I wanted to post some pictures of how I got around the slop issue for the steering, and as Marv suggested the original sprint 1 (hpi 86005)
http://www.hpiracing.com/en/part/86005 had a far superior central brace. I used this in conjunction with the RS4 steering set..
http://www.asiatees.com/display.php?...4%203&id=44107
The ackerman is the exact same length as the rs4 part and feels solid rather than the stock ballends. I have done a very similar mod using the plastic steering arms and a mod using only the rs4 parts, as the sprint1 parts are difficult to find. I will post more pics later of both.