quick35th Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Has anyone on here ever run a competitive road race without the use of power steering? What was it like? Shane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
944-Spec#94 Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Has anyone on here ever run a competitive road race without the use of power steering? What was it like? Shane I don't run powersteering in my 944. Many 944 drivers don't. In a 944 spec car no powersteering often means better feedback and little to no increase in effort. I think you need to specify which car and what size front tires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quick35th Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 Has anyone on here ever run a competitive road race without the use of power steering? What was it like? Shane I think you need to specify which car and what size front tires. Its a '92 Thunderbird SC with 306ci sbf in it. Front tires are 275/40/17 mounted on CCW three-piece race wheels. The car is pretty light compared to how it came from the factory. Shane Glynn Motorsports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpnwiz Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 You're talking about running a manual rack and not the PS rack with the belt disconnected right? I don't have PS in my Miata. Once I'm over 5 mph or so the steering effort and feel is perfect. Of course the car is about 2200 lbs wet with 205/50/15's on the front of it. You've got some serious meat on the front of that t-bird. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nape Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Its a '92 Thunderbird SC with 306ci sbf in it. Front tires are 275/40/17 mounted on CCW three-piece race wheels. The car is pretty light compared to how it came from the factory. I've had it happen on my Firebird due to a PS pump failure and I don't recommend it. 245/45/16s with a 12:1 steering box and I really had to muscle the car around. It might've been more livable with a 16:1 box, but I'm not tempted to try it for the little weight that PS adds. I'd look for weight reduction and HP somewhere else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Hurst Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Has anyone on here ever run a competitive road race without the use of power steering? What was it like? Shane I think you need to specify which car and what size front tires. Its a '92 Thunderbird SC with 306ci sbf in it. Front tires are 275/40/17 mounted on CCW three-piece race wheels. The car is pretty light compared to how it came from the factory. Shane Glynn Motorsports ..all you can do is try, not tough to find put the ps back on if you need to. PS with the aluminum pump bracket and plastic pump resevoir is really not too heavy, and with a serp belt and the pump slowed down, I doubt you'll see the drag difference in a lap time. BTW, have you weighed the car yet?..those things are darn heavy from the factory. What did you use for supension?..I made coilover mounts for the front of this car..barely visible in the engine photo, so I could use inexpensive oval track shocks and springs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quick35th Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 Has anyone on here ever run a competitive road race without the use of power steering? What was it like? Shane I think you need to specify which car and what size front tires. Its a '92 Thunderbird SC with 306ci sbf in it. Front tires are 275/40/17 mounted on CCW three-piece race wheels. The car is pretty light compared to how it came from the factory. Shane Glynn Motorsports ..all you can do is try, not tough to find put the ps back on if you need to. PS with the aluminum pump bracket and plastic pump resevoir is really not too heavy, and with a serp belt and the pump slowed down, I doubt you'll see the drag difference in a lap time. BTW, have you weighed the car yet?..those things are darn heavy from the factory. What did you use for supension?..I made coilover mounts for the front of this car..barely visible in the engine photo, so I could use inexpensive oval track shocks and springs. Mike, Its a "depowered" power steering rack. The car came this way and I never put the power steering back in it when I put the V8 in it. Weight should be right around 3000lbs or less. Its actually quiet light on the noise cause its pretty easy to turn the wheel when its sitting still. Ted Lyons car is awesome, I wish it were mine. I've not heard much about the car lately, last I heard it needed a motor pretty bad. I am running Koni shocks front and back using stock springs that were cut. Stock sway bars, polly bushings, aluminum rear diff and controlling arms. The stock stuff will work well considering its a 1000lbs lighter then factory and the full cage thats in the car. Shane Glynn Motorsports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Hurst Posted January 3, 2008 Share Posted January 3, 2008 Ted Lyons car is awesome, I wish it were mine. I've not heard much about the car lately, last I heard it needed a motor pretty bad. You must have seen / heard about it at the 2001 WFC, it ate a bunch of OE TFS valve guides on the 01 one lap, oops, smoke city, population Ted! Bronze guides with no geometry changes lasted through 02 and 03 one lap events (10,000mi.) with no rebuild in between. Engine made 541RWHP on Springfield Motorsports' dyno. Last I heard Ted was planning on putting the motor in a Cobra kit car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quick35th Posted January 3, 2008 Author Share Posted January 3, 2008 Ted Lyons car is awesome, I wish it were mine. I've not heard much about the car lately, last I heard it needed a motor pretty bad. You must have seen / heard about it at the 2001 WFC, it ate a bunch of OE TFS valve guides on the 01 one lap, oops, smoke city, population Ted! Bronze guides with no geometry changes lasted through 02 and 03 one lap events (10,000mi.) with no rebuild in between. Engine made 541RWHP on Springfield Motorsports' dyno. Last I heard Ted was planning on putting the motor in a Cobra kit car. I had a friend that lived in Indy and saw the car. He said it was running kinda bad because it needed a motor. Shane Glynn Motorsports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renntag Posted January 3, 2008 Share Posted January 3, 2008 Has anyone on here ever run a competitive road race without the use of power steering? What was it like? Even in a 944, I highly recommend Power steering. I have driven plenty of 944s with and with/out... I prefer the assist. As to your T-bird, No way would I consider running something like that with out power steering. As it was suggested above, slow the pump down for less drag and better feel. All of my mustangs have power steering and I wouldnt run them any other way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted January 4, 2008 Share Posted January 4, 2008 Ha! small world, I haven't seen Ted in years, since he last graced one of our TCCoA meets. Tell'm Eric from Colubus says hi and see if he remembers. lol Anyways: Shane, you want power steering, put a cooler on it and enjoy. I just had the unplesent experience of having it fail on a car with 255 tires up front. It took ALL of my strength to move it around. Sitting still, thre was no hope. It's not worth it to do without. Though your car is lighter, allot of that wight came out of the back, and you stil have a healthy load on your fronts. I've also looked into this (very recently in fact) and found it to suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHSAE Posted January 4, 2008 Share Posted January 4, 2008 Hmm... I know 2 guys who are very competitive regionally in spec 7s who run no power steering. Granted the cars weigh in a 2200ish lbs and they've only got a little rotary sitting over the front end. A lot of those cars didn't come stock with power steering anyway. Perhaps ruling out all non-boosted steering is a bit too broad. The few times I've driven them, it's actually been very beneficial (imho) because of the feel. It's just hands, rack, road... but in really slow corners it asks a bit much. I'm a novice driver and I found the additional feedback very valuable compared to the other cars I've driven with power steering on track. I suppose in a big American beast it's not even close to worth the muscle fatigue in your arms and shoulders that would surely commence. I know our SAE formula car has fantastic feedback through the steering wheel, but I think that's beyond reasonable comparison (600lbs w/ driver). It's probably closer to kart. 40% of a nickel. Phillip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSCoupe Posted January 4, 2008 Share Posted January 4, 2008 I've been running without power steering (electric pump, turned off), with 245/40-17 R6's. Car weighs ~2700 lbs w/ me and half a tank. Nose heavy, and has AWD too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quick35th Posted January 5, 2008 Author Share Posted January 5, 2008 Anyways: Shane, you want power steering, put a cooler on it and enjoy. I just had the unplesent experience of having it fail on a car with 255 tires up front. It took ALL of my strength to move it around. Sitting still, thre was no hope. It's not worth it to do without. Though your car is lighter, allot of that wight came out of the back, and you stil have a healthy load on your fronts. I've also looked into this (very recently in fact) and found it to suck. Eric, Not sure if I mentioned this already on here but my car is actually quite easy to maneuver around my back yard in and out of the garage. You've been to my place before so you know how much space that I have to work with. I'm probably going to autocross the car locally and see how it does before I go and add power steering. I do know how you feel though, I've had the power steering fail on me countless times on my first '90 SC. It was a PITA to steer when at a stop, parking lots were terrible. Shane Glynn Motorsports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philstireservice Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I have a Acura GSR ...no power steering. C'mon Colin....start workin out more ...... who loves ya baby ??? Your Buddy Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renntag Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Oh now I'm getting called out by Phil. Yeah yeah yeah....us pansie Mustang Drivers with Power Assist steering and brakes. We need it. Have any of you driven one of these cars to a podium finish? We turn left in the rights and right in the lefts. If the arse of the car isnt floating your not going fast enough. We need power assist in order to run a small wheel. Thats all right....I guess this means no more Phil's Tire Service t-shirts for me....perhaps I will be getting the pink thongs now right? I dont know....do they make my butt look big? Its a good thing you and kim love me....just think of the abuse I would get if I was on the sh*t list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer33 Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I race a Honda Challenge Civic with a depowered power steering rack. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to park it, or do tight maneuvering at low speed, but on the racetrack it's great! Keep in mind though, it's 2260lbs with driver, so obviously that makes things a bit easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.