Drive-by-wire steering: Is it bullshit?

[Matra et Alpine]

UCE's ? Is that a typo or am I missing something ?

Only thing missing is the memory of how bad my typing can get sometimes
yep ECUs.

[kingofthering]

And i dont really like it, however it does have rack and pinion and no ABS...

Sell it and buy something old. Preferably from the 196/70's.

Like a torn up GTO

[SlickHolden]

RAV4 = "electric power steering" in the UK.
This is power assisted steering which uses similar feedback control loop as hydraulic but with elecctronic sensors and electric motors to provide the assistance. Fail-safe mode same as "normal" pas.

Very common in Europe and now being retro-fitted into older rally cars and kit cars
eg from an MGF, fitteed to a QUantum by one of the guys in our club. Took away the Ford steering column, left the rack in place. Bolted this in with a few fabricated brackets and bingo power steering

You can see the electric motor that provides the power assistance at the left

Am looking to use the COrsa version ( cheaper, more available, more reliable ) for daughters Quantums.

Irish company already makes an adjustable control for the power steering for use in competition

Is it good for the long haul over time?.

[Matra et Alpine]

Is it good for the long haul over time?.

No reason why not.
A second hand column is about £100, and 90% of that cost is liekly in the motor and gearing.
Relibaility is still not as high as would want to see, but getting better on each iteration.
The MGF one was renowned for going off centre over time and needing "realigned"
Early Corsa's one just "failed" I think the Fiat 1st gen were equally troublesome.
But when you consider the failure rate in hydralic pumps in low cost cars then it's probably comparable !!

[SlickHolden]

No reason why not.
A second hand column is about £100, and 90% of that cost is liekly in the motor and gearing.
Relibaility is still not as high as would want to see, but getting better on each iteration.
The MGF one was renowned for going off centre over time and needing "realigned"
Early Corsa's one just "failed" I think the Fiat 1st gen were equally troublesome.
But when you consider the failure rate in hydralic pumps in low cost cars then it's probably comparable !!

I don't know I'd be still chicken thinking of it failing on me around a corner or something, I know with normal power steering you can feel when it's having issues or going, Like i felt issues with my mums car so i checked it and all it, A touch low fill it up back to normal over 312,000km and still going.

But i do wonder how long it will take to come downunder in one our cars?? Maybe never??

[LandQuail]

What a great crop of posts. It's E-life affirming, or something (or, as I'm an American, perhaps I should say 'such as' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII).

I'm the World's Biggest Neophobe who also drives a car with yellow wheels and a basket-handle wing. Carmakers these days seem to work in offices where that ditty from The Little Mermaid that goes "I've got trinkets and whatsits galore" plays on a loop, and they'll not stop putting microchips and sensors and servos and sundry other silicon doo-dads into the wheels their masters peddle until they're good-and-sure they've reinvented all four of them.

Electronic engine management aside (and even still, doesn't a pair of twin-trumpeted Webers bolted to a lovingly sand-cast four-cylinder engine's manifold just tug at the heart-strings that crucial bit harder?), doesn't anybody else here feel that we're riding the outgoing tide of sportscars? Hasn't the best already come and, while the canvas-helmeted aces and local backroad heroes were caught off-guard by all the nannying legislation and fuel crises, gone?

Sure, the F430 Scuderia's E-diff and its accompanying software can launch the thing out of a hairpin with a fury that would widen even Stirling Moss' eyes, but wouldn't we really rather be in a 250SWB, with spitting carbs and a tempestuous live axle?

And maybe the E-boffins will work out a way to send the impact of every pebble back through the wires and sensors and motors into the driver's sweaty palms. Maybe they'll even figure wire up a system to waft incense through the air-con as Ave Maria softly plays through the 16-speaker stereo when onboard sensors detect a collision that automatic braking and ESC can't prevent and a dozen airbags can't soften.

But wouldn't we rather weave a Lotus Elan S1 through a narrow, tree-lined mountain pass and let the cards fall as they may it it all goes horribly wrong?

Who knows. The world's car buyers vote with their wallets, and they say maybe not.

Maybe they're right. If you play it by the numbers, it's hard to say they're not. But speaking only for myself, this Quail plays it fast and loose when he's at the wheel, and he doesn't want a car with an accountant's brain under the bonnet telling his wheels what to do.

This Quail gets a little misty thinking about the Good Old Bad Old Days, back when it was just a man sawing away at a plus-sized wheel while hard-compound crossplies squealed through every corner.

This Quail gets so misty, in fact, that's he's got to quote somebody:

"So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

-- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, 1972
Squawk.

[drakkie]

Offcourse we car enthusiasts would love to have some "feeling" whilst driving. However do the big masses care ? When new technology is used, it becomes a good selling point for the marketing people.

We would buy a car that uses ancient technology but would the masses ? No. They want the latest gadgets in it to brag to their neighbours.

Why should we not use it ? In the past we had bad cars, with bad technology and we have now. Since 50 years ago, we invented many technology. Why should we just put it on the shelf and abandon it ? For the odd person not wanting it, we have a lot of (classic) options.

In the end it's always what the consumer wants and not the enthusiasts. Good luck convincing millions of people.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

This technology has made getting up to and controlling these speeds attainable for the average human. it's making the experience less special, and certainly less safe.

Essentially, Technology is allowing people to drive as speeds their driving skills cannot match - to quote Top Gun, Cashing cheques their bodies can't cash - and because of that further technology is used to counter the first technology.....vicious cycle much?

Back in the day Cars were a luxury and those who could drive them fast did so via skill, luck and a little bit of dutch courage, generally. these days all you need is a straight bit of road, a half decent car and your right foot.

there is still fun to be had, It's just not what it was.

Not that I ever knew what that was :P