Dealer Focus: Webster Race Engineering

This week we have been lucky enough to catch up with Jon Webster from Webster Race Engineering, Jon and his team supported us throughout the Autosport International Show earlier this month where his 1967 Pro-Modified Mustang ‘Fast Company’ received a lot of attention on our stand. So, we thought we would give you a further insight into Jon’s business and a sneak peek at some of the projects he is currently working on.

RL: So Jon, firstly thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to talk with us and allow our fans a unique insight into Webster Race Engineering.

My first question for you is; how did it all start?

JW: From a very young age I always had an interest in cars, I think the independence of having my own wheels really appealed to me. My first car was a Morris Minor, which is a far cry away from some of the ‘Top Fuel’ Drag Vehicle I have been driving recently, but it was the car that started it all. I began tinkering with it to improve the performance and make it more modern however I could. I was always curious how things worked and how to make things perform better.

At the time, the street racing scene was at large, and I think the Morris surprised a few people as it was so quick! I then found people were asking me to tune and work on their vehicles, which I enjoyed doing in my spare time. As the interest grew I was taking more and more time off my day job, using up all my holidays to work on other people’s vehicles. In 1988 I took the much needed plunge and set up my first workshop in Raleigh in Essex.

The business continued to grow naturally and within 8 or 9 months I then moved into a bigger unit which was a 3 car garage on a Southend Industrial Estate. I have to admit the business grew at a rate I wasn’t expecting and over a 7 year period I moved twice to continue expanding and keep up with demand. I was working 7 Days a week but I enjoyed every minute of it as it was a job I really wanted to do. With all the trials and tribulations of running your own business, it was time to turn it into something commercially viable and take on team members to help me with the workload. When I set out my mentality was still the same as it is now, I don’t want to be rich out of it, I just want to produce vehicles to the best of my ability.

In 1995 a lot of things changed, I was offered my dream job working on Historic Mclarens in the USA, so I sold my business, packed up and was ready to leave. Sadly disaster struck, 8 months before I was due to move and the dream job fell through due to complicated Visa issues. As a result I was left in complete limbo, no business, no job, what was I going to do.

I was offered a short term job with one of the guys from the drag racing scene but I was determined to get back to running my own business. Not too long after I broke away and set up Webster Race Engineering as we know it today and then we moved to our new home at Santa Pod Raceway (which made perfect sense for us since our main line of work is in the Drag World).

RL: What does your business for day to day activities?

An easy way to sum up Webster Race Engineering is that we complete Bespoke Vehicle Construction for a range of different applications including Street, Track, Hill Climb, Motorcycle Racing and Drag Racing, to name a few. We can manage anything from a small modification all the way to a completely bespoke fabricated chassis.

We have always had focus on building customer relationships, we don’t advertise for work, it all comes through word of mouth. We are lucky to be faced with a high customer demand and we can choose the projects we want to work with the clients on to ensure they receive the very best we have to offer.

With the focus on customer relationships we have an open and honest policy with each and every one of our clients, we always explain timelines and cost before we embark on a project together. Some customers like to be heavily involved and others like us to manage the build from concept through to production.

Since our business is built solely on recommendation, we only use the best parts, and produce vehicles we would be happy to drive.

RL: What Projects are you working on currently?

1953 Mark 1 Farnham V8 Twin Turbo which will be street legal and compete in the Street Legal Drag Classes.

EVO 8 with GTR R35 Engine & Running Gear – 1600hp which will be a multi discipline car Street, Hill Climb, Drag and Track Days.

1974 VW Camper with 911 Running Gear which is a road going show vehicle.

Suzuki GSXR 1000 Drag Bike which will run in 950 Bike Class so under 9.5s ¼ Mile.

Mitsubishi Airtrek. Full Tube Chassis 1200hp Small Block Chevy for Street and Strip.

RL: Out of all your builds which one was your favourite?

I always have to side with my most recent build… My 1967 Pro-Modified Mustang ‘Fast Company’ that is truly a special car. It is an accumulation of all the years knowledge, research and development. A lot of blood sweat and tears has went into that car and I am extremely excited about what it can achieve. Technically that car is the best I have ever built and myself and Jake are so proud of the car and looking forward to the 2018 season when we can complete a full pass in the car.

The 1967 Pro-Modified Mustang ‘Fast Company’ is built on a custom Webster Race Engineering 4130 tubular design chassis, housing a 429 cubic inch (7000cc) engine with a billet block and heads. Using Twin 88mm Precision Promod Turbos and a Custom Webster Race Engineering Turbo and Induction System, all of this producing over 3000 horsepower and only weighing 2650lbs (1205kg).

One car in my past does give it a very close run for its money though. My 1964 Mercury Comet. There was just something special about that car, I should imagine it was because it was the Original Steel Chassis, Street Legal and had over 2000hp. That car was a quick car, on the strip it achieved 7.54s ¼ Mile and was over 190mph.

RL: Why did you chose to work with Racinglines?

Over the years I have used a range of different fluid transfer products and when I came across the Racinglines brand I was impressed with the quality of the products along with the availability and costs and friendly customer service. The Racinglines brand has the perfect mix of Aesthetics and Performance.

Previously we have really struggled with part availability for our strict deadlines on our builds, having to source adapters and fittings from a host of different suppliers just to get the job finished on time.

With the high pressures and different fuels which are used on the majority of our builds we needed a company which has a good range of very diverse hoses and Racinglines ticks the boxes. We run the SUPALITE range on the 1967 Mustang along with your various adapters. Using Racinglines products on our own vehicles gives us great confidence recommending these products to our customers for their own builds and projects.

RL: Why did you choose SUPALITE?

For us the SUPALITE range was the obvious choice for a couple of reasons, in the Pro Modified Class everyone is trying to be exactly on the minimum weight, which in turn allows you to run a quicker ¼ Mile. Everyone struggles to build a vehicle to the minimum weight due to the amount of technology needed to run at 250mph.

One of the areas to save weight is the fluid transfer set up, as there are so many hoses and fittings throughout the car. Using SUPALITE saved us a total of 38lbs on this build, which is about 40% lighter than using traditional braided hoses.

Not only that we run a range of exotic race fuels which contain a whole host of different additives including Methanol, the SUPALITE range can easily cope with the different additives, which gives us peace of mind that we can fit and forget about the hoses on the car.

RL: If you could drive any car past or present what would it be?

When I first got into Drag Racing the dream was to drive a Top Fuel Car, that is the real rush of ultimate speed, they are the fastest cars on the planet. Travelling over 300mph and finishing a ¼ mile in around 4s, there isn’t another feeling like it in the world. In recent years I have been lucky enough to drive a range of Top Fuel Cars, and I have to admit the didn’t disappoint.

From a nostalgic point of view the one car I wish I could go back in time and drive would be the Bluebird CN-7 which was piloted by Donald Campbell. It was truly pioneering at the time, the amount of notoriety that vehicle had it really peaked the country’s interest. The car achieved in excess of 400mph and held the land speed record. What could be more fun than that?

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