Yeah, Bob's car is setup for solo racing. You hardly ever see street 1200's more than slightly lowered, especially utes. I wish I could lower my car more but the coilovers are adjusted max.

after emailing Peter Zeckert ( long time 1200 racer) I ordered a steering rack for a left hand drive Mini. will load pics after install complete, should be done by end of January
The rack was not very expensive $150 new

very cool !!! I 'm skeemin up somthing too

Has anyone ever done it? Aside from race cars with front tube frame, it seems no one has fitted rack and pinion steering to a 1200 with stock 1200 (or other Nissan) suspension.

At the Seattle show this weekend, there was a 510 with his home-swap rack and pinion steering. He used a rack from a Datsun 200SX.

Here's what he did:

- move the engine crossmember back a couple inches (which necessitates changes to the engine mounts)

- Weld simple flat brackets to the x-member so the rack can be bolted on

- Cut the tie-rod ends and weld them back shorter (make sure you have an expert welder do that)

- used a newer steering column that has a flex-joint on the end. He used a 200SX column.

The swap had three u-joints and a fairly big angle from the end of the column to the rack, but he said it works great, much better than the stock 510 steering box. No slop!

would it be better to kut the steering arms shorter and rethred them for the tyrod ends
i thaught this my be a stronger method than cut and shut

racks off a newer car are easier to find than original steering parts for 1200 here in the U.S.

It's been along time but now have my rack and pinion installed. steering in much lighter and quicker. also corrected severe bump steer caused by lowering of car. this set up probily would not work in a street car. the steering colum was replaced with racing type set up of a shaft running thru two rod ends. changed the handling much better turn in and also better braking due to fixing bump steer

Bob, sounds cool. Did you get the steering gear from Minimania.com? They seem to have good prices, good selection, and some parts that can be used on 1200s, including tires and valve springs

yes the rack came from mini mania it left hand drive early mini cooper rack and pinion. 2.5 turns lock to lock

If you are only looking to do this because of a parts shortage in your area keep in mind that any decent engineering shop will be able to rebuild your steering box and fabricate any parts they can't source.
Matty