My rsx steering is terrific and it handles well but not all hondas follow the same suit.

I guess he means those moving refrigerators.

I've never driven a Supra or AE86, only the mainstream cars (like the Camry & Corolla). I'm just hoping for great handling on the FT-86.

Correct sir!

The (new) mainstream Toyota cars feature highly assisted power steering. Even my XRS has light steering (somewhat over boosted), and I wish it had more road feedback. It's really nice for minivans or old folks at low speeds in a parking lot but suffers feed back above said speeds.

I have yet to drive a Toyota with electrically assisted power steering so I'm going off the traits of the past two I've bought. I read reviews when Toyota first introduced it and the auto magazines preferred the old hydraulic. Perhaps they've honed it so that it's better.

If Toyota is benchmarking the FTs handling on the Porsche Cayman, I doubt the steering is going to be poor. I would be surprised if it turns out that way!

WINNER!
2450 lbs, lsd, 200hp

If all the speculation is true, this car is going to be a beast, but with yamaha heads, we might be limited in boosting options due to higher compression. I would be content boosting to 250whp in a 2500lb car.

That sounds like an engine made to do some serious breathing. I have to say, at first I thought you guys were full of crap about the "construction/materials" thing, but I stand corrected. The 2zz is an interesting little engine, it has aluminum cylinder walls and iron plated pistons. That's some outside the box thinking. I can't imagine how that would help with longevity, but it's still interesting. Honestly though, I hope the FB doesn't receive quite that level of treatment. Cast iron sleeves may be mundane but sometimes they're a very nice thing to have.


As for the electric power steering, It might be a blessing in disguise. If the power steering is massively over-boosted, it seems like an electric system would be a lot easier to modify than a traditional hydraulic one. Have any of you guys ever heard of someone undervolting the assist motor? It seems like that would be a relatively simple way to increase steering effort. And if worst comes to worst, Electric power steering means that the car comes from the factory with a manual steering rack. All you'd need to do to ditch the power steering is either fab up a new column and/or remove the motor.


Don't be so sure. Steering feel and handling are two separate things to an engineer.

Could just have a button to toggle power to the motor? Or a rheostat or something?

I would LOVE that! I power-steering deleted my Supra. It feels incredible when moving. Parking, not so much. If I had a button I could press just for some assist when parking, OMG perfection...

With the way I think it would need to be done (Mosfets and PWM), cockpit adjustability would be very easy to incorporate. Actually, now that I think about it, fiddling with the voltage coming off of the torque sensor would be way easier. Though, if the factory mapping of input torque vs assist torque is non-linear that may or may not be ideal.

Whoa that's a really cool idea!
I wonder just how hard it is to steer an unassisted car like a Lotus...on the bright side if it's really tough, it's great exercise rofl.

It's only a nuisance at very slow (parking) speeds. My Supra weighs a wee bit more than a Lotus (or two) and driving with no power steering is awesome.

All I want is a toggle. Leave it off, then press a button for parking. None of this speed-sensitive, variable assist crap...

Lol.
Depending on how you read it, that's quite an ironic statement. :)

Yeah. I don't want variable assist, but would love a switch that, er... varies the assist from on to off... :)

What Dimman said, plus:

Effort at speed depends on the weight of the car, the suspension geometry (KPI, scrub radius, trail) and the overall steering ratio (degrees at the steering wheel vs. degrees at the tires). But on a production car, it's not likely to be all that heavy.

As I see it; the theme of the FT is handling by design. I categorized handling with steering feel because though different, they are linked in the grand scheme. Every subjective handling test I've seen from an automotive magazine the steering feel and feedback form a chunk of the subjective rating.

Now could it happen that the FT gets released with a underwhelming steering feel? It's possible. I just don't think that it's taken a back seat in the vehicles design, development, and testing.