OV9

TIL Westfield own/owned Chesil Speedsters. Not that you see many, it'd be a shame if they go as well.

Good news! I quite like the idea of an electric Speedster. Would be quite enjoyable to commute through London’s traffic.

I'm clearly at an old person tipping point: while I'd have a Caterham over any of Westfield Chesil's cars, I'd have the Chesil over the Westfield.

Just in case anyone is still interested 4 years later - the DRS problem was solved with rotational servos. Specifically, a pair of steering arm servos from a 1/5 Baja truck. Each about the size of a matchbox, with 90kg of lifting force.

Nefarious wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 7:21 am Just in case anyone is still interested 4 years later - the DRS problem was solved with rotational servos. Specifically, a pair of steering arm servos from a 1/5 Baja truck. Each about the size of a matchbox, with 90kg of lifting force.

Intrigued. Have we got a video?

mik wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 8:49 am Intrigued. Have we got a video?

Not to hand, but I'll try and rustle something up next time I'm at the workshop.

These are the kiddies - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... pCEALw_wcB

150kg reduced to 90kg due to the length of the actuator arm

I need you to work on a couple of things I’ve been thinking about.

Making adjustable dampers remotely electronically operated, I did think about using off the shelf servos but not sure they have enough rotation for the adjuster knob, so out likely need a small gearbox, and a guess easy enough to wire a power supply and use a servo tester as a knob on the dash to adjust them.

Electronic throttle control for carbs, would have saved me having to fabricate a linkage to control two separate ones from a single cable, and would clean up an engine bay as you can run a wiring harness wherever you like where a cable really needs a nice smooth path. I guess you’d probably want to deconstruct an existing electronic throttlebody for reliability / resilience and find a way to attach the gubbins to the carb throttle linkage. Same with the pedal unless you can find one that happens to bolt in fairly easily.

integrale_evo wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 5:51 pm Making adjustable dampers remotely electronically operated, I did think about using off the shelf servos but not sure they have enough rotation for the adjuster knob, so out likely need a small gearbox, and a guess easy enough to wire a power supply and use a servo tester as a knob on the dash to adjust them.

That, and you can always at toothed wheels and a little chain to gear them down if necessary

integrale_evo wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 5:51 pm Electronic throttle control for carbs, would have saved me having to fabricate a linkage to control two separate ones from a single cable, and would clean up an engine bay as you can run a wiring harness wherever you like where a cable really needs a nice smooth path. I guess you’d probably want to deconstruct an existing electronic throttlebody for reliability / resilience and find a way to attach the gubbins to the carb throttle linkage. Same with the pedal unless you can find one that happens to bolt in fairly easily.

I'd still want to link them mechanically. Maybe a common spindle? I'm not sure if the cheapo ones I've played with have of the degree of accuracy necessary for throttle control.

Also exactly like you say - why re-invent the wheel? I think I'd look to something late 90's in the scrappies with an old skool simple potentiometer/actuator set-up. Early Saab stuff (e.g. post 95 9000s) was pretty simplistic (i.e. likely to work independent of fancy ECU gubbins).

Although, all that said - there is perhaps a reliability lesson to be learned from the fact that OEM guys still retained a mechanical throttle cable as a backup for a long time

Nefarious wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 6:00 pm

integrale_evo wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2026 5:51 pm Making adjustable dampers remotely electronically operated, I did think about using off the shelf servos but not sure they have enough rotation for the adjuster knob, so out likely need a small gearbox, and a guess easy enough to wire a power supply and use a servo tester as a knob on the dash to adjust them.

That, and you can always at toothed wheels and a little chain to gear them down if necessary

One further thought - you don't need damper adjust to be super fast. You could use a linear servo, and a rack and pinion set-up.