Steering Rack

[John Lieberman]

So...I blew out my steering rack on the AutoX Mini and had to get a new one.  Mini Mania wants $190 for just the rack.  I've ordered another one with the mounting kit, dust boots, and competition track rod ends from Mini Spares for $166 -- including DHL express shipping!  Gotta love the current currency exchange rate!!! 

[BritBits]

John,

Glad you were able to find the replacement quickly.   I'm not sure of the condition of the spare I have or I'd have offered it.   

Cheers,

Jim

[John Lieberman]

Thanks, Jim.  I should have mentioned, this is a quick-ratio steering rack -- 2.2 turns lock-to-lock instead of the standard 2.7.  I've got a couple of standard racks but I wanted another quick-ratio one.

Here's the clincher.  My parts left Gatwick, UK, around six last evening -- our time.  From there they went to East Midlands, UK, and then overnight to the DHL hub in Cincinnati.  After that, they passed through DFW around seven this morning and arrived at my house at 2:30 this afternoon!  That's less than 24 hours to get all the way from Mini Spares to my front door!

Yes, it cost me $40 to have the parts shipped DHL Express.  But that was the only shipping option that Mini Spares offered.  Had it been smaller parts, they would have probably shipped them by Post.  However, even with the shipping cost figured in, it was still much less to get all of the parts from Mini Spares than to just buy the rack, itself, from MM. 

The exchange rate is working in our favor right now, even though it varies from day-to-day.  On the day I ordered my parts, the rack was £65 in the UK and that worked out to $81 here.

[BritBits]

John,

So the quick ratio rack is an aftermarket part or was it an option during production?

Moss offers (offered??) a quick ratio rack for the TR6, apparently it was a Spitfire rack since they carried less weight on the front wheels they could be quicker.   

Cheers,

Jim

[John Lieberman]

Yeah.  The quick-ratio rack was an aftermarket part but one that's become quite popular with those of us who drive competition Minis.  I made the conversion on my car about 25 years ago and it's really served me well until it finally gave up the ghost.  You can seen in my YouTube video from our last event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Gzf3DroVw how hard I had to fight the steering wheel just to stay on course and hear the obvious clunking from the front end.  Even with all of that wheel fighting, I still managed to lay down a :66 when most of the fastest drivers in the newer computerized multi-valve cars were only running in the low :60s.  I think this new rack is really going to make a significant difference.