in the background is not part of the kit! Notice the huge alloy undertray, which is very nicely pre cut and drilled to accept rivets. You still have to drill the chassis, however.

Below, Pat is picking his nose for effect, contemplating the result of just snapping his dad’s rivet tool having tried to extend the handles using copper heating tube. A £50 trip to the Rivet gun store later restores the building effort!

Here is the bodyshell. The finish is really superb – notice that he has specified the detatchable rear arches in case he has interface with a piece of scenery.

Below is 170 of your Queen’s finest horsepower. Honda 1100 SuperBlackbird engine complete with 6 speed sequential gearbox and Westfield dry sump system. Awesome.

Here is the result of about 25 hours work at a guess. You can see the pedal box taking shape, most of the loom is in and the brake and fuel pipes are riveted nicely to the chassis.

Space is not a problem for Pat! Here he has laid out all the twisty bits to ensure nothing is missing. Unfortuately there are a few omissions…..

Nice shot of the back, detailling the excellent access to the diff and showing the IRS mounts.

Pat has a few days off work now – whereas Julian doesn’t! Expect feverish building in the Westfield corner………..

And feverish building we got!

As the above sequence shows, the suspension is now finished, the diff installed – albeit only with one driveshaft – and the brake rotors are on. The independent suspension setup at the back of the Plastic Rat is beautiful and I might have to insert a few bricks under his wishbones while he isn’t looking! That should slow him down a bit.

Above you see Pat dad’s new wheelbarrow –sorry – the bodyshell in the background. This is nearly ready for fitment. Notice the solid front discs – considered adequate due to the lower weight of the bike engine and transmission. (The guys at Westfield obviously haven’t seen Mr. Buxton drive, then, eh?)

The reverse gearbox is shown below and is a very nice piece of kit with beautiful castings and lightweight. The propshafts are badly offset and so will rob some power and wear more quickly than would be ideal. It is difficult to see how the routing of the drive could have been accomplished differently, however.

Pat is fitting the fuel tank here, and is just about to fit the body. This proves to be an error, because there should have been a couple of alloy skins riveted to the sides of the frame first…… Damn Westfield who forgot to include them in the kit!

Here is the body and bonnet added for effect….

Note the FIA roll bar which has also been trial fitted.

And here is the problem – see the air through the body. Doh! At least the next pic shows something good! The rad is a lightweight item found on VW’s – cheaper than a custom alloy one and just as light! Clever stuff from Westfield. The scuttle panel is in the third shot – the twin humps that deflect the wind were a total pain to fit due to the odd angles on the bolts and getting it in just the right place.

Hopefully we’ll have some shots of the engine in soon! It looks very nice indeed!

Hmmmmn. This is going to be interesting. Due to a lack of time it was down to me to bang the rest of this thing together in my workshop – and I don’t exactly have too much time for photo’s at work, I’m afraid. Hence, the build diary sort of jumps to this……

There are actually still some little jobs to do but by and large that’s it. I spent about 30 hours in total along with Pat’s 100, as a guess, and it is worth noting that we (PAT!) had to fork out about £100 in bits not included with the kit. There is a lot more artistic license in the building than with a 7, so if you are after a bit more of a “job” then this could be for you! I’ll also point out that it is very, very fast indeed!

Have fun!