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just wondering what its like to live with a non power steering mx5 as a road car? considering removing it.

Leave it there and banish that thought.

I expect it's illegal.

and I personally wouldnt be comfortable with putting the excess strain on the steering column.

Don't think it would be illegal.
The Autosalon magazine guy manualised his power rack and did a write up in the magazine (quite a lot of work). It provide a quicker ratio.

give that one a miss then me thinks.

bruce wrote:Don't think it would be illegal.
The Autosalon magazine guy manualised his power rack and did a write up in the magazine (quite a lot of work). It provide a quicker ratio.

Why would it be a quicker ratio?

This is a COW, but as an owner of a non-power steer NA6 id say dont do it. In my view the steering is the most disappointing thing about my car. It offers a slower ratio and inconsistant weighting (initially light then really loads up). Others may disagree.

Whats the reason for deleting the power steering? Would you keep the quicker power steer rack?

Well PS was standard on the NB and optional on the early NAs. The PS NAs had a quicker ratio - less turns lock to lock than the non PS. The car was originally designed to have PS as I understand.

I'd personally would prefer the quicker ratio on a NA6. But on a NB8A its all the same. However I've personally never liked the power steering on the NB8A's so it prolly wouln't be such a bad idea.

I've removed mine... the steering is very heavy with the power steering rack still in and no assist. It's not so bad with the road tyres but is pretty tiring with a race alignment and lots of castor on wider sticky semi's. After a 45 minute sessions my arms were dead at the wakefield 300 last year.

There should be no additionally load on the steering rack though...whether it's hydraulically assisted or not...it's still doing the same load and weight. If anything you can be less rough with it when it's unassisted. Parking is still the only real problem but it's easy once your moving in normal driving.

It all comes down to personal taste... I enjoy driving my car without it but I can understand how some people would hate it. My car is also incredibly stiff, loud, air con is removed as well and has a race harness

I took my p/s off and put a manual rack on. I didn't even notice the difference, somebody asked me after the first session and i couldn't give much of an answer as i think it drives just as good as p/s. And if it makes the car lighter i like the idea. parking is a little heavier with 8 inch wheels.

GS wrote:This is a COW, but as an owner of a non-power steer NA6 id say dont do it. In my view the steering is the most disappointing thing about my car. It offers a slower ratio and inconsistant weighting (initially light then really loads up). Others may disagree.

Consider me one of the 'others'
Really not liking the PS on my NA6, it's too sensitive and way too light. No feel in it at all

Hellmun wrote:There should be no additionally load on the steering rack though...whether it's hydraulically assisted or not...it's still doing the same load and weight. If anything you can be less rough with it when it's unassisted. Parking is still the only real problem but it's easy once your moving in normal driving.

the rack would keep the same load, but what about the steering column? wouldnt it have extra wisting force put onto it? (ie: more weight in steering wheel means more twisting force on the column)

Power steering on the track is a personal choice. In the past we have always converted out NA circuit cars to manual steering if they were power. In the NB’s we just disconnected the hoses and looped the return back to the rack therefore making like manual steering. The ratio on the p/steer rack is closer than the manual one. I personally found the NB p/steer gave the least feedback in a full race car running on treaded tyres. Power steering is just another version of a hydraulic ram so once one side is unweighted you have the full pressure steering one wheel which generally is quite light. Once people started racing the turbo NB’s on slicks then power steering became desirable so your arms didn’t fall off from manhandling the car round the circuit. Even in our SE’s at Eastern Creek on treadeds your arms would kill the next day. The NC’s are a whole new ball game and have variable assistance and don’t have that vague, unweighted feel that the earlier models tend to suffer on the track.

If you can drive one with and one without and see what your preference is – after all it’s your car and you can do what you want with it .

might be a bit of a pain to park with 15 x 8 with about neg 10 offset me thinks. hmm when its a track only car maybe.