The Westfield XTR2 is an ultralightweight, two-seater sports car manufactured by
Westfield Sportscars Limited, of West Midlands, UK. It features a lightweight steel tubular spaceframe chassis, and the , 1299 cc
Suzuki Hayabusa
The Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa is a sports motorcycle made by Suzuki since 1999. It immediately won acclaim as the world's List of fastest production motorcycles, fastest production motorcycle, with a top speed of .
In 1999, fears of a European re ...
4-cylinder engine, mated to a 6-speed sequential gearbox. Performance upgrades are available. However, it lacks a windshield, side doors, roof, and is virtually devoid of interior luxury. As a result of this simplicity, the car only weighs between 410–440 kilograms, depending on configuration. By achieving an extremely high
power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measuremen ...
, it has been intended primarily as a car to be used on the race track. However, it is still legal for road use (at least in the UK). The Westfield XTR2 is a member of the
Bike Engined Car
A bike-engined car is a small or light weight car that is powered by an engine that was designed for use in a motorcycle.
Characteristics
Early examples of bike-engined cars include the 1948 Invacar and the 1949 Bond Minicar, both of which ...
(BEC) class of vehicle that are becoming very popular at Track Days.
The XTR2 made a notable appearance on the revamped version of BBC's
Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
, where it outperformed a
Pagani Zonda
The Pagani Zonda is a mid-engine sports car produced by the Italian sports car manufacturer Pagani. It debuted at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show. By 2019, a total of 140 cars had been built, including development mules. Both 2-door coupé and roa ...
in a timed lap of a test track. The Zonda was the current track time champion. Although the record has since been surpassed by several expensive sports cars, it was a foreshadowing of a future record lap time by the
Ariel Atom
The Ariel Atom is a road-legal high performance open-wheel car made by the British Ariel Motor Company based in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, and under license in North America by TMI Autotech, Inc. at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, ...
, another minimalist sports car to which the XTR2 has often been compared.
Westfield ceased production of the XTR2 at the end of 2010 to concentrate on their core "7" product, the
Westfield XTR4
Westfield may refer to:
Places Australia
*Westfield, Western Australia Canada
* Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick
* Westfield, Nova Scotia
New Zealand
*Westfield, New Zealand United Kingdom England
* Westfield, Cumbria, a location
* Westfield, ...
, which offered an Audi 1.8 DOHC Turbo engine, together with various aesthetic and structural differences to accommodate the car rather than bike engine, ceased production some years before.
References
External links
Westfield Sportscars Ltd.XTR2 website – USA{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817145641/http://www.westfieldxtr.com/ , date=17 August 2018
XTR2.net and Forums
Sports racing cars
Kit cars
Westfield vehicles