First of all, a steering rack is less than $200, and not that hard to install.  How do you get to $1K ?

Also, left or right hand drive?

90% of the time a vibration in the wheel comes down to wheel balance....

First of all, I couldn't find a search function for articles or threads regarding the steering rack, so forgive me if this has already been discussed.  My Mini has been in the shop while I've been out of the country so that routine maintenance and a few other things could be addressed.  One item I wanted checked was a vibration at about 2100 rpm.  Long story short, my mechanic (British classics only) feels that I should replace the steering rack.  I discussed this with him last year, but at that time he recommended that I replace the ball joints and a few other things in the front end and see what did for the steering issues.  It helped, but in the past several months, after I started driving it again (I had major surgery and was out of the car for about 4 months), I noticed this vibration.

So, without much to go on, what is your opinion?  We're talking over $1000, so it's not something I want to do if it doesn't improve steering.  And I don't really understand how it could make it vibrate at a specific rpm.  That would seem to be an engine-related issue.  Or is it just that at that rpm I'm cruising at a speed that makes it apparent?