The SEiGHT (pronounced variously as S-8 or 'Sayt') is a sports car manufactured as a
kit or factory built vehicle by
Westfield Sportscars. It is based on the familiar
Lotus Seven
The Lotus Seven is a small, simple, lightweight, two-seater, open-top, open-wheel, sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars (initially called Lotus Engineering) between 1957 and 1972.
It was designed by Lotus founder Colin Ch ...
concept, created by
Colin Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (19 May 1928 – 16 December 1982) was an English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars.
In 1952 he founded the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman ...
, whose design philosophy was to strip a car design down to bare essentials for the ultimate in driving experiences. Bar a few visual differences, such as a bonnet bulge to house the large engine, it uses the same widebody chassis as the smaller engined SEi. All SEiGHTs are defined as such by the powerplant - a
V8 engine
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...
. In kit form they were initially only available from the factory as a rolling chassis, unlike other Westfield kits which can be bought in component form. Later in their production run Westfield would allow the SEiGHT to be purchased in component form allowing customers to fully experience the build.
Westfield ended production of the SEiGHT in December 2010.
Powerplant
The
Rover V8 engine
The Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder block and cylinder heads, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom. It has been used in a wide ...
powerplant of the SEiGHT ranges from 3.5 litre units originally sourced from the
Rover SD1
The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' division) of British Leyland (BL), under the Rover marque. It was produc ...
to bored and stroked 5.2 litre units. There are also 3.9 fuel injected versions, which are currently provided in the factory built vehicles and TVR Power engines of 4.2 litres. On the whole the V8 is a Rover unit, an alloy block which is lighter than the cast iron blocks of many V8s. One example has been built around an alloy version of the
Chevrolet small block with a displacement of 6.6 litres.
References
External links
Westfield Sportscars Official WebsiteAn enthusiast site with more detail than the Official siteA detailed build diary of a SEiGHTA gallery site of a SEiGHT fitted with a 400ci Alloy small block
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westfield Seight
Lotus Seven replicas
Seight