I will use this later. Also, I agree. Completely not needed on a 2500 pound car.

John

Suite yourself. I will too.

The car was excessively hard to turn with the manual steer and I want to drive it on the road and autocross, both activities need responsive steering.

It seems a lot of folks here automatically dismiss power steering as for wimps or people wishing to desecrate the sacred original cobras. Well, I would probably not put it on a real one but that is completely academic since I will never own one of those (I think).

When the front end starts sticking and adhering to the pavement......you will need power steering .....there are many factors involved with your steering....rack ratio, geometry of suspension, size of steering wheel......are just a few....also size of tires....

Depending on the motor you have.....the brackets may need to be manufactured....but is worth all of the effort.

Also put a cooler on the pump.

Has anyone installed the flamingriver power steering unit?

Look to me like something else in the way and another thing that can go wrong.

I have a basic Ford rack with a chevy pump to match my engine. The flaming river manual steer I took off is based on the ford apparently as it bolted on. The pump did too and the only trick was getting the hoses the right length.

The flaming river looks very sanitary. I imagine cost wise it is a wash. The electric steer will need the steering shaft cut and two u joints added it seems. The feel on my unit is fine as any power steering I have had and I have had some good ones.

They make this for the superformance- maybe it could be adapted? Looks like an easy install:
https://epasperformance.com/products...formance-cobra

After running mine on a kart track, I find my physical limit is about 5-10 minutes (or 6-10 laps). The manual rack is just fine on the street or canyons, but on a tight track or autocross, you fight with it.

The leather wheel tore up my right hand pretty good too, next time I'll wear gloves.

I am interested in the thoughts of those thinking of electric power steering.
Unlike hydraulic power steering, where some sort of warning happens when a parts failure occurs, electric steering gives no warning.

Ever wonder why we still have hydraulic brakes?

I had it on my autocross only lotus 7. It worked but no feel. It took some room, more than the system presented above. It also was adjustable on assist.

Gaz- if the electric assist fails, you still have manual steering. In fact, you could probably rig up a switch to disable it at will.

I would interested in the effort needed when electrical failure happens.
That electric motor would have a fair reduction gearset, and/or wormdrive like a wiper motor.

I was reading through their literature about the install and set up, Gary. If you use their wheel speed sensitive setup, when you are initially driving the car you progressively reduce the electric assist (to close to none?) until you feel the weight of the steering is comfortable at that speed. If the speed is too low then you increase vehicle speed until that sweet spot appears. At that point there is a mode switch on one of their modules that you need to trigger. This will set their calibration speed.

Whenever you are above the calibration speed, the electric assistance is minimal. When you are below the calibration speed, assistance will gradually increase from minimum at the calibration speed to maximum when the vehicle is stationary. All well and good. In fairness it sounds pretty nice.

I have electric p/s on my daily driver and I asked the same question, about steering effort when the assist fails, prior to buying the car. I never got a good answer to the question — which leads me to believe the answer is something the typical buyer would find objectionable. I didn't have a choice, if you wanted the car you got the steering.

I suspect as you already suggested that the system adds a noticeable amount of effort to the steering proposition after it fails. The question obviously is, how much? In the US I would think the regulatory authorities would have had some input to the, how much, question but so far I have not been able to find an answer.

My guess is the car is drivable, but unpleasant, for a man with average or better upper body strength. As suspect as it sounds, I would not be surprised to find it very difficult if not impossible for most women to drive.

For most of us, while having lost the, 'can I try driving it' battle with our wives a while back, we blessedly found after one or two outings with them at the wheel, their interest in piloting our missiles quickly faded. That, however, still leaves the drivability / steering effort question when in failed mode on the table for us ...

I suspect that it is more than insignificant for all the reasons you have already suggested — but I still like the size and apparent ease of installation / implementation, especially the speed sensitive assist force feature.


Ed

I forgot about Ken's writeup until now. My senior moments are evidently lengthening...

Look here: http://www.firstcoastcobraclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=96

I don't recall whether there's a switch to turn off the assist, or if the pot that controls the amount of assist goes all the way to zero, but I suspect it gets pretty close.

It's been in there for a good number of sessions on the track at Daytona as well as a bunch of cruises on the street and seems to be doing the job just fine!

Tom

I had one on my car. It was slightly harder than without the unit, and I mean SLIGHTLY. If you drop the boost level to zero, it was about identical to the manual steering.

That is good to know. With that sort of knowledge I would expect to see something similar on the Flaming River unit. Perhaps an industry embraced failsafe.


Ed

On my Lotus the steering was one turn lock to lock. I never drove it without the assist but the PO Cashmore told me it was pretty undrivable without it. It had a live rear axle and 55% of the weight in back and developed some serious oversteer in its normal cornering behavior while the driver sat with his backside 3" from the rear axle so at speed it was pretty engaging to drive.

My car came with electrical steering that was installed by the previous owner. There is very little room for the unit under the dash and he did a lot of cutting to shoe horn it in there. He did a good job but it gave the car a very un-natural feel. I removed it all, upgraded the steering and brought it back to manual. Much better. Feels like a Cobra not a Lincoln.

Fred