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North American Westfield Registry

Although the Westfield is a cool looking little car at rest, you need to see it blasting along a winding road to fully appreciate its beauty.  (click the photo to see a higher resolution version)

What makes a great person?  For me, that's pretty easy.  It's a combination of integrity and a slightly twisted personality.  Those people who are honest, who would rather drive a slammed Yugo fitted with a Top Fuel rear wing and a dashboard neon Elvis, than ever delve into the depths of hypocrisy, and those who regularly find humor in strange places, are the types of people whose company I enjoy.  As a devout car enthusiast, I judge cars the same way I judge people.  Give me a vehicle that shouts out "here is what I do, I do it well, and I enjoy it.  All else be damned!" and I am one happy late apexer.  Given that description, I believe that the Westfield SPa and all the other cars faithful to the Lotus Super Seven concept are worthy of worship.  What else goes down a windy road with such conviction?  Such immediacy?  Such character?   Such... unbridled fun?

I first crossed paths with this particular Westfield in the summer of 1997.  My then employer had just hired a new Executive VP who was to start our California office.  I exchanged a few e-mails with the new guy to check him out and much to my surprise I discovered that he owned a Westfield SPa.  But not just any SPa., he owned the actual car that Road & Track magazine tested in their March, 1996 issue.  He owned a car with provenance!  Cool!

After that e-mail exchange, I thought to myself "Damn, we hired someone who owns a Westfield!  We finally did something right!"  I immediately knew that I would enjoy working for this man, and I also knew that somehow, someway, I was going to drive that car.  In retrospect, I'm sure after that same e-mail exchange the new executive leaned back in his chair, the same way that executives have always leaned back in their chairs as a precursor to an epiphany, and whispered to himself "Damn, this company actually has an employee who knows what a Westfield is.  Maybe this this gig isn't such a bad move after all."  Needless to say, I found a reason to go to the California office and drive the car -- it was magical, and I was hooked.

The new executive and I quickly formed a friendship based on our shared passion for things automotive, and we even did a 100 mile roadtrip in the Westfield in '98 to attend the Monterey Historics.  He always wanted me to have the car when it was time for it to leave his care, and in the Spring of '01 that time finally came.  I flew to San Jose on Easter Sunday and left the next morning at 6:00am with my new car and over 900 miles of road in front of me.  Read more about that little adventure in The Drive Home