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“ some say, I know two facts about DeTomaso Pantera Powersteering - and both are wrong” (I’m sure a few of you know where this came from… Lol)

i’m using my C7 Corvette (which will be substituted by the Pantera)  as a daily driver, getting groceries running errands, bringing children to school and picking them up! Now, for all of you who do the same “job” you know how packed the parking lot at the grocery store can be or all the perfect driving parents (soccer moms ) at the school just try to annoy the hell out of you!

In the extremely short period I drove the Pantera,  I did notice that the steering was quite heavy, at least for me…(I’m not Working Out, skinny, slinky, tall guy… That’s me!) I know it would annoy the hell out of me as well. If I have to do it early workout every day to zip in and out of parking opportunities..The solution was obvious… Work smarter, not harder! Powersteering it is!
it seems that two predominant options are on the market, one is from SACC and one from EZ electric power steering from the Netherlands. The main difference between those two is SACC has a knob you can regulate how much Powersteering support you want, while the EZ has a sensor that is hooked into the speed drive, and automatically turns down the support of the Powersteering support related to the speed… The faster you go the less support you have! From the overall arrangement both look about the same, I think the EZ electric motor is a little bit smaller, but as it said before, I might be wrong! to make a long story short, I know myself, and I know if there’s a knob  I can turn to influence whatever it is, I will do it! Probably do it a lot… (small example for people here who have been in aviation: multi probe CHT – EGT but single read out and cylinder selection knob…i’m surprised there was any knob left when I sold the airplane)

well, that’s the hint to what my decision was!

Last edited by LeMans850i
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I am currently in the process of cleaning up the interior. Adding LED dash and interior lights. Installing some of the Pantera Electronic controllers. So, I am down that rabbit hole of while it's apart I might as well as install the SACC kit. The PO had cut up the center console that I have a replacement for also.

Thought the power steering would be a great addition, at least for me. I had an incident a couple of years ago where I didn't get turned fast enough and backed into a car that had just parked where there wasn't one before. I would have pulled forward instead if I had the power steering.

I had the EZ Electric system and found it quite amazing. Even at parking lot speeds, it still feels like "Pantera" steering, just lighter. When you are driving down the road, you don't know it's there. Your steering just feels "pre-power steering" normal. I'm talking about the kind of speeds you'd be driving at in a city. It was exactly what I wanted. Once it's installed, you forget it's there.

There's only one person I know of that's installed and driven both systems, back to back: that's Gerry Romack; President of The Great Lakes Panteras POCA chapter ( https://www.greatlakespantera.com/). The web site has installation info and Gerry can be reached at: GLPanteraClub@gmail.com . I'm sure he'd be happy to give you his thoughts on both systems. On the Club web site it mentions American Powertrain as the USA distributor but I believe EZ Electric in The Netherlands will sell direct.

I bought the power steering unit from SACC, but have not been able to test it yet because I am still working on my car.  You could also try Greg at Full Throttle Panteras.  He sells a unit that is a little smaller than SACC and I don't know how it is controlled but you can talk to him.  Scott unit seems to be good.  My 2 cents.  Larry

My target is to be done with ALL my modifications by the end of April! (For people who saw what I did so far.. I’m about halfway done) I did decide on the EZ power steering system and I have it in my hand (actually sitting here for 3 weeks already)
I will spread it out tomorrow and show what I got and then hopefully how I install it successfully!

I got the templates copied onto cardboard already…

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Last edited by LeMans850i
@husker posted:

You can also adjust castor to reduce steering effort.

I increased my caster- milling the rear of the upper ball joint.. (thread “ weirdest poly bushings”)

IMG_0737

More caster gives the car more stability at high straight line speeds and but will increase the steering effort required!

I don’t think decreasing caster for easier steering is justifiable… it would make the car nervous…

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Last edited by LeMans850i

IMG_513066486329441__80C4DCE4-4453-410F-B592-90E5D6AC4F73I like the SACC unit. The knob adjustment is fun to tinker with, but I’d be nice not to have an auto adjust. I mounted the box on the firewall and nob under dash column.(Look for “CNC” in pic.) It does take up a lot of room(not sure other units space) and makes it difficult to remove Speedo/tach. I have to remove Speedo first and then tach now. Just sent in Tach for calibration to Pantera Electronics. Highly recommended you do this if you have everything apart. It was off 1200RPM and stopped working at 5000RPM. My redline is somewhere around 2K higher and hard to read digital screen when this thing is screaming.😎

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Here is the EZ system:

The two bags on the top left -  two speed sensors, which one can be mounted Behind the speedometer (left) or at the speedo output at the transmission (middle)

IMG_0744IMG_0745
The brain is mounted on the bottom of the steering column… It’s right now sitting on itIMG_0746 I put the lighter next to it so you have a reference of the size of the motor!

Also the angle the motor is pointing more upwards! This is about mounting position, horizontally seen..

and it’s all German TUV approved..



I had to set it up right now for the picture! It’s too good to see them next to each other!

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Last edited by LeMans850i

I won’t install the ignition lock on the steering column! This was just too much fiddling to get the key in! it was a PITA for me!

I also printed out the instruction manual from the USA importer of this power steering system because it is a lot more complex and detailed (and upgraded) then what I got from the Netherlands:

https://greatlakespantera.com/...the%20Pantera%20.pdf

let’s see what I adopt…

Last edited by LeMans850i

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