whalebird

No carrera up to 89 had power steering to my knowledge. The first 911 with PS was the '89 C4. A look through PET may reveal something, but the pump attachment would be a new one for me. I thought that PS was an option on the RSA. My foggy memory may be getting the best of me though. AC, radio, sound deadening was deleated. PS was part of the weight saving formula, but I thought its was "available".
I would love to have a RSA. Lots of car. Nothing compares to a 3.6 torque-monster. Anything earlier than that has to rev to 7200 to stir my soul.

jlr

Power steering was not available on the RSA, which had few options -- sunroof, lsd, radio, ac.

DHinkle

Where are you getting this info??

I've owned two of the 28 Club Sports, both having power steering.

I've driven at least a dozen late 80's 911's and they all had power steering.

Tuscany964

To my knowledge 381 CS's (I take it we're talking about 3.2's) were built and none had power steering. Of the others unless they were a dozen '89 C4's then none would have had power steering either. You may have just had particularily good upper body strength the day you tried them

J richard

Well, I'll let the PS non PS question take it's own path....

Every change in generation of 911's drive a bit differently, the later the car the heavier and more stable it is. It's a small change but you can definately feel the difference. The earlier the car the more nimble, twichier it is, (in stock form, all bets are off with aftermarket/upgrades) I think the diffrence between a RSA and a 3.2 is similar to the difference between a 3.2 and 2.4.

By comparison you'll find the 3.2 carrera is light on the steering (i've never seen power steering on a pre 89, including the clubsports, perhaps they can be retrofitted but I don't know why you would need to) Even with the sport suspension it is quite soft, and you get quite a bit of roll, and trailing throttle oversteer is either your friend or your enemy...by today's standards they aren't exactly quick but they have adequate power, but you have to keep in on the cam...

The RSA is much heavier, both in road feel as well as steering, parking lots are actually a bit of a hassle, and the turning radius is a bit embarrassing. But I don't mind it, I've driven the C2 as well and don't know why they needed PS, makes sense for the C4 but overkill imho. So you give up the light nimbleness for a much more stability, you have much less of the coasting around the corner with the inside front wagging in the breeze, and the throttle on/off doesn't snap as fast as the torsion bar cars. I've let carrera owners drive my car and each time their eyes are wide when they power into the 1-2 shift. The 3.6 makes much more torque and has much better grunt, out of a corner, even on the street its much more fun. But with as nice as a out of the box RSA is, many have upgraded suspensions, mine included, which makes them even better, with litttle loss in everyday driveablity. The same can't be said of heavy TB ugrades in early cars, the coil over setup has more flexibility.

You can get a long way by doing the same upgrades to a C2, but I still like the feel of the maunal rack. Retrofitting the rack, 030 Bars and a coilover upgrade and you've got the exact same results...

JackOlsen

I'll take the path to where it ends: power assist steering was introduced on the 1989 C4, which came out a year ahead of the other 1990-1994 964 variants. A 1989 2WD 911 had the impact bumper body style, the 3.2 motor, and no power steering. In that same year, you could buy the C4, which had the next-generation 964 body style, a 3.6-liter engine, coil-over suspension, and lots of other improvements.

All pre-1989 911's had the engine-mounted oil cooler where the power steering pump was put on the 3.6-liter models. After 1990, some models (the RS America, the 1992 Euro Carrera RS) had the power steering deleted for weight savings. I would guess you could order the power steering deleted on a garden-variety 964 if you were willing to pay 'special wishes' prices to have it done. But you'd have to seriously compromise the pre-1990 911's cooling syetem if you wanted to retrofit the 964 power steering pump onto a Carrera motor. And that would only be one small part of your retrofit project. I would doubt it's ever been done (although heck, somebody, somewhere, has probably tried).

The Carrera Club Sport -- which, like all pre-964 911's, had an engine-mounted oil cooler -- did not come with power steering.

race911

Thanks Jack! What a train wreck reading through this..............

I think where this shakes out is that the front suspension geometry of the torsion bar (aka pre-964) cars leads to steering that is just fine when coupled with a manual rack and pinion. 964s? Not so much IN MY OPINION, exception is running Hoosiers. How they changed the geometry for the 964/993 makes the power assist a pleasure TO ME. But I'm an old guy who remembers what 165-15's were like on 4 1/2" wheels.

JackOlsen

The struts and hubs had to be redesigned in order to work with ABS. The new geometry was different, scrub radius especially. This is where the offsets for 911 wheels changed dramatically -- no more of the deep dish look. The 964 weighs a little more than the Carrera, but the need for power steering is more about the new hubs. And I'd guess that the difference in feel is probably more dramatic at ordinary street speeds than once you're cooking around a track. I've driven an RSA at Thunderhill, and liked it -- but I've never tried parallel parking one.

race911

Drive an RSA (or power steering deleted car) on something like 235 RA1's on the front around town, with requisite parallel parking, to get an education!

That said, I'm sure 9's with 275's or so on the front of your car aren't too fun in the parking lot.

GrantG

Maybe it felt like power steering since they aren't that heavy, but neither the late 80's 3.2 Carrera nor 3.2 Club Sports ever had PS from the factory.

I've never owned a 3.2CS, but I have driven two and neither had PS.

Maybe you're thinking of Power Brakes (which all 911's have had since mid-late 70's)?

DHinkle

I've emailed Tom Trudell who maintains the CS Registry for clarification. I am hearing enough to acknowledge that I am mistaken.

If that is the case, as noted by several people, the steering input required for an RS America is dramatically more and I like a car that most would deem but the extreme would not want to drive (hence CS; RSA and GT3's in the past).

I miss my RSA's (yep, all of them!) but have to say the CS is better and more fun around town but either one are a real treat to own and drive.

race911

All you gotta do is go out and look! Big *** pump over the #6 cylinder is impossible to miss. And raise your hand if you've wished the power steering away during a #6 plug change or valve adjustment (n/a on 993, of course).