Miata Mailing List: December 1993, Message #157
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   From: "Stephen H. An" 
Subject: Re: Lotus..... Caterham/ Westfield
   Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 16:48:11 -0500

    
    Building a Caterham is a dream I share. Does anyone have an address for
    the company? The last thing I seem to recall is that they were located

Caterham cars are imported by Sevens and Elans, in the People's Republic of
Cambridge (yes, it's a commune in Massachusetts). The proprietor Chris, is 
absolutely inept, so I would by the kit from him, but I would not let 
him touch the car. He made a real mess restoring my friend's Elan S4. Their
number is 617-492-7777.

Westfield is another british company which actually made the old Mark
6, then the 7 and the Mark 11. They had to alter the 7 styling slightly 
after getting sued by Caterham, who had exclusive right. The Westfield 
importer is a nice guy, he did alot of his own suspension development and
motor options. He claimed that he ate the Cobras' lunch at Summits Point
recently. Next April, he is going to duel it out with Chuck Beck in the
newly created Replicar series. BTW, Beck has been killing the Cobras with
his 550, so he wants new playmates.

I visited Westfield because I am contemplating building a Lotus 11
this winter, with either Rx-7 or supercharged 1.8 miata motor.
Roughly, 160 horses and 1300 lbs curb weight. I would build my own
composite chassis rather than using WEstfield's ladder space frame. I
have been working with Vantage Motorsport and we completed the design,
but money's been tight. I can answer more specific questions. The 11
is absolutely gorgeous. Those curves, oohh, Cindy Crawford would have 
to take the back seat if there were one.

I was very impressed with Westfield, more so than Caterham in terms of
build quality, fit and finish etc... of course I have not driven the 
Jonathan Palmer Caterham either. He was my guest driving instructor at
Nuerburgring when I went to school there. He was driving for Eric Zakorki
F1 team ZakSpeed at the time.

- Steve.


    somewhere in the eastern US. I have a brochure from a company called
    Westfield Components, Inc.
    17 Knight Street
    Watertown, Connecticut 06795
    203-274-1935
    The kits they offer are clearly derived from the Lotus 7.
    Has Caterham been transmutted to Westfield?
    Meanwhile I need to save and/or aquire money to make this come
    true.
    Cheers,
    Jim
    Oh, I thought the contempary Elan was cool but $40k would get you a
    brace of Miatas.