MATTER OF A PINION

Well-resolved steering can make good driver's cars great. Will the complex, electric-powered cars of tomorrow make the grade? Steve Cropley visits the experts to find out 

- Steve Cropley

We are standing in the R&D headquarters of Titan, the UK manufacturer of some of the world's most advanced automotive steering systems, looking at a large screen showing a map of the Suzuka Formula 1 racing circuit. A dot moves rapidly around it, representing a car.

In the average teenage bedroom this would be part of an elaborate computer game, but here it's much more serious. Map and screen belong to a bespoke test rig being used to develop the light, supersecret, by-wire EPAS (electric power-assisted steering) system of a leading F1 car that must remain nameless for now.

The F1 connection is just one indicator of how quickly 60-year-old Titan has progressed in the hands of a new team that started running it in 2015 and took ownership in 2022. Today, the company can create advanced and bespoke steering systems of all kinds: hydraulic, electric/electronic systems, and versatile, microprocessor-controlled, by-wire mechanisms for the cars and commercial vehicles that are just around the corner. Planning a driverless car? They can help steer that, too.

Titan started life in the 1960s making single-seat racing cars, surviving in that business until 1978. At the same time, it was building up a portfolio of engineering activities, and developing a range of Titan engine equipment and oil systems that survive as a profitable sideline to this day.