TEST SCHEDULER Looking for a track-ready car, a lightweight racer so pure that it makes a Lotus Elise seem frivolously complicated and self-indulgent? Here it is: the 2007 Westfield XI.
By the way, it's a car of the 1950s. In spirit, this is Colin Chapman's 1956 Lotus Eleven, a rolling manifesto about the performance possibilities of simplicity and lightness. Think of it as the grandfather of every Lotus you see on the road today.
When you take the red-leather rim of the Westfield XI's steering wheel in your hands, it's like shaking hands with Chapman himself.
As Modern as Tomorrow
Forget the tail fins, fuzzy dice and baby moon hubcaps; there was a lot more going on in the 1950s than you realize. Stiff structures, lightweight packaging, extreme aerodynamics — it was all very experimental. And Colin Chapman, a slightly chubby British ex-aeronautical engineer, was doing a lot of the experimenting.
Chapman's Lotus Eleven introduced the motorsports world to what he'd learned in 1956, and it became the first Lotus made in full-scale series production. The Westfield XI is that car, a time warp that takes you back to when Lotus made efficiency into another word for performance.
Back in the day, guys like future Formula 1 and Indy 500 champion Graham Hill were doing 135 mph or better on the long straights at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Lotus Eleven.
Of course, 50 years of automotive and electronic technology mean that even a subcompact like our long-term test 2007 Nissan Versa is quicker at the drag strip and on the slalom course than the Westfield XI.
For those of you keeping score at home, the Westfield XI with its 65-horsepower, 1,275cc inline-4 engine puts up a best time to 60 mph of 10.1 seconds and growls through the quarter-mile in 17.2 seconds at 79.1 mph. The Versa hums to 60 mph in 9.5 seconds and then through the quarter-mile in 17.0 seconds at 82.3 mph. In the slalom the Westfield XI makes its pass in 62.5 mph versus the Versa's 62.7 mph.
Not exactly fast enough to pin your ears back.
What's a Westfield?
Colin Chapman built 270 examples of the Lotus Eleven between 1956 and '58, and some cars were raced in the U.S. all the way into the 1970s. It was such a widely admired car that British vintage racer Chris Smith built a replica in 1982 and sold 162 of them as the Westfield XI before he moved on to other projects in 1986. Now that track days have made stripped-down sports cars a fashionable item, the Westfield XI is back in production, and Manik Technologies in Richardson, Texas, has begun distributing it in the U.S.
But remember that this is a kit car. You send Manik Technologies $19,990, then wait at the mailbox for the fiberglass bodywork, a powder-coated tubular space frame stiffened by aluminum panels, a fuel system, some suspension pieces and lots of wiring. Then you have to find an Austin-Healey Sprite or MG Midget circa 1968-'74 (about $2,500), strip the running gear and rebuild the engine (about $4,000). Just add 140 hours in your garage (or maybe twice that), and then you have a car. Or maybe you could just cheat and commission GNB Motorsports to build it for you, as Manik Technologies did with this car. Call it $40,000 once it's sitting in your garage, and you can even license it for the street.
But before you lose interest, this is a history lesson where the numbers are deceiving. There's not much to the Westfield XI, just 1,172 pounds wrapped in swoopy fiberglass, and it's all barely in touch with the road on 165/80TR13 tires. When you're looking over the wraparound windscreen at 70 mph, it's pretty exciting.
Head in the Clouds
We'll admit that our first few minutes in the Westfield XI were breathtaking, mostly because of the feeling of vulnerability that comes over you in a knee-high, plastic-body car surrounded by SUV drivers yakking on cell phones.
Or when the driver of a blacked-out, aero-kitted 350Z pulled alongside and glanced down into the cockpit. We had just zipped around him and we looked up at the looming Nissan, wary of road rage in various forms raining down on us.
"Hey, we're wondering is that a new car or what?" the driver queried, his girlfriend flashing a smile as she peered over his shoulder. This is a question that would constantly confront us during our time in the Westfield XI and one that is a bit complicated to answer in a single sentence, especially at a stoplight about to turn green.
"It's a new car that looks like a 1956 Lotus racecar," we blurted.
He nodded and turned to the girl. "See, I told you," he said to her, and drove off, the girl still smiling at us over her shoulder.
Eventually we learned that not only was everyone around us aware of this little UFO-shaped sports car, they were enthusiastically tracking its progress by hanging out of passing vehicles, waving digital cameras and cell phones to share the sight with their buddies.
At the Limit With 65 HP
Getting in and out is easier than you think and it also earns a good share of approving stares. The cockpit is quite roomy despite the high center tunnel. You sit virtually on top of the five-link solid rear axle, and while the ride is actually good on a smooth road, there's so little suspension travel that a bump sends you flying when the rear dampers bottom out. Good thing that a four-point seatbelt harness is standard.
If you're on the gas, the Westfield is capable of a neck-stretching 0.88g on the skid pad, and it drifts the rear tires steadily all the way around. There's more grip from the front tires than you really want, though, as the Westfield wants to wag its rear end all the way through the slalom. If you get in trouble, the brakes bring you to a halt with perfect control, but the narrow 165-section tires can't get enough rubber on the ground to do so in less than 174 feet.
The exhaust sounds great. A good thing, as it exits under your left elbow, and its proximity plus the heat transmitted through the center tunnel makes for toasty cockpit conditions. We averaged 39.9 mpg plus one soggy T-shirt per driving stint.
It's all great fun, like a four-wheel motorcycle. The driver, the machine, the road and the surroundings come together in a complete driving experience. The feel of the wind in your face, the sound of the growling exhaust and the gun sight-style view of the road coming at you between the car's front fenders make you feel like a hooligan at speeds that will get you more smiles than tickets.
Driving With Colin Chapman
Lotus is all the fashion these days. A whole new generation has discovered that a featherweight car is a lot more fun than a heavy one, and that great steering can be more rewarding than lots of horsepower.
The 2007 Westfield XI teaches you the Lotus lesson like few other cars can. When you move the steering wheel, you feel the front tires react. Traction control? Sure, it's called your right foot, and it depends on how deftly you apply it to the throttle while working the steering wheel. You drive the Westfield XI every second, and if you're the kind of driver who depends on big brakes, fat tires and an electronic stability program (or even a perfectly accurate gas gauge) to keep you out of trouble, then you should buy a Camry instead.
A genuine Lotus Eleven is $80,000 or so, if you can find one. The $40,000 Westfield XI seems like a bargain in comparison, and it gets you so close to the spirit of Lotus that you can sense Colin Chapman riding in the passenger seat next to you.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
By the way, it's a car of the 1950s. In spirit, this is Colin Chapman's 1956 Lotus Eleven, a rolling manifesto about the performance possibilities of simplicity and lightness. Think of it as the grandfather of every Lotus you see on the road today.
When you take the red-leather rim of the Westfield XI's steering wheel in your hands, it's like shaking hands with Chapman himself.
As Modern as Tomorrow
Forget the tail fins, fuzzy dice and baby moon hubcaps; there was a lot more going on in the 1950s than you realize. Stiff structures, lightweight packaging, extreme aerodynamics — it was all very experimental. And Colin Chapman, a slightly chubby British ex-aeronautical engineer, was doing a lot of the experimenting.
Chapman's Lotus Eleven introduced the motorsports world to what he'd learned in 1956, and it became the first Lotus made in full-scale series production. The Westfield XI is that car, a time warp that takes you back to when Lotus made efficiency into another word for performance.
Back in the day, guys like future Formula 1 and Indy 500 champion Graham Hill were doing 135 mph or better on the long straights at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Lotus Eleven.
Of course, 50 years of automotive and electronic technology mean that even a subcompact like our long-term test 2007 Nissan Versa is quicker at the drag strip and on the slalom course than the Westfield XI.
For those of you keeping score at home, the Westfield XI with its 65-horsepower, 1,275cc inline-4 engine puts up a best time to 60 mph of 10.1 seconds and growls through the quarter-mile in 17.2 seconds at 79.1 mph. The Versa hums to 60 mph in 9.5 seconds and then through the quarter-mile in 17.0 seconds at 82.3 mph. In the slalom the Westfield XI makes its pass in 62.5 mph versus the Versa's 62.7 mph.
Not exactly fast enough to pin your ears back.
What's a Westfield?
Colin Chapman built 270 examples of the Lotus Eleven between 1956 and '58, and some cars were raced in the U.S. all the way into the 1970s. It was such a widely admired car that British vintage racer Chris Smith built a replica in 1982 and sold 162 of them as the Westfield XI before he moved on to other projects in 1986. Now that track days have made stripped-down sports cars a fashionable item, the Westfield XI is back in production, and Manik Technologies in Richardson, Texas, has begun distributing it in the U.S.
But remember that this is a kit car. You send Manik Technologies $19,990, then wait at the mailbox for the fiberglass bodywork, a powder-coated tubular space frame stiffened by aluminum panels, a fuel system, some suspension pieces and lots of wiring. Then you have to find an Austin-Healey Sprite or MG Midget circa 1968-'74 (about $2,500), strip the running gear and rebuild the engine (about $4,000). Just add 140 hours in your garage (or maybe twice that), and then you have a car. Or maybe you could just cheat and commission GNB Motorsports to build it for you, as Manik Technologies did with this car. Call it $40,000 once it's sitting in your garage, and you can even license it for the street.
But before you lose interest, this is a history lesson where the numbers are deceiving. There's not much to the Westfield XI, just 1,172 pounds wrapped in swoopy fiberglass, and it's all barely in touch with the road on 165/80TR13 tires. When you're looking over the wraparound windscreen at 70 mph, it's pretty exciting.
Head in the Clouds
We'll admit that our first few minutes in the Westfield XI were breathtaking, mostly because of the feeling of vulnerability that comes over you in a knee-high, plastic-body car surrounded by SUV drivers yakking on cell phones.
Or when the driver of a blacked-out, aero-kitted 350Z pulled alongside and glanced down into the cockpit. We had just zipped around him and we looked up at the looming Nissan, wary of road rage in various forms raining down on us.
"Hey, we're wondering is that a new car or what?" the driver queried, his girlfriend flashing a smile as she peered over his shoulder. This is a question that would constantly confront us during our time in the Westfield XI and one that is a bit complicated to answer in a single sentence, especially at a stoplight about to turn green.
"It's a new car that looks like a 1956 Lotus racecar," we blurted.
He nodded and turned to the girl. "See, I told you," he said to her, and drove off, the girl still smiling at us over her shoulder.
Eventually we learned that not only was everyone around us aware of this little UFO-shaped sports car, they were enthusiastically tracking its progress by hanging out of passing vehicles, waving digital cameras and cell phones to share the sight with their buddies.
At the Limit With 65 HP
Getting in and out is easier than you think and it also earns a good share of approving stares. The cockpit is quite roomy despite the high center tunnel. You sit virtually on top of the five-link solid rear axle, and while the ride is actually good on a smooth road, there's so little suspension travel that a bump sends you flying when the rear dampers bottom out. Good thing that a four-point seatbelt harness is standard.
If you're on the gas, the Westfield is capable of a neck-stretching 0.88g on the skid pad, and it drifts the rear tires steadily all the way around. There's more grip from the front tires than you really want, though, as the Westfield wants to wag its rear end all the way through the slalom. If you get in trouble, the brakes bring you to a halt with perfect control, but the narrow 165-section tires can't get enough rubber on the ground to do so in less than 174 feet.
The exhaust sounds great. A good thing, as it exits under your left elbow, and its proximity plus the heat transmitted through the center tunnel makes for toasty cockpit conditions. We averaged 39.9 mpg plus one soggy T-shirt per driving stint.
It's all great fun, like a four-wheel motorcycle. The driver, the machine, the road and the surroundings come together in a complete driving experience. The feel of the wind in your face, the sound of the growling exhaust and the gun sight-style view of the road coming at you between the car's front fenders make you feel like a hooligan at speeds that will get you more smiles than tickets.
Driving With Colin Chapman
Lotus is all the fashion these days. A whole new generation has discovered that a featherweight car is a lot more fun than a heavy one, and that great steering can be more rewarding than lots of horsepower.
The 2007 Westfield XI teaches you the Lotus lesson like few other cars can. When you move the steering wheel, you feel the front tires react. Traction control? Sure, it's called your right foot, and it depends on how deftly you apply it to the throttle while working the steering wheel. You drive the Westfield XI every second, and if you're the kind of driver who depends on big brakes, fat tires and an electronic stability program (or even a perfectly accurate gas gauge) to keep you out of trouble, then you should buy a Camry instead.
A genuine Lotus Eleven is $80,000 or so, if you can find one. The $40,000 Westfield XI seems like a bargain in comparison, and it gets you so close to the spirit of Lotus that you can sense Colin Chapman riding in the passenger seat next to you.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
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