Thanks Tony.
Yesterday I raced at Brands for the first time without the power steering. The car felt good - heavy on the arms a little bit but the steering felt very direct. I prefer the car without power although the difference isn't massive. It's very heavy at standstill (obviously) but as soon as it's moving it feels fine.
Never had a cracked pipe but I split the pump to rack hose in a small shunt earlier in the year and since then have been leaning towards simplicity - less to go wrong, less weight, less to worry about. So now I've removed the pump, bottle, bracket and all pipes.
Charlie