[Rosieuk]

For those of you who aren't familiar with the landcrab you could get them with a rather unusual power steering system.
The pump was snapped in behind the dynamo and took its power from the dynamo shaft - after that it was pretty standard. Anyone who's driven and compared the two tends to say that the manual steering is better generally but horrible at low speeds - whereas the only advantage to the PAS is slow speed maneuverability (ie you can actually steer the thing without rupturing something painful).
It got me to thinking, since the only time you need power assist is at low speeds why not set the system up so that's the only time it works? Instead of having a pump constantly running either from parasitizing the engine or from electrical power.
In the manual Wolseley that would be relatively simple - collect the parts to do a manual to PAS conversion (still all available) - but instead of powering the pump from the dynamo, add an electric motor to turn the pump - switched via the gear lever to run only in first & reverse gears. That way you've assistance when you need it, but aren't wasting power, and losing steering feel, when you don't (and when you've got all of 22amps to play with you don't want to waste it)..
The car is on track for a 24.6mpg tank this time - means the spitfire cable has made a 2mpg difference - when I get more used to the car I'll start with P & C..