Hi,

on christmas day I was cruising around in my GT on a twisty road when the steering wheel short of broke my wrists. With a great effort I was able to take the curve I was in then the effort lessened considerably and the car was running straight. I was wondering what happend and suspected a blown tire or something broken but nothing seemed wrong after. Then the next turn came...
It required again a huge effort to turn the wheel, but I managed and stopped at the next opportunity.

Nothing was visibly wrong but by opening the engine bay I found that my servo belt jumped of. Contacted my service guy and was told that the belt just drives the steering servo and nothing else should be affected. Releived I cut the belt and drowe home.

But what a drive it is! From a stand still I'm barely able to turn the wheel so parking is a real pain in the ass. But once the car is on the roll it becoms a lot easier but requireing both hands to keep steady. The car feels heavy but at the same time I feel the road as I've never before! At a hard launch I feel the tires braking loose and the steering immediately softening up. It's amazing. I also feel how each of the wheels grab the road in a corner...

I imagine the Lotus Elise might give a similar feel without the car feeling heavy at the same time..

Think I was lucky being able to keep the car on the road when the belt broke ....

Tamas

P.s.
My current ride is a 3000GT VR-4 Mitsubishi
I'll have the car repaired ASAP in January.

RX8 is due to February

You have got to be kidding me........ when the battery on my VR-4 went out and killed my powersteering, I could hardly turn the wheel at all, much less feel like driving it around to see how the "road feel" was!!! :D Props to you for still having the balls to drive it around!

Well I'm a pretty big guy, but still havin' a bit of muscle strain ;)

I think that's how my dad's 1981 Datsun 280ZX's NORMAL steering felt like. I always liked the heavy feel and the great feedback from it. That's why I was a little thrown off when I read a ton of magazines lauding the RX8's great steering feel only to find a ton of power assist when I bought mine. I guess great steering can be light as well as heavy.