When I ran my unpowered rack at the track the effort on track was fine. What I hated was the effort in very low speed stuff and in the paddock. If stoped it was a pain to move around. However my car is early offset so I did it all back in 2002 with used parts and it was cheap. If I had to buy late offset manual tie-rods I would probably just run the power rack sans power. Plus back then I autocross the car some and it does make a difference in autocross.


As for the upper limit on tire width.

When at the track pull the belt to the pump and drive it a session. That will tell you pretty quick how it feels and the effort. In the end I believe it to be a personal choice.

 

Perhaps, taking out some of the positive castor will improve the low speed effort. The trade-off is that high speed stability may be effected if you take-out too much. This comes from a driver with power-assisted nothing

_____
Bob S

 

I had it both ways,power is much better

 

This is pretty much a personal preference thing. I drove a friends 944 w/ a manual rack at an auto-x and absolutely hated it. My unpowered power rack is much better, IMHO.

The slalom with a manual rack requires more steering wheel rotation (I had to turn the wheel about 20-30 degrees more) which made it very uncomfortable when trying to toss the car around. Maybe it's something I could get used to, but for $1000 I'm not about to find out.

 

I managed to source all the parts last year for 600.00 (steering shaft and tie rods where new) and installed it all myself. Used parts can be found but it will take a while. + I sold my PS rack for 175.00 to offset the cost.

I never drove the car (any race car) w/ps so I can't say which is better, but I'm fine with the non pw at this point.

Also if you plan to do this go for the extra $ and buy the Lindsy sectioned cross member. It will make the rod bearning changes in your S2 each year go much faster.

 

Sectioned cross-member: Is that legal?????

 

It should be, only the center section under your oilpan is removable. The control arm pick up points are the same.
They convert a factory unit.

 

I took the belt of mine to see what it was like. I hated it so much at low speeds it wasn't worth the weight loss/reduced mess to me. I put the belt back on. I really should work out more.

Regarding sway bar bearin destruction....couldn't you techincally wrap it in tin foil or duct tape to keep the oil off?