Customer Car's
SBD OMS
SBD Motorsport Home
SBD Westfield
 
Peter Taylor-Medhurst - Westfield 2.0 XE
 
Peter Taylor-Medhurst The original problem was that the one of the hydraulic cam followers had given up the ghost, and I wanted a Westfield/Vauxhall friendly company to sort it out, and was recommended SBD by fellow members in the Surrey Westfield Sports Car Club.

Dick at SBD pinpointed the problem with my engine in less than a minute and also gave the engine a thorough check out (endoscope in each cylinder etc).

Having bought the car earlier in the year already built with a Vauxhall 2.0 litre 16v XE engine I was keen to get some expert advice on what modifications I could make, what I improvements I could expect and at what price. Steve talked me through his recommendations explaining his thinking behind each suggestion and telling me the cost for each stage.

I decided to follow their advice and change the existing distributor based ignition for a programmable distributorless system. It was then clear that my existing exhaust manifold and box left a lot to be desired strangling the potential of the engine, so in addition I had installed an SBD 4-2-1 exhaust manifold with a refillable carbon fibre exhaust. The new electronics were programmed to give me a soft cut out at 7,500 rpm so if I got carried away at a track day my engine wouldn't. My existing VDO tacho would not work with the new electronics so SBD supplied me with an Elliott Tacho to replace it.
I collected the car a few days later and had a chat to Dick about the new set-up, he made it clear that to maximise it's potential I now needed to have the carbs properly set up on a rolling road.

They recommended I went to Red Line Tuning in Ivor. After of a couple of hours setting up the twin Weber 45's the BHP at the wheels improved by a further 15 BHP! The difference is staggering, smooth useable torque right through the rev range, of course I have no idea what power I was originally showing at the wheels but I would have to guess that I now have about 25% more useable power. Brilliant!!

Update April 2003

It must be the appalling winter weather and long winter evenings that get the brain ticking and wondering upgrade I should carry out next. Having had a very successful experience with SBD a year earlier I knew from comments that Dick and Steve had made that there was more potential to come from my engine.

So one afternoon with rain lashing against the window I gave a SBD a call and had a long chat to Dick about what he recommended as the next stage forward, I was really keen to move from carburettors to throttle bodies, but had no idea what was involved. After careful explanation Steve sat down and worked out the way forward and sent me a four page fax setting out all the components and the costs.

Peter Taylor-Medhurst

In addition they put me in touch with a local garage that could carry out the installation. I bit the bullet and decided to install SBD's 208bhp throttle body kit, this meant new management system, strengthened rod bolts, and a high pressure fuel system with a swirl pot and two fuel pumps one for the low pressure system to the swirl pot and another for the high pressure system. I set a date to drop the car in to Vic Hope who liaised with Steve and Dick at SBD. Vic and his team did a great job taking great care to install all the new high pressure fuel lines and ancillary bits and pieces in as neat a manner as possible and in the process sorted out my fuel gauge sender which has misread since day one.

I picked the car up on Christmas Eve, Steve doing the final setting up on his laptop when I am sure he was meant to be doing the inevitable last minute Christmas shopping! Damp weather over Christmas meant that the extra power had to be treated with respect and while I waited for the weather to improve I treated the engine to a new rocker cover and carbon fibre spark plug cover to finish off all the hard work.

I have now had a few months to fully assess the benefits, a substantially faster pick up, power all the way through the rev range and completely unfussy in town, and to cap it all the fuel consumption has improved dramatically - on a long run at legal limits I have seen 35mpg!! Now let's get it on the track………..
SBD Motorsport Ltd, Unit 15, Red Lion Business Park, Red Lion Road, Surbiton, Surrey. KT6 7QD. Tel: 0208 391 0121.