Re: Rack and Pinion steering vs. M5 steering (archive)

I've heard over and over that the M5 understeers quite a bit - is this only with the M5, or are bimmers with rack and pinion steering infamous for this also??

Understeer is a function of suspension setup rather than steering type. You can dial out the understeer with shock, spring and swaybar changes rather than changing the steering type.

What the heck is rack and pinion steering, and how does it differ from the M5 steering?

Here are some definitions from this website

Rack and pinion gearbox: A type of steering system with a pinion gear on the end of the steering shaft. The pinion engages a long rack (a bar with a row of teeth cut along one edge). When the steering wheel is turned, the pinion turns and moves the rack to the left or right. This movement is carried through tie rods to the steering arms at the wheels.

Recirculating-ball-and-nut steering: A very popular type of steering gear. It uses a series of ball bearings that feed through and around and back through the grooves in the worm gear and nut on the steering shaft. The turning forces are transmitted through these ball bearing to a sector gear on the pitman-arm shaft. When the steering wheel is turned, the worm gear on the end of the steering shaft rotates and the movement of the recirculating balls causes the ball nut to move up and down along the worm. Movement of the ball nut is carried by teeth to the sector gear which in turn moves with the ball nut to rotate the pitman-arm shaft and activate the steering linkage. The balls recirculate from one end of the ball nut to the other through a pair of ball return guides. This system is also called ball-and-nut steering or worm-and-recirculating-ball steering.

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