Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
Hmmm... have you compared the turbo with new non-turbo tie-rods?
- these issues just came up on the bushings thread, currently active
BTW - nice double pun on pondering the wt. issue
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Thanks
Back in my wrenching days (late '80's to early 90's) I did make the Turbo tie rod conversion to a couple hot rodded Carreras (which were only a couple years old at the time). Usually people are not swapping out the standard tie rods for no reason so the comparison does not come up that much.
In my opinion I think the Turbo's make a noticeable improvement. I read the other thread and have a few points to offer.
One thing to keep in mind is diminishing returns. If you have already set the car up with a lot of upgraded equipment, the difference in "feel" of any one particular improvement will have a tendency to be diminished in the grand scheme. For a stock road car the improvement of that one thing will "feel" like a greater change.
Two "feel" is definitely in the hands...butt...feet of the beholder. Some people are just more sensitive to the changes than others (I'm not saying that you or Bmeister fit in this category...if anything I would say it is the first one for you two). I once had a DE student that could tell even the minutest changes in yaw angle with is butt however his feet were made of pure concrete. Brake modulation was totally lost on this guy. My guess was that his a$$ was more directly connected to his brain than his feet were. End result of one session at Moroso was a trip straight off into the weeds on freshly squared tires.
Third thing is that rubber stores quite a bit of energy as it deforms. The absorbtion of energy reduces the magnitude of the transmitted force through that part. This can also be interpreted as a loss of feel. This is exactly the point of the big rubber disk at the base of the steering shaft...to reduce kick back through the steering wheel (and on to the nut that holds it...sorry couldn't resist). This is also why Porsche spent so much development time and money on the new dynamic motor mounts on the GT3 (greater response and reduced shifting of mass when you need it and more complancy when you don't).