Well, it turns out I've been playing Dirt Rally with the wrong default steering linearity settings of 0 for the past two freakin years!!!

Today I was experimenting with setup and thought I'd try setting steering linearity to -12. I had to then increase the sensitivity by reducing steering range as the steering range had then became too large but once that was done the game has suddenly come alive!

I now have far, far better precision, steering resolution, better FFB, the cars now handle exactly as they should, you can now throw them about showboating in full control.
It feels almost like a real rally sim now and the 205 T16 has gone from being a total animal that was very difficult to drive to being the best car in the game. Cant believe it!

So.... if you havent been running it on -12 for steering linearity you owe it to yourself to try it. You will thank me later..

Enjoy...