Steve,
I heartily agree with your comments, and in fact would be even more
emphatic. Perfect Ackerman or anything close to it is NOT desirable, except
maybe for trailers that are only going to be towed at <25 mph. There are
tire tread slip angles and other factors to be considered. Colin Chapman has
also gone on record as advocating parallel or even reverse Ackerman geometry
for race cars - although probably not as extreme as a stock Tiger. In my
experience, using the MGB steering arms and moving the rack back 0.5" gives
a substantial improvement in the steering feel. Switching to a Midget rack
is a separate issue from Ackerman. It's a better design and reduces steering
effort over the stock rack, plus has a quicker ratio. Bump steer is a major
consideration and it would be best to have it adjusted by a competent
alignment shop. Even a stock Tiger may not have the bump steer properly
adjusted and the improvement in steering feel can be enormous.
Bob
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