Power Steering or Not??

[GreenV8S]

Feedback through the steering comes before the car starts to slide. Feedback through the set-of-the-pants comes afterward it starts to slide. I don't understand the theory that steering feedback comes too late to be useful.

I would want PAS if the steering was heavy enough to be a problem without it. For example a racer on 10" slicks and high camber gets a bit marginal. But the steering on my roadgoing V8S is quite light when it's on the move and PAS is totally unecessary. All PAS would do is make it easier for me to scrub the tyres when I'm parking - something I would rather avoid anyway. PAS isn't a reason not to buy the car (a chocolate engine with a huge price tag is!) but I'd rather not have it unless necessary. Just an expensive accessory, more things to go wrong and makes feedback from the car that bit harder to recognise.

[naith]

Though I'm a non-PASser, I can see the point to both arguments. Where a few people here have voted for "No PAS", these are notably in cases where they - like me - have been driving TVRs enough to appreciate the feedback relationship that comes from driving a V8 with no PAS.

When you've got Joe Bloggs trading in his middle-management car for one of our toys PAS is a lot more important to him, because (a) it's what he knows, and (b) he's a bit intimidated by the prospect of fighting to get a 4-5000cc brute in to a tight parking space on the shopping run.

As someone who's been driving a nonPAS TVR for some time, PAS to me is just not important. But now the time's come for me to now sell my 5.0 baby, I've noticed that it attracts a lot of calls from TVR virgins, where the most frequent question is a toss up between "What's the colour combo?" and "Has it got PAS?"

[davidn]

Followed the thread and have this comment, forgetting about easier parking which I agree is not what these cars are about the main argument seems to be about feel. But which end are we talking about, front - understeer or rear - oversteer. I have to agree with Steve that it's your arse that tells you when the rear is sliding and your hands that will get you out of trouble by applying lock, so the quicker rack of a PAS car shoule be preferable. Understeer is more likely to be a symptom of too much speed on corner entry or being too aprubt with the steering so any feed back through the steering i.e going light is probably too late anyway. Yes I do have PAS on my 500 and have not tried one without so can't compare the two. Although I have owned an Esprit non PAS and driven one with and it was easier to drive quickly in tight turns going from lock to lock, you just couldn't turn the wheel quickly or accuratley enough in the non PAS car to keep up with the changes in direction. All IMHO of course.
David

[GreenV8S]

The steering feedback tells you how close to the limit the front wheels are. It doesn't tell you whether the back end is about to step out, although you can generally reckon that when the fronts are close to the limit of grip, the rears are too. Once you are familiar with the car and how it responds to driver input, you can get a pretty good idea how close the rear is to the limit, based on the signals from the front. I don't mean in terms of 'the back end is starting to step out so I'll make with the opposite lock right now' but rather you can tell as you load the car up and accelerate through a corner, that you are getting close to the maximum available lateral G and starting to tread that fine line between fully committed and simply asking too much of the tyres. When I'm sprinting I aim to keep the car as close to this point as possible all the way through every corner, continually adjusting the line, acceleration and braking so that the tyres are right at the limit of grip all the way. The biggest single difficulty with this is anticipating the level of grip on a surface that I might only drive over a handful of times that day, as the track temperature and humidity varies through the day, and the tyre temperatures and pressures vary through each run. Gauging the level of available grip based on feedback through the steering is absolutely essential to this. If you wait until the car starts to break away to tell you you're pushing too hard, either you have to be too conservative or you keep sliding and losing grip. Bad news either way.

[Corin Denton]

I , on advice opted for a PAS model , yes it does add about 1k to the price etc but having drivrn both I wish I had a non PAS model , in my limited opinion much more natural feed from the wheel.