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April 1997
I had been given responsibilities at work that required me to be away from family for extended periods of time and on one particular occasion I happen to be in Brisbane at the time when the "Toys for big boy" display was on over at South Bank. There was some very impressive equipment on show, from big time dragsters to helicopters and everything between.
It was there I spotted the Westfield stand and despite there being other car stands for Cobra's, Ferraris, BMW's to mention a few, I found myself coming back to the sweet little Westfield. Perhaps because it was also more in my price bracket but more so because it was simple, very individual and unique. I also met some people who were connected with the Westfield at the time and were very interesting people to talk to. I later contacted them because of their association with the LoCost Clubman, which I am now building and something I knew nothing about at the time.
Well like may people that day, I took the brochures, read them to death and tried to imagine what it would be like to own and drive one. My wife was not impressed and that's where it sat.
Two year went by before I revisited the idea and it was no surprise to discover that I had just as much love for the sweet little Clubman as I did when I was looking at them on South Bank. The difference this time is that I was determined to make it happen. I was going to own one and it was going to be soon. I didn't know which one or how, all I knew is I had to make it happen.
Naturally I looked at the WEB for inspiration and names like Cateran, Westfield, PRB and others, so started collecting the information that would wet my appetite. I read some wonderful stories on the WEB about some of the Westfield cars and then came across some not so good stories. I slowly built up a picture of how the Clubman industry worked and started to get a little uncertain about which way to go until I discovered this THING called a LoCost. What the hell is it...and what's it all about?
It took a bit of digging to realise that it is a name given to a "Build your own Clubman". These cars are built from the ground and there is an enormous cult following of people who have embarked on this real alternative. How did I miss this for so long? Suddenly I found myself chasing contacts in the LoCost construction fraternity and after getting some very high quality feed back and tremendous encouragement, I decided this was my path to owning a Clubman.
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