[alfa] Re: Re: Milano NON-power steering conversion

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, in my opinion, 3.5 turns lock-to-lock may be an acceptable 
steering ratio for a 1954 Buick, but it's too slow for a sports car 
(suicide knob anyone?). The Power Steering system out of a Milano is 
under three turns lock-to-lock, which makes turn-in much better and 
makes the car much easier to control on the twisty bits. I'm not alone 
in this. I've a book full of contemporary road tests of the GTV-6 from 
all over the world. Many of the reviews (but not all) mention the heavy 
steering.  Steering effort might be a matter of taste, and "too heavy" 
a matter of opinion,  but I've owned a number of Alfas as well as 
several British sports cars including a Jaguar XK-140MC and if my 
memory serves, it seems to me that all of those had faster, lighter 
steering than did my GTV-6 before I fitted PS.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6

On Nov 17, 2003, at 8:52 AM, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 09:17:35 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
> From: jason paul frautschi <jpfrautschi@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] Re: Milano NON-power steering conversion
>
> Lalo-
>
> having enjoyed both a Milano and a GTV6 over the past eight years, i 
> would
> have to counter the comments of George Graves with my own impression: 
> i never
> found the GTV6 steering to be too heavy, never, and i never found it 
> to be
> hard to park or unpleasant to drive. never. and i'm no weight-lifter! 
> honestly
> i think the GTV6's steering is nicely weighted for a performance road 
> car. and
> i did not find it to be 's-l-o-w'. on the other hand, to be fair, the 
> Milano's
> steering was also excellent, and very light; in comparison with other 
> power
> steering systems i've driven, it's a dream. but, if your steering is 
> giving
> you trouble, i think it's alright to consider the switch to the 
> unassisted
> setup (assuming it's a straightforward swap) and get rid of the extra 
> weight
> and worry of the power steering, as well as the extra load on the 
> engine. i
> really don't think you'll lose any tossability. in any case, i 
> disagree that
> power steering is an absolute necessity for a Milano; remember, only 
> ~half of
> the car's weight is on those front wheels...
>
> - -jason frautschi
> annapolis, md
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided