The challenge
Steering is how a driver feels the car. Any gap between the pinion and the rack shows up as free play at the wheel, and that gap grows as the gears wear. The X1 needed a rack that could be set up with no free play, stay that way through a season of racing, and still fit across the front of a narrow single-seater chassis alongside the pedals and master cylinders.
Requirements
- Precise steering with no free play
- A way to set the pinion to rack mesh on assembly and take up wear later
- A compact housing that packages across the front of the chassis
- Strong enough for kerb strikes and race loads
- Simple to service and rebuild
Our approach
The rack, pinion and housing were designed in CAD around the chassis, so the mounts, steering column and tie rods all line up exactly.
The key feature is the eccentric pinion housing. The pinion sits slightly off centre in a rotating housing, so turning the housing moves the pinion closer to or further from the rack. That lets the mesh be set precisely when the rack is built, and adjusted again as the teeth wear, without replacing parts.
The housing was shaped for machining from solid aluminium: stiff where it carries load, slim where space is tight. The parts were produced through our partner network and assembled in our workshop, ready to bolt straight into the chassis.
Results
Gallery
