STEERING FEEL INSIGHT
8 APRIL 2 020 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 49
between you and the road, but
y ou ju s t a s s t r on g l y don’t w a nt t he
steering leaping around in your
hands or threatening to break your
thumbs every time you inadvertently
d r op a t y r e i nt o a p ot hole. It i s ,
therefore, something requiring very
skilled suspension engineering.
Yet all the combined knowledge,
t a le nt a nd t e c h nolog y t h at e x i s t s
in the world today hasn’t stopped
steering systems becoming ever
more mute. And, as ever, there’s no
one reason for this. The fact that
cars have become heavier hasn’t
helped, nor has the fact that, partly in
r e s p on s e t o t h i s , c a r s h av e b e e n f it t e dwith ever wider and heavier tyres, all
of which compromises steering feel.
But the pantomime villain of the
piece goes by the name of EPAS,
better known as electric power-
a s si s t e d s t e e r i n g. W he n it w a s
realised that EPAS systems were
cheaper and less troublesome than
traditional hydraulically assisted
s t e e r i n g, t he y mu s t h av e lo ok e d
pretty tempting, but what caused
their near-wholesale adoption was
that they allowed manufacturers
to achieve slightly lower official
fuel consumption figures and
therefore lesser CO 2 emissions.
When the first Porsche 911 with
EPAS came out (the 991 in 2012),
I persuaded an engineer to tell
me e x a c t l y w h at t he s av i n g w ou ld
be in the real world, which I then
calculated amounted to two free
t a n k s of f ue l ov e r a de c a de on t heroad. To me, that wasn’t
worth compromising the
single most important
interface between man
and machine, especially
in a car like the 911.
Why does EPAS kill
steering feel? Because, as
our own Jesse Crosse puts it:
Toyota GT 86 set
new standards (^) for
EPAS back in (^2012)
McLaren is the only
mainstream user of
hydraulic assistance
No supermini feels
b ette r i n yo u r h a n d s
than the Ford Fiesta
Almost^ invari
ably^
you’ll^ find^ better
feel^ in^ older^ cars
“EPAS’s reputation for dead feeling
over centre and general lifelessness
was due to the effects of internal
friction, freeplay (‘lash’) and the
rotational inertia inside the electric
motor, which is magnified at the
steering wheel by the system’s
own gearing.” So now you know.
But there’s another, even more
persuasive reason why steering feel
h a s b e c ome s o h a rd t o f i nd t he s e
days: most people don’t actually
want it. You and I may want to sense
an intimate connection to the road,
but those who regard cars as mere
transport – which is most people –
don’t want anything of the sort. They
w a nt t o b e r e mov e d a s f a r a s p o s si ble
from the sensations of driving,
cocooned in their own little world.
A nd i n t h at r e ga rd , EPA S i s on l y t o o
r e a d y, w i l l i n g a nd a ble t o obl i ge.
Even so, it remains a matter of
c hoic e for m a nu f a c t u r e r s. T he y c a n
take the CO 2 hit and continue to
use HPAS – although among major
companies, McLaren alone ploughs
this lonely but noble furrow and will
c ont i nue t o do s o u nt i l it f i nd s a n
EPAS system that can mimic feel so
well that you can’t tell the difference.
If your car is light enough, you
obviously don’t need assistance
at all, which is really the way to
maximise steering feel. But even
within the world of EPAS, the
range of outcomes is enormous.
Developments in EPAS pumps,
the way they’re mounted and
particularly the algorithms that
control them have transformed
w h at ’s p o s si ble i n t he pa s t de c a de.
So, if your car still has little or
no perceived steering feel, the
s a d t r ut h i s l i k e l y t o b e t h at it s
manufacturer either couldn’t be
bothered to engineer it in or actively
didn’t want it there. If so, drive a
car from a company that does. L
Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagens tend to steer well,
and the Golf’s mixture of decent
feel and linear responses promotes
senses of enjoyment and stability.
Ford Fiesta
Ford has always paid singular
attention to feel, so the Fiesta’s
steering is class-leading by far.
BMW 3 Series
BMW made great efforts to
reconnect the driver to the road
with the G20, which is why it’s the
most enjoyable exec out there.
Toyota GT86
When it was new, the GT86 set new
standards for EPAS steering in an
affordable car, and it’s still superb.
Porsche 911
The 911’s steering is as good as
you can currently get with EPAS,
although still not up to the HPAS
st a n d a r d th a t i t l ef t b e h i n d i n 2 0 1 2.
Any McLaren
HPAS means there’s no need for
steering feel to be synthesised;
you feel what you feel because
that’s what’s happening. And
there’s still no substitute for it.
CARS WITH
EXCELLENT
STEERING FEEL
`
Steering feel is a car’s ability
to communicate information
a