This is one of Several major differences between the Tiger and the
Alpine. The Alpine's steering is superb!, and the Tigers Sucks. (being
blunt here!) The Alpine had recirculating Ball steering which was very
tight and quite responsive, but fairly complicated. The Alpine had a
turning radius of around...22 feet, as I remember, which is a very tight
circle. It also had no tire scrubbing at all. The angles on My Alpine
seemed to be perfect. I could literally drive in circles between the
curbs on the cul-de-sac road at my parents house. The Tiger has
something like a 36 to 38 foot turning radius (correct me here please!),
with a great deal of scrubbing, as do most cars with rack & pinion
steering mounted in front of the wheels. Mounting the rack behind the
wheels greatly improves the steering geometry, but this was not an
option on the Tiger.
Each of the two prototype Tigers that were built had different
steering. The first Utilized the fine original steering of the Alpine,
but had to mount the engine farther forward to accommodate the steering
gear. Unfortunately, this made the car more front end heavy than they
wanted.....(Note: It would have worked fine had they used the lighter
Buick 215 Aluminum V8. Carol Shelby's alliance with Ford prevented that
for the production cars). The other one which was built by Shelby,
mounted the engine as far back as was possible, which eliminated the
Alpine's steering as an option. They went to a forward mounted Rack,
and thus, the problems of the Tigers steering began.
Most the modern day Front wheel drive cars use a rear mounted rack,
Like the Ford Taurus (which I have). This car has the least amount of
scrub of any rack & pinion car that I have seen. But the turning circle
is still too big. The draw backs of front wheel drive. 8-(
Rich
>----------
>From:
> d_mountjoy@mail.nmusd.k12.ca.us[SMTP:d_mountjoy@mail.nmusd.k12.ca.us]
>Sent: Thursday, May 09, 1996 11:02 AM
>To: scavgold@rmii.com
>Cc: tigers@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: Slow speed steering
>
>>Having recently purchased my first Tiger (67 Mark II), I have a very basic
>>question. While turning the car at low speeds it feels like my 4 WD truck.
>>The inner tire seems to scuff and slide. I just had the front end aligned.
>>I have LAT 70 wheels with Goodyear Eagle 185/70 R13 tires. Is this scuffing
>>normal or is something else wrong that I should be checking? Please Help!
>> Thanks, Jerry Scavezze
>
>"Normal"? No. What we're posed with on Tigers, yes. There is an
>"Ackerman angle" issue with the Tigers. Read your shop manual for all
>the
>details, but basically there is approximately a 4.5 degree difference
>in
>the direction of the inner and outer front wheels when your steering is
>at
>lock, with the outside wheel being turned in more. This toe-in effect
>is
>what causes the funny scrubbing sound you hear and your tires are
>experiencing. It is also why Tigers do not like to turn as well as
>some
>other cars. Some people try to compensate for this wonderful
>engineering
>feat by putting a little toe-out into their FE alignment. The trick is
>to
>not have enough so the car will wander when you are going down the
>road.
>My car seems to work well with 1/8" toe out but I know of another car
>that
>wanders with the same amount of toe. Some time back there was someone
>who
>came out with an "Ackerman Kit". It was supposed to "correct" the
>Ackerman
>problems on Tigers, but I also heard that unless it was "tits on" it
>created more problems than it solved.
>Also it would be a GOOD idea to check out all the suspension
>components/settings
>to rule out other factors as contributory to the circumstances you are
>experiencing.
>
>Darrell
>
>
>
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