With rubber tires I wouldn't see any reason at all to cut parts to get more steering throw. But with a 28mm foam on front, the tire hits the spring cup pretty easily. Tonight I'm going to try some Yokomo wheel hexes to hopefully widen the car enough to fix this. The way it is right now, my turning circle is about 6 feet diameter (that's ok though, my setup has plenty of steering... it's just a bitch trying to get out of trouble). Any more D/R and the rims hit the spring cups.
As for the shock collars, I put a set of the Trinity aluminum ones on when I built the car, but when I used to have a xxxt I used the plastic collars. Over time they do loosen up quite a bit.