Power VS Manual Rack
 

Can anyone shed a little light on which is better? I always thought power rack and pinion was the way to go, but I have had people tell me that manual is plenty good. I have also heard the same thing about brakes. I heard that autocross competitiors like manual brakes better because they have a better feel of whats going on.

Please help??????????????

I will start by saying I am no expert. As far as the power rack goes, I believe it has a lot to do with your car and its setup.

I am going with a manual rack in my Mustang, but it should be pretty light up front so steering effort shouldn't be too bad. I have noticed however that it is slightly tougher to turn at low speeds than I like. (Which is all I have ever done with it, pushing it in/out of the garage :( ) Going back I probably would have ordered a power rack. I would imagine you could also have a better ratio lock to lock with power steering without the effort.

I'm going to start out with the manual rack and see how it goes. Easier install, no lines to run.

As an example NASCAR runs power steering and manual brakes.

PS = less fatigue = better car control over the long haul.
Man Brakes = better modulation = better control.

In general if you set your manual brakes up with the correct pedal ratio and master cyl size then you get all the benefits of increased line pressure and braking force that a power system can give and you get better feel at the limit. The best of both worlds.

If you are running steam roller front tires then possible benefits of manual get outweighed by the effort needed to steer the car. If you are going to drive it on the street and park it in spaces like a normal car or plan on much low speed driving with wide tires the power steering is nice to have. Some may say a must.

With a good R&P manual can give you some added road feel but if the suspension is compromised you may not like that road feel and would rather mask it.:rofl:

Remember alignment settings of the suspension also have a big effect on steering and steering effort. A car with good suspension geometry will be easier to pilot with manual steering than one with less than optimal geometry.

Some suspension gurus can talk about scrub radius and caster and toe and ackerman and their effects on steering turn in, straight line manners, ect.

I wouldn't use a manual rack if you plan on running the auto-x, the ratio will be way to slow.