June
The last couple of months have been one of the most frenetic periods in the short history of the Bath & Bristol Area of the WSCC.  In that time we’ve:

First I’d like to say a hearty thanks to Ken Robson, our outgoing AO.  Ken has worked diligently in getting the B&B area up and running from almost nothing two years ago when we kicked it off.  As AO he set up many interesting events and his organisational skills have truly been a great asset to the club.  We’ll miss him.  He’s not leaving the kit car world entirely, as he’s forming the new Marlin 5eXi owners club – it’s one where the local club is actively supported by the factory J  (that would be nice).  As one of the founder members of our area I have taken over as AO to avoid the club folding, although at the time of Ken’s departure my feelings towards Westfield were at an all time low having had my car off the road for 3 months and receiving zero support from them regarding an ECU problem. 

So, what’s happened apart from admin changes? 

A “dedicated” Westfield only day in June through Motor Sports Events didn’t get quite enough Westy attendees to truly make it “dedicated” but none the less with 20+ there it was a very enjoyable time. 

The second Castle Combe Action day of the year was held on June 12^th and we had a fantastic turnout from several WSCC areas:  Bath & Bristol, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Hants & Wilts and, Somerset & Dorset.  There were considerably more Westfield’s than Caterhams and only the Golf GTIs only outnumbered us.  Hardly surprising since the theme that day was “VAG Action Day”.  I was looking forward to getting onto the track for the 1^st time this year as I’d just got the car back on the road with my ECU finally sorted by ACW & SBD after being off the road since late February.  The “new” scheme for getting onto the track was better organisationally.  You paid for a timed start time slot (e.g. 11:30), so this avoided the need to sit in a huge queue.  The bad news was that the standard of driving of the kiddy tin top boy racers was utterly appalling.  In our session with 7 Westfield’s and 13 tin tops, I was nearly wiped out by a nutter in a Gti moving sharply across the track on a straight!  None of us saw anybody pulled up by the Marshals throughout the day despite the clearly bad standard of driving.  All in all a wacky racing day. 

The very next day, June 13^th several club members attended the Bristol Classic Car show on Clifton Downs.  This was held in aid of the Barnardo’s charity.  Once again the weather let us down! 

At our June 17^th club evening we held our “Mid summer blat” As the meeting was the one closest to the longest day, we’d organised a 45 minute run around the local countryside on very Westy friendly sweeping roads.  Before the run Chris Varey performed sound tests on any one who wanted it.  Quietest was a Sei Zetec Q at 91Db and loudest a MegaBusa at 107Db. 

June 27^th saw the ACE Classic Vehicle Charity tour.  This was a Tulip Style Rally through the Forest of Dean which helped raise money for the St. Peters Hospice. 

July
July 3^rd saw a “Meet the neighbours” event organised by our good friends in the Cheltenham & Gloucester club at their regular haunt – the Highwayman.  I’m sure Tony is writing this up in more detail.  It was a great evening.  A few of us from the Bath & Bristol area attended & in total there must have been almost 30 Westfield’s from all over the country and Norway.  A strange sight was witnessed during this:  Have you ever seen the optional Westfield “lawn mower” edition?  Well B&B member Gavin Tarrant demonstrated the grass cutting capabilities of his.

  Saturday July 31^st saw our premier event planned for the summer.  This was the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, Castle Combe Track Day, followed by a barbeque and games at Chris Varey’s house. 

Our local friends from the Bristol Pegasus Club (of which several of us in the local WSCC areas are also members) organised a fabulous day at Combe.  For £99 we had a complete day – the circuit opening at 9AM and last sessions at 5:30PM.  It was expertly organised and marshalled, with about 60 attendees and a maximum of 8 cars on the track at a time.  This meant you could get as much time on the track as you could possibly want – in my case it was only limited by waiting for the car to cool down!  In addition to this, since it was a private club event, the nature of the clientele were genuine car enthusiasts who displayed a reassuringly mature and knowledgeable attitude to track driving:  In short no max power boy racer nutters got anywhere near the track.  Finally, and I must find out how the organisers achieved this, they had managed to arrange a fabulously hot and sunny day (yes there was one this summer).  Many of the Bath & Bristol and the Cheltenham & Gloucester WSCC members came along.  Tony Sighe (AO Chelt&Glos) and myself traded rides in each other’s cars to let the other one cool down.  This was my first outing on a circuit with my new sticky tyres (Avon CR500’s) & the car was transformed – now I’m asking why didn’t I make the change earlier? 

  In the evening many of us went along to Chris Varey’s house for a BBQ and silly games.  What a great night – hats off to Chris for organising this.

August
August and September usually promise to be the prime time for open top motoring and Westfield related events – “usually”, that is without the British weather L

Despite our “summer” we’ve still managed a few notable events, but sadly not as many as we’d originally hoped.

September
The final Castle Combe Action day of the year was held on September 11^th, this was called the “Classic Action Day”.  The weather wasn’t too promising but it managed to stay dry until mid-day, by which time most of us had managed to get in our track runs.  Again we had a fantastic turnout from several WSCC areas:  Bath & Bristol, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Hants & Wilts and, Somerset & Dorset.  Apart from the Minis, there were considerably more Westfield’s than any other marque on display. 

It was great to see so many new faces – I trust you’ll come along to the monthly club meets also.  Now I’d got my feet under the table as AO I managed to obtain from the Combe organisers several half-price track passes.  I had a slight panic since having paid for these in advance I found myself with a few left over – however on the day there were more than enough takers for these.  Unlike the VAG and RS days, the circuit driving was much better, although most of us in the Westfield’s felt somewhat intimidated by 20+ tin tops on the circuit with us.  Best news of the day was that one of the nutter brigade (in an Escort Cosworth) known to us from previous events got black flagged & barred.

  We’ve had a couple of our monthly club evening’s which have been sparsely attended, mostly due to the holiday season.  The highlight here was our caption competition in which we jested at our former AO’s car killing exploits.

October
October & November were pretty quiet months for the Bristol & Bath Area.  Our final monthly club meeting of the year was held in October at our usual haunt of the Cross Hands Pub at Old Sodbury.  Despite being late in the “Westfielding season” it was good to see almost a dozen regulars and a couple of new faces.  That’s now the last of the regular Club meetings on every 3rd Thursday of the month for this year. 

On October 15^th  a number of us went to a Motor Sports Events airfield day at Hullavington.  Once again the weather wasn’t kind but there was plenty of track time. 

Saturday 23rd October at Castle Combe Circuit, four of the Bristol & Bath WSCC members and a host of others were taking part in aid of this worthwhile charity.  The format is that invited drivers with “interesting” cars take to the track and give members of the public a fast ride around the circuit.  The money collected from the public goes to the Stroke Association.  Boy was it wet!   The heavens opened and it poured all day long.  The track conditions varied from very scary to suicidal.  At least none of the Westfield's crashed out - unlike a Ferrari, a 911 Turbo (right in front of me at Quarry) and an M3 Coupe. If you've ever wondered what it's like driving on a VERY slippery wet racing circuit in a Westfield with an aeroscreen and "dry" track day tyres (in my case well worn CR500’s) - it's not fun.  Before venturing onto the track I'd taken loads of advice and put my suspension and ARB settings to a medium setting. The last time I’d been out on the track they were set quite hard and this was perfect.  I'd been told to soften things up for wet conditions.  On my very first outing, the track was VERY greasy and despite going very carefully I spun at Old Tower!  There was nothing around & it was a harmless but worrying spin.  I came straight back in and backed everything off to the softest possible settings.  This made the car more controllable but it was still very scary! I spent the entire time dressed in walking waterproofs.  At the end of the day (a few days later actually) I had to remove the carpets to dry them out! 

November
The annual Exeter Kit Car show was held on November 20^th & 21^st . A few of us ventured down to the show, but apart from local member Barry Ashcroft who had his Seight for sale on the Westfield stand, I’m not aware of any of our chaps who took their Westy.    The two highlights for me at the show were the GT40’s and a Se7en Police Car!

December
On Friday Dec 10^th with our Cheltenham & Glos neighbours we had another MSE airfield day at Hullavington.

That’s it for this year.
Drive safely.
Chris Bradley
WSCC Bath & Bristol AO