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Reply to "I'm still in the Club, but no longer driving German.."

With global warming, you'd be surprised how relatively few days of rain we get in England. As any of you who ride motorbikes will know, you develop a good 'weather eye' and know when you can go out and, even though it's cloudy, it's not going to rain. But the perceived lack of weather protection is what keeps XI/Spyder prices lower than Speedsters in the UK, even though as we all know the weather protection in most Speedsters is designed to 'make you less damp' rather than 'keep you dry'.

As for this car, if you want to know a LOT more, you might as well see the auction listing - it has a load of hi-res images that show the car off beautifully. I was on holiday when it was listed so I missed it, but it didn't make reserve. I presume it failed to reach reserve mainly for the non-traditional blue/tan colour. EVERY other XI I've seen advertised is British Racing Green/ red interior, and they sell for between £23k-£33k. The builder thought green cars were unlucky (a self-fulfilling myth, because all racing cars back in the 50s and 60s were mostly green, and tended to crash a lot with no seatbelts), so he went for blue gelcoat and then sprayed it Porsche Riviera Blue. It looks like Bugatti blue to me, hence the French feel to it.

He then advertised it in a more normal online fashion which is how I found it. And I got it for a good price, even allowing for the costs of changes I want to make.

Here's the extract from the blurb regarding the mechanicals (aimed specifically at all you techie guys who followed my old Speedster work and love these details)

The chassis is a Westfield tubular design with double wishbone front suspension and anti roll bar. The modified Ford Escort rear axle is carried on radius arms and a Panhard rod.

  • Upgraded, adjustable, Protech Coil over suspension fitted all round.
  • Steering is rack and pinion. Uprights, hubs etc. are standard MG.
  • Upgraded Front brakes are Frontline 9” with aluminium 4 pot calipers.
  • Rear brakes are Ford 8” drums including MG chrome handbrake lever.
  • Twin circuit brakes with Wilwood master cylinders with remote reservoirs
  • Gearbox. Ford type 9 5 speed with a long first gear and short remote linkage.
  • Frontline 7.5” clutch and bellhousing.
  • The original donor engine was in generally good, original condition and was renovated and improved as follows.
  • Block Offset bored to 73.5mm giving 1380cc. Crankshaft ground to -20thou. Connecting rods polished and balanced and fitted with Omega 9.8cr pistons. Crankshaft and flywheel/ clutch balanced.
  • MED supplied parts:- Steel vernier cam drive kit. R/S Camshaft. 1.5 Ratio roller tip rocker shaft. Competition oil pump. Cam followers. Valve springs. Competition Balancer crankshaft pulley. Alloy rocker cover.
  • Brand new Metro A+ cylinder head, modified and gas flowed, fitted with Cooper S valves.
  • Peter May baffled sump.
  • All new bearings, studs lock tabs, core plugs and gaskets. ARP Big end, Main and cylinder head bolts/ studs.
  • Refurbished Weber 45DCOE carburetor on 5” Maniflow manifold, with K&N air filter.
  • Edge High Torque starter motor, new water pump, alternator etc.


Now you've seen the good bits, here are the not so good bits:

The alternator failed so the car cut out the other night. I had to push it off a motorway (freeway) roundabout onto a side road. Fortunately there wasn't too much traffic and I could push it into a layby - the car is so light it was like pushing a motorbike. I had even  better luck when a guy parked in the layby jumped out and gave me a push so I could bump start it. A replacement alternator will be picked up tomorrow at a surprisingly reasonable £55 ($75). I'll check all the wiring back to the battery in the rear because it looks quite thin wire considering the juice it has to cope with.

As mentioned, the rear radius arms have knackered bushes. It's a nicely designed system locating on a rigid axle (in this case it's a Ford Escort Mk2 - the 1970s UK version, not the jelly mould US version), with a panhard rod for lateral location. Worn bushes equals massive clonking coming off the revs/getting on the revs. According to the Eleven Owners forum the bushes only last around 3000 miles, and this car has done 7000.

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The interior has been nicely done by the builder, keeping it more or less true to the original - mostly polished aluminium except for tan seats and functional floor mats.

The standard Westfield look is thus - fully carpeted and fairly 'plush':Eleven_8

Whereas the builder went with this:

Eleven_9Eleven_10

I like the spartan look of mine, but there are two things I want to change - the seats which really should be in red (original 11s came in many colours but the seats were always red), and the dials.. For some reason the builder wanted bright yellow. They are quite garish and totally out of place in this car (IMHO). They're ETB dials and very good quality, so I'm going to see if I can get the company to swap out the dial fronts rather than pay £500-odd for totally new dials.

I quite like the black crackle powder coating, even though tradionally the 11 has a cheap red vinyl cover with a minimum of padding.

There are a few oil leaks but sadly, it does seem to be a case of 'they all do that, Sir' with the A Series engine. I can fix a few but the main one will always be there I feel.

Luckily it only has one Weber DCOE45 carb, not the twin Dellortos I had on my previous car, so that's a lot less work. :-)

So, all in all, not too much to do, which will hopefully leave me more time to enjoy it.

It goes like stink and handles beautifully, as you would expect. The steering is so precise and light you only have to think of turning and it's done it. It is loud - the standard exhaust from Westfield is a motorbike silencer that struggles to hit the 105db limit at track days (apparently). But it goes with the racer look and feel.

I think I'm going to enjoy this!

I need to buy a Stirling Moss 'corker' style helmet to go with the car ;-)

Martin

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