At least for the past twenty years I have wanted a Clubman. Not always as passionately as I do now perhaps but I did want one.
It started out as just something in which to have some club motoring fun post rallying retirement. I had a spare Datsun 200B engine left over when I sold my 120Y rally car I bought from Murray Coote and I thought it would be a natural choice.
But that was twenty years ago now and that motor is long gone; sold to some bloke who paid a down payment, slotted it into his Bluebird and took off into the distance without looking back and without making a further payment. Oh well, one of life’s lessons.
Lots of other things have happened along the way. For example, my intended new wife is much more supportive of my motor sport aspirations than my old.
So the other day (June ’98) I placed my order for my very own Westfield Clubman SeI (by the way, the "I" stands for independent rear suspension) and my intention is to enter it in the
Now all I have to do is build it.
This story attempts to chronicle the progress of the construction of this vehicle.
I placed my order through Reinhold Scholz at White Pointer Fibreglass Products in Brisbane, the Queensland distributor for Westfield. Some problems with the supplier in Perth were surfacing and it would seem that no definite delivery time could be given. This is obviously a concern as I have a limited time to build the vehicle, sort it and have it ready for Targa Tasmania, April 1999. The intention, therefore, is to gather and prepare as many of the ‘bits and pieces’ together prior to the kit arriving. Hopefully then it will be just a matter of bolting everything in. (hopefully)
I decided to split the construction into three stages;
1. Rolling Chassis, 2. Engine Mounted and Running and 3. Competition Ready.
July 98
Went to the wreckers to source some parts. Found Cortina front uprights and brakes. Noticed that the TF model has ventilated discs and got excited about the possibility of using those. All the owners I talked with said that ventilated discs are not necessary due to the light weight of the car. Nevertheless I did manage to get Reinhold to admit that he boiled his brake fluid coming down from Mt Glorious one day in his Se.
In my years of rallying, the greatest single improvement I ever made to a car was in the area of brakes. The 120Y kit car (mongrel) was fitted with larger diameter ventilated front discs (rather than the solid discs from the 240K) and A9X Torana rear discs, proportioned with a balance bar which I could adjust while on the go. This transformed the stopping power to the point where I could rely on the outcome of each braking manoeuvre instead of having to accept an average braking bias setting. Of course the setting on a non adjustable system is only average until the rear drums fade to the point of ineffectiveness. This is exactly what used to happen with the XU1 Torana I used in 76-78; great for spearing off into the shrubbery, especially in the wet.
So I am yet to be convinced that the solid disc will cool itself sufficiently on a prolonged high speed descent of one of the mountain passes in Tassie. Unfortunately, Ford chose to make other changes to the front suspension of this later model Cortina and these assemblies won’t fit the Westfield. So it will be a matter of trying the solids and see if they are up to the task. Also sourced an Escort radiator and steering rack. Will probably try a quick rack later.
August 98
Waiting, waiting, waiting. Talked to Reinhold a couple of times but he still has no indication of a delivery date. "Maybe September!" On Sunday 16th I have got sick of not hearing and, after finding Stephen Fox’s email address, sent a firm message. Perhaps I am being optimistic as I believe he doesn’t even respond to his state dealers.
August 20th: Perhaps I’ve been a bit unfair. Stephen Fox replies to advise my car is scheduled for late September.
Late September 98: With excited anticipation I ring Reinhold to find out if the car left. As far as he knows it went to the trucking company in Perth on the 25th. "Should take a week!" In the meantime, with the assistance of the Farm Manager at Greenridge Botanicals, Graeme Orchard, I have prepared the workshop (a 40ft shipping container) by fitting shelving to the storage room at the far end, adding a workbench, fitted electrical wiring, lighting and power points and purchasing the relevant tools required to perform the assembly.
October 1st 1998: I ring Reinhold and with fingers crossed I tell him that the trailer is hooked up behind the 4wd and we’ll be down tomorrow. With a degree of panic Reinhold say’s that he hasn’t heard anything from the trucking co. and "don’t come unless I ring you." No call Friday by 4.30pm so I ring him. No answer! Everyone’s gone home for the weekend. Oh well!
October 5th: Still no call. I think I had better start getting some parts and things together.
What I need..........
Paint for chassis.
Corolla half cut or
20 valve motor, ECU & harness
T50 gearbox
Escort diff (prefer 4.4:1) c/w limited slip
Nuts bolts rivets etc.
Brake balance bar kit
October 6th. I forgot to ring until ten past five. Of course everyone had gone home
October 16th. Finally I get the phone call from Reinhold. "It should be here tomorrow!" After picking myself up from the floor I arrange my work diary, organise a ute and trailer and advise that I will be down on Tuesday to pick it up. Waiting over the weekend will be hell.
October 20th. Off to Brisbane to pick up the kit.
October 23rd. Only checked off components. I was getting married on Sunday after all!
Week commencing November 9th. Drilling & positioning of panels.
Nov. 14/15th. Painting & rustproofing
Nov. 18th-22nd. Fitting panels. Drilling rear susp bolt access holes & fitting grommets. Mounting KE30 steering column, quick rack, suspension & wheels. Trim & mount body.
Nov. 23rd. Purchased brake pipes, master cylinders (brakes X 2 & clutch), hydraulic handbrake master cylinder and fittings.
Tues 1st December the motor and gearbox arrives. After a lot of consideration I decide that a half cut is not the way to go. While there are advantages as far as additional components are concerned e.g. thermo fan, steering column, switching and gauges etc. , the disadvantage is that invariably the constructor uses more than he would normally prefer just because its there. An example is the steering column. The KE30 that I installed is simple, basic and light in weight. Half cut ones often have additional adjustability but also have additional complexity and weight. I have also seen wiring looms which people are looking for a place to fit simply because they came with the car and it is easier to stash them somewhere than find which wires can be deleted.
So I opted for the bare motor and plan to use a Wolf 3D engine management system computer. This system has the added benefit of not requiring the traditional modification to the RH chassis brace thereby retaining the integrity of the chassis spaceframe.
Eric Blythe was the Qld agent for Westfields until recently. He was also the person responsible for performing the necessary approvals to enable all Qld Westfields to be registered. Now he performs engineering inspections of cars prior to registration. (@ $300 X 2!)
Eric still has numerous bits available and I opted to have him supply the 20V motor, T50 gearbox and tailshaft. While he had a 20V sitting under his house (along with two Ferrari 308 V8 motors), he elected to source a better one when he heard about the plans I have for competing in the Targa and the seriousness with which we are approaching the construction and development of this car. Thanks go to Ian for explaining this to him.
Because I have a real fear of mechanical components which don’t match up (no worries mate, just bolts straight together!), I asked Eric to match & assemble the motor and gearbox, change the starter mounting position and generally assure that everything was ready to just bolt in to the car. Unfortunately that is not what happened and I was faced with the initially daunting task of determining the position of new mounting points and drilling and tapping the bell housing to accept additional bolts with which to fix the two components which clearly don’t just "bolt straight together mate!"
During this week Graeme spent quite some time on modifying the pedal box to accept the twin brake master cylinders. The Tilton brake balance bar turned up in the post from Road and Race in Brisbane and the centre bush was taken to the engineering shop to be accurately positioned and welded into the brake pedal. The engineers assured us that there was no shrinkage and that the spherical bearing would "slide straight in mate!" Of course this wasn’t the case and it had to be returned to be honed like we asked in the first place.
Why is it that nearly everything that needs to be mounted, fitted or aligned in this car is usually a half a hole out?
Friday afternoon I come home early and start work on the car. John from next door comes down to measure up my need for additional aluminium sheeting. He has contacts who often have offcuts. He advises that his friend Bruce may know something about the myriad of pipes and connections onto the motor which are all totally puzzling to me. John says Bruce should be over some time on the weekend.
I arrange a dinner with wine and seafood on the verandah overlooking a superb view of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. As I am closing up the workshop for the afternoon, John calls out that Bruce will be here in 15 minutes. (He couldn’t wait) So I have a quick meal then I return to the workshop with John and Bruce. Next minute my daughter Anastasia come to the door and says Ian will be here shortly too!
So all four of us are sitting drooling over the motor and car and talking about the potential performance of such a motor chassis combination. John decides to go home and the other two say "Well lets stick it in." So we did. Everyone went home at 11pm and I returned to the house to my beautiful understanding wife who was still waiting up for me. But the motor and gearbox are in. Some tidying up left to do.
Question: What is the most frustrating thing in the world.
Answer:To carefully sculpt a brakepipe into a work of art, flare the ends only to realise that you have not slipped on the tube nuts.
Sunday 6th December. None of my helpers turn up. So I finish off mounting the balance bar & master cylinders and pedals into the pedal box and mount it into the car. I then begin to plumb the brakes, mounting the pipes with ‘P’ clips as I go. Hence the experience above! This is a fairly laborious task and progresses very slowly. I manage to make all the front pipes and the rear one as far as the hydraulic handbrake cylinder which is yet to arrive from the brake parts shop.
Just looking at the pedal box, I reckon there has got to be potential for making up a nice aluminium assembly, including pedals, which is designed for the balance bar and multiple cylinders. Maybe a refinement project? Like moving the engine back a couple of inches!
Monday Dec 7th. Picked up the hydraulic handbrake master cylinder and extra brake fittings. Graeme came over with the oxy and we bent the gear lever to clear the dash. Also finished connecting front brakes, filled the front master cylinder, bled them and ........bingo, we have brakes (front wheels at least).