Hi all.
About a year ago I reached out to Martin of 944-manual steering fame, and asked if he had thought about doing something for the rather populous 996 community (at least as compared to the 944 at this point). He had thought of it, and offered to sell me his first attempt at cost. The power steering that had rolled Dr. Ferdinand over in his grave like a sufferer of bed-sores was now slowly-but-surely crushing my own soul into the shape of an accountant (or maybe it was an orthodontist--I can't recall for certain), so I was in no position to refuse. I paid up, but hastily.
These are my notes.
2001 C4 cabriolet; Goodyear Exhilarate, 235/40R18 & and El Crappo Chumpness 205/50R17 front tires (oddly, no detectable difference in steering effort); Alleggerita wheels; Nakamichi stereo head unit.
- The rack fit like original equipment. My nearby and well-respected Porsche shop was impressed with the workmanship.
- It is very hard to move around in parking situations, in spite of re-gearing
- Some precision and quickness of steering has been lost due to the ratio change
- The ratio change was about 30% shorter gearing
- I would never consider auto-crossing this, at least with stock alignment
- Would likely make an excellent car for a real track
- I enjoy the road feel immensely
- I will eventually (but before too long) replace my control arms with caster-adjustable ones to ease-up the low-speed resistance
- I wouldn't have believed it, but the elimination of the pump (kept plumbing) has improved very-low-rpm torque (I don't stall on hill-starts now)
Happy to answer any questions.