Westfield SEight

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Founded in 1983, Westfield Sportscars continue to manufacture both factory built and kit versions of a car inspired by Colin Chapman’s immortal Lotus 7.

Lotus sold the design rights of the original Lotus 7 to Caterham who, in the late ‘80s, took Westfield to court over copyright issues. Thankfully this was settled out of court, Westfield changing a number of elements to the design, their earlier examples being known as pre-litigation models.

The basic versions offered the same blistering performance as Chapman’s original, but things took on a whole new dimension when Westfield announced the totally bonkers SEight, a V8 engined machine that offered true ‘super car’ (and ‘super bike’) levels of performance.

Most sane people believe that you have to be slightly nuts to want any Westfield V8, but if that’s your bag, surely the ‘Big Daddy’ 4.6-litre version is the only one to have. The good news for those with a particularly low boredom threshold is that this original 1998 Westfield SEight has always been a 4.6-litre, the most desirable and the rarest version of the model.

Obviously the standard output of the Rover V8 was deemed insufficient by one of its past owners, so an engine procured through John Eales Developments was installed. It has a correctly stamped John Eales engine number and the gas flowed heads are also stamped JED. The car has been dyno’d at 286bhp at the rear wheels, giving a power to weight ratio of significantly over 500bhp/ton.

The engine is mounted to an LT77 Rover five-speed gearbox, the final drive being transmitted through a Sierra Cosworth limited slip differential. Other upgrades include an ingenious extra cooling radiator which has been fitted in the rear tub of the car with a manually operated electric fan that has proved useful when driving in slow moving traffic. The suspension has been upgraded to ‘Rally Design Ltd’ wide track specification featuring oval tubing and the brakes have Wilwood four pot calipers and vented discs on the front.

The newly refurbished OZ wheels are shod with Yokohama Advan 032R medium compound tyres and a full custom ‘equal length’ exhaust header joins a stainless steel system that is repackable. The interior has black Westfield sports seats with Luke four-point harnesses attached to the RAC-rated rollbar and a detachable steering wheel.

We are advised that it has never been used on a track day and has only ever been used as a very fast toy by its previous four mature gentlemen owners. The vendor adds that when it is not in ‘ballistic missile’ mode it can cruise very comfortably at the legal limit for mile upon mile in a relaxed manner.

A serial component car builder, the vendor is only selling it to pay for the rebuild of his even more insane motorbike-engined Westfield. For some there is no cure!