I posted this in drips and drabs over in the "What have you done to your Miata today" thread, but figured I should post it somewhere on its own in case anyone's interested in doing this themselves.
If I have one complaint about the race car it's that the steering wheel is fairly brutal on the driver. With aero and 9" slicks going through a Manual rack there's a ton of feedback. Too much feedback. And because of how heavy it is even with the Manual rack (again, 9" slicks), I haven't even wanted to run a depowered PS rack.
Of course, power steering would fix this, but it's heavy, often messy when they boil over, and saps power from the engine. I already don't have nearly enough power, so that's out.
However, I found out recently about a GM electric steering column that's been seeing heavy use in Rally and other offroad racing disciplines, along with a company that sells a controller that spoofs the CanBus signal, and allows you to adjust the amount of steering assist. I've been toying with the idea for a while now, but an autox buddy had one installed in his Ecotec powered Lotus 7 clone and frigging loves it. With some direct experience and some research in the bag, the time has come to start building.
So here's the plan:
-Snag a steering column & controller
-Fabricate mounts and an intermediate "adapter" to go between the end of the GM rack and the input of the Miata's intermediate shaft.
-Fix the bump-steer because hella low (not really, but the geometry is pretty d**ked right now)
-DePower and refurb the PS rack I've had sitting on the shelf for ages now waiting for its moment to shine.
-Add steering rack travel limiters to prevent the 15x10s rubbing on the sway-bar in paddock / grid / during big spins.
The column in question is out of the Saturn Vue & Chevy Equinox, and is a little over 3" shorter than the stock NA steering column. I went to Pull A Part North and snagged one out of the yard, along with the full wiring harness. The nice thing about that is that they're built for far heavier cars than what I'm putting it into, so it should be plenty.

I spent some time this weekend rotating the motor and gearbox housing on the assembly to get it above and out of the footwell. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep the tilting functionality, but I definitely want to keep the full, collapsible column for safety reasons. It's available, no reason not to run it. Also the mounts are within an inch or so of where the Miata's mounts are. I'm not sure if I'll try and weld brand new mounts in or make a set that bolt to the factory mounts and then bolt to the GM mounts yet, it'll depend on where everything sits once it's in the car.


If I have one complaint about the race car it's that the steering wheel is fairly brutal on the driver. With aero and 9" slicks going through a Manual rack there's a ton of feedback. Too much feedback. And because of how heavy it is even with the Manual rack (again, 9" slicks), I haven't even wanted to run a depowered PS rack.
Of course, power steering would fix this, but it's heavy, often messy when they boil over, and saps power from the engine. I already don't have nearly enough power, so that's out.
However, I found out recently about a GM electric steering column that's been seeing heavy use in Rally and other offroad racing disciplines, along with a company that sells a controller that spoofs the CanBus signal, and allows you to adjust the amount of steering assist. I've been toying with the idea for a while now, but an autox buddy had one installed in his Ecotec powered Lotus 7 clone and frigging loves it. With some direct experience and some research in the bag, the time has come to start building.
So here's the plan:
-Snag a steering column & controller
-Fabricate mounts and an intermediate "adapter" to go between the end of the GM rack and the input of the Miata's intermediate shaft.
-Fix the bump-steer because hella low (not really, but the geometry is pretty d**ked right now)
-DePower and refurb the PS rack I've had sitting on the shelf for ages now waiting for its moment to shine.
-Add steering rack travel limiters to prevent the 15x10s rubbing on the sway-bar in paddock / grid / during big spins.
The column in question is out of the Saturn Vue & Chevy Equinox, and is a little over 3" shorter than the stock NA steering column. I went to Pull A Part North and snagged one out of the yard, along with the full wiring harness. The nice thing about that is that they're built for far heavier cars than what I'm putting it into, so it should be plenty.

I spent some time this weekend rotating the motor and gearbox housing on the assembly to get it above and out of the footwell. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep the tilting functionality, but I definitely want to keep the full, collapsible column for safety reasons. It's available, no reason not to run it. Also the mounts are within an inch or so of where the Miata's mounts are. I'm not sure if I'll try and weld brand new mounts in or make a set that bolt to the factory mounts and then bolt to the GM mounts yet, it'll depend on where everything sits once it's in the car.

