Although it’s less than a month since he started discussing a deal, Tunissen is already talking to two Westfield-literate UK businesses and will soon choose one to become the company’s hub in this country.
The ambition, he said, is to make increasingly rare spares freely available as soon as possible and to contain costs that might otherwise become inflated by uncontrolled EU importation costs.
For the future, Tunissen and Driving-Fun intend to have their new manufacturing facility running as soon as possible and to develop the cars along racing lines to suit customers’ well-communicated desires.
The previous owners recognised that too but never quite managed to get a range of well-developed models to market.
Tunissen is likely to benefit from some of that previous product development work, which ran to “several millions” of investment in chassis and engine development.
In the meantime, to signal his ambition and good intentions, Tunissen is planning a Europe-wide Westfield owners’ jamboree at Circuit Meppen on 21-23 August, hoping especially to attract many UK visitors.
He said he will work at top speed in the meantime “to have something good to show our visitors.”
More details will soon be available via a new website, but Tunissen invites all enquirers to contact him via westfieldsportscars@circuitmeppen.com in the meantime.
Westfield’s history
Westfield was established in 1982 by engineer, racer and Lotus enthusiast Chris Smith, who named both the new business and its cars after his house in Dudley, just west of Birmingham.
He started making fibreglass-bodied, selectively re-engineered versions of the Lotus Seven and Lotus XI but within a few years ran into legal trouble with Caterham, whose owner Graham Nearn had bought rights to the Seven directly from Lotus founder Colin Chapman.
The Westfield Seven’s shape was altered to the court’s satisfaction and it became the Westfield SE, the company’s most successful model, which until recently was still in production.