Not a very interesting topic, in fact a very messy topic but rather important when it comes to keeping your engine in one piece. One upgrade anybody with a SEight should do as a matter of course, certainly before track-daying a car and definitely before using a soft tyre such as the 048r or 032r, is to add a baffled, trapdoor sump. These sumps should keep the oil under control during braking and cornering, meaning the pickup doesn't suck air.

My first car had a regular baffled sump, this is the same as a standard sump but it has extra baffles and traps added internally, they look like this -

You can just about make out the trap door. On the new car I went for one of the shallow sumps as these seem to be very popular with Westfield owners. The ground clearance is increased but not by a great deal, in fact the shallow sump is 100mm deep whereas the standard sump is about 140mm deep. This is the shallow sump 

It's clear to see that the bell-housing and the chassis hoop are now actually lower than the sump. The sump still has the trap doors, it is basically a standard sump cut flat but with a new section welded to the front to give the same capacity, it is used with a similarly modified pickup pipe.

Anyway, mind didn't work. Under heavy braking, oil pressure dipped. I've been told that mine was a slightly different design and sumps both before and after are fine, but I've now reverted to the normal depth sump to be sure. I used one on the old car and never experienced a problem with either ground clearance or oil pressure.

Of course, nobody told me that the 5.1 crank will not clear a standard sump so I carefully bolted it up and whacked the sump with the crank. 

The score marks can be seen quite clearly in this picture. This is easily remedied by modifying the front of the pan to allow a little extra clearance for the crank - whacking it very hard with a large club hammer sorted things out nicely for me!

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