ok, let the grand experiment begin. was feeling some bump steer with my new suspension setup so have some tie rods from Pelican on the way to sort it out. took the opportunity to find an inexpensive boxster steering rack on ebay and had it shipped direct to the fellow below:
944 Manual Rack | THE MACHINE SHOP
the conversion to manual is under way (ps fluid lines plugged, grease nipples added, torque rod shimmed) and i'll have the whole bit installed this spring. as I am not running AC, I have a ps delete pulley on order from gsr:
GSR Power Steering Pump Delete - Porsche 911, Boxster
should clean up the engine bay nicely (also have the sai deleted) and reduce parasitic load (hp will now come from my arms). uncertain what the driving experience will be like, but feedback I've gathered from the few who are running manual racks is that it is no biggie (while I do have wider front tires than stock, my car is also lighter).
will report back once it's in and I've had the car to the track.