Reply to "Longchamp Steering Rack"

RHD Pantera seems to have used a rack from Cam Gears UK (which eventually was bought out by TRW) Cam gears supplied all sorts of leyland vehicles and the early Longchamp RHD.

The external rack casing on the Pantera seems to be the same as the 1965 Morris 1100. Now RHD 1100 has rack behind the axle, so RHD Morris rack upside down in front of axle looks like the LHD Pantera application.

Corollary is that the LHD Morris rack (Innocenzi 1100) looks like it was the source for the RHD Pantera. Johnny Woods mentioned recently that DT club members in UK have tried this rack, but found it too quick a ratio. I have yet to make further progress but my Morris shop manual says it was 3.5 turns lock to lock, and 5 inches rack travel. These are the same numbers I have seen somewhere for Pantera so some checking required.

I still plan to pull the rack from my LHD car and compare these ratios. Johnny also suggested a Titan motorsports rack - they build one-offs to order so this is a good option.

A guy in Sydney told me he bought a new rhd rack from Europe at about USD2400 - and he wanted about 1000 for his 2nd hand rebuildable!!

Will advise more when I know more.

Peter