chich

I'm just thinking out aloud here... Just wondering if anyone has or has thought about lowering the steering ratio to make a boat like a Falcon user friendly around twisties? Having driven a few of my mates' cars such as a 156 Selespeed, Twin Turbo Soarer and Twin Cam Corolla in anger i'm tired of having to give my EF Fairmont a shit load of lock to get the thing around a bend. Is it possible and if so will it affect the speed sensitive power steering?
Thanks..

FAIRMONTAU2

I'd be careful on that one. Start fiddling around with ratios and you could end up harming yourself and other road users, especially at speeds. Lowering the car and wider tyres will be worth a 1/4 turn less lock to you.

ebxr8240

Smaller steering wheel...

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chich

Why would problems arise by changing a steering ratio? Saying that is akin to saying don't fiddle your diff ratio because you will accelerate faster and potentially endanger peoples lives. A ratio is a ratio. All you are doing is changing the rate at which the gear teeth mesh, nothing more.

Additionally, lowering the car and fitting wider tyres affects the cars handling characteristics but not the steering ratio. For arguments sake lets assume my steering ratio is 16:1. This means that for every rotation of the steering wheel, the pinion rotates 16 times. Lets assume this single rotation of the steering wheel causes the front wheels (through the rack and pinion) to deviate 15 degrees along the x-axis (i.e the ground). By lowering the car and fitting wider wheels will increase the effort required to turn the wheels due to an increased contact patch through the tyre, however my steering ratio is the same and i still need to rotate the steering wheel one turn to get 15degrees to wheel 'travel'.

FAIRMONTAU2

Fiddling with ratios has a 'cause and effect' the effect is different variable ratios off centre and varying degrees from centre to full lock. Engineers at Ford spend literally millions of dollars here and overseas perfecting this and corellating suspension, performance, (can't blame anyone for wanting to improve this) and varying other factors.

By having increased surface area (tyres) and less suspension travel (lowereing) you will improve ratios automatically. This is akin to deleting the tailshaft in front wheel drive cars ( yuk!) and picking up horsepower if that is a good analogy.