So....no other options heard of yet? Either KAS for alot of $$$ and less then 2 inch extension? or aftermarket wheel + spacer and loose all radio, bluetooth and cruise control? oh and Air bag.

 

I'll be working on a solution... I'm 6'3" and am sick of having to sit with my knees in the dash to have the wheel close enough. Time to put my mechanical engineering courses to work!

 

Haha if you work it out let us know!

 

Ya if you work that out lemme Know - Im over it bout to go aftermarket wheel

 

Bump on this. Hate the driving position of the X.

 

Best & safest way is to change to a longer steering column = $$$

 

can somebody make custom long steering shaft from this parts?

http://www.woodwardsteering.com/imag...l%20joints.pdf

 

well i want one again

 

how much will KAS charge, i have an MR

 

I have a solid works model made of a hub extender. I'm trying to figure out what kind of liability I hold if I machine these and sell them on the forum. Even if I specifically state they are for offroad use only I'm quite sure I'm still liable if something were to happen.


Anyways I'll throw up some pics when I have the first prototype made

 

Hey guys (and girls?),

Sorry to be silent for so long; I'm the driver that had the Evo X column successfully extended in Seattle, WA. The silence is because shortly after that mod, I had to sell my Evo to get ready to buy a house (which has gone well). Ultimately the buyer couldn't have cared less about the column mod... or the 370hp... (Go figure...), i.e., some non-gear head punk kid owns my car whose daddy bought him a 21st birthday present. My message: "Sign here dad. Don't kill yourself kid."

Anyways, KAS charged me about $700 including tax for the modification (on site), but he gave me specific instructions to let people know the labor would go up because it was a more of a pain in the *** than he originally expected, mostly due to maintaining the collapsible column; it took him several hours longer than he anticipated and quoted up front. So, because Kito is awesome, he stuck to the original quote and took a loss on the extra hours because he's a man of his word; and a damn good fabricator. I'd recommend anyone local who's interested in this mod, or other custom fab, to work with him. He's honest, and does fantastic work.

As far as comfort, with the mod I was able to solve all my driving position issues with the 2" extension. It was perfect; I'm 6' tall and my wrist could comfortably rest outstretched on the top of the wheel at 12 o'clock, with the seat in proper position for support and comfort (that's typically how you measure distance-to-wheel for racing ergonomics).

Best of luck to you guys (& girls?), I hope to rejoin X owners before too long.

 

Thanks for the info, will look into this in the future, short steering wheels ftl.

 

Any updates on this? A bolt-on solution would be great.

FFRGTM,
have you tried your design out?

 

I'm 6'1" totally normal build. 185lbs.

I had this exact problem with my 2008 Mazdaspeed3. Owned it for 2 years and never was comfortable, and it DID have a telescoping steering wheel! It telescoped from these ranges:
(Way too far away from the driver<---------> attached directly to the steering rack.)

I swore I'd go back to an evo because of it. I was miserable. But now apparently the X is different form my perfect ergonomics VIII?!?! Sign me up for a solution to this too. I'm going to buy my X soon.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates on this, I am currently working on a design with parametrics so it can easily be adapted to other vehicles. Also, I am integrating a strain gauge and position sensor to allow some other functions (you'd be surprised what kind of dynamics information can be gleaned by combined accelerations, yaw rates, and steering shaft torque). I'm going to be using the steering wheel position sensor to control an actuator that replaces one (might have to use two per unless I integrate with the autolevel system) of the headlight alignment screws. I'm sick of not having my lights look into corners as I do.