alright my car dosnt have power steering right now so my question is should i add it . i heard of people just using camber for it when they drift and autox . but what will help me the most . im learning to drift and auto x so any ideas.

 

Ummm, huh?

If you can steer fine without power assist, why change things?

And I don't understand why you think camber settings affect this?

 

its just what i heard that people camber in a lot .....steering is a little harder to do seeing as the car isnt the lightest thing.

 

I can see where guys may want to add some camber up front when drifting to MAYBE help the front stick better. Steering effort might go up, but I don't think it would be noticable. The power steering might get you a little faster movement of the wheels lock to lock but not much.

The steering feel will lighten up with speed, and if you want to try it, a little toe out.

I would research ways to get the wheels to turn more if you're drifting before I would try to add power steering to a car.

I don't drift but my car has 9.5" wide slicks and I road race it and I don't use power steering.

 

well is your car all motor or turbo.

 

I'm not sure why you think a turbo is going to help someone turn better vs being n/a.

Adding camber will help you tune in the maximum contact patch for the cornering you'll be doing. Really doesn't change the amount of effort the steering takes.

Caster on the otherhand, can increase the amount of 'fight' the car gives you as it's trying to recenter the wheels and might be more what you're referring to. The more caster you have the more the car wants to stay in a straight line, but more caster will result in improved camber in corners. So the net effect is the car gets harder to turn with more caster, but the car handles better.

Personally I don't trust the mazda 2nd gen's power steering, I could never predict how much boost it would give me and I didn't want to spend the money getting it all working as it was from the factory. So I went with a manual rack in my car.

PaulC

 

In road racing, and I can only assume the same is true for auto cross and drifting, you do not need power steering in a no / low downforce car. Once the car is moving you will not need it.

From personal experience most racers "unhook" the power steering as it is a drain on horsepower. In my opinion power steering takes away/masks the feedback the car is giving you.

If the steering is so heavy that it is unmanageable, then something is wrong with the set up on the front end; or you need to start lifting weights.

 

lol my car dosnt have powersteering it have a manuel steering rack anyway i just wanted some feed back to see if powersteering helps or not .

 

The only place that PS helps you on the track (for our lower HP cars where we don't run really wide tires) is if you need a little quicker steering ratio over the stock manual rack. Some folks will run a "de-powered" PS rack (ie. gutted and modified) if their classes allow for it.

-b