[siragan]

Is there a "right" way to turn the wheel when you make a turn (as in placement of hands, etc)

Thank yoo.

 

[nukewater]

yeap... first off.. open your hand totally, then place palm of hand comfertably on steering wheel, and crank away.. works best with well worn steeringwheel.

 

[Pimp_scort_89_GT]

3 and 9. Always 3 and 9. Unless your doing a 180, then 12 and 6.

Also swing wide before you go into the turn, get as close to the inside when you are in the middle of the turn, then swing wide again on your way out. This make the turn not as sharp so you can take it a bit faster, for one, and it makes it harder for anyone to pass if you use the whole turn.

 

[Zeemax]

The VA DMV recommends hands at the 3 and 9 positions. But I don´t see anybody driving like that except little old ladies with chins up on the steering wheel. In that position your hands are likely fight each other causing side to side movement (sorry, WEAVING). I drive with one hand between 10 and 11 and the other either on the shifter or at 3.

 

[James92Scort]

i drive with my left at either 6 or 9 and the other one usually sits on my shifter, unless i´m cruising in 3rd gear, then i can´t really comfortably reach my shifter, thats when i usually put that hand at 4 or 5. I don´t like to drive with both hands because of the weaving part. my car is mis aligned and weaves to the right anyway, so i just keep it pulled to the left.

 

[Pimp_scort_89_GT]

OK guys. Maybe you misunderstood the Always 3 and 9 part. The question was about steering right. I guess the answer should have said always 3 and 9 when you are steering. I don´t always drive 3 and 9 myself, but when I´m setting up for a hard fast turn, 3 and nine will give you the most control. Also should you have a front tire failure (esspecially in a turn) 3 and 9 will allow you to keep control better than if you only had one hand resting on the top of the wheel. I totally disagree with the comment about weaving and your hands fighting each other though. If you have you hands at 3 and 9 on a stright road, and they are resting on the steering wheel in a relaxed manner, the should balance each other out as opposed to fighting each other. If they did fight each other then I don´t think the top fuel dragsters would have their steering wheels set up to where where they can only hold on at 3 and 9. Doing a 5 sec quarter mile with your hands "fighting each other" donsn´t sound to saf to me. Also guys, a little note about ressting your hand on the shifter. Think of your steering wheel as a lever, and the center is the fulcrum (uh oh, Geometry). If you have more weight on one side, that side will want to go down. If you equal weight on both sides, then the lever will stay even. Although it may feel comfortable and look cool, resting your hand on the shifter actually wears out the bushings in the shifter housing a lot quicker, causing your shifter to get sloppy. And sloppy shifters really suck. My suggestion is if you have a center arm rest use it instead. I tend to either rest my hand on right leg with my elbow on the arm rest, or drape my wrist over the end of the rest just behind the shifter.

 

[Zeemax]

I wish the 2nd gen GT´s came with armrests.

 

[James92Scort]

resting your hand on the shifter doesn´t do anything, my shifter already sucks so why should i care? besides i don´t have a center console. Like i said, my car pulls to the right no matter how many hands I have on the wheel. So keeping equal balance on the wheel doesn´t apply to me.

 

[siragan]

Hey my shifter sucks too- join the club. It´s wicked smooth and fast, but there´s a TON of play when you´re in gear. In first, you can move the knob of the shifter from side to side a good 4 inches or so... it´s sloppy, but I know the feeling of it so I don´t mind.

Okay, here´s a sceneario...
I´m roasting a viper in my 95 LX waggy (as normal), and I´m about to take a hairpin left turn. Assuming I don´t have to take my hands off the wheel to shift, what would be the sequence of events for the turn? I´m currently thinking:

1.Pull up to the turn with a normal 10-2 setup (what I use 95% of the time) and then switch to a 9-3 setup.
2.Turn comes, then I move my left hand from 9 to about 1 and pull downwards to make the turn, my right hand loose and letting the wheel slide...

My left hand bottoms out at around 8 o´clock and now I´m screwed because I´m not all the way through the turn. Should I:

a)Brace the wheel with my right, RE-TAKE the wheel with my left, and continue rolling the wheel left, or...
b)Begin PUSHING UPWARDS with my right?

Answer me that and I´ll die a happy man.

 

[James92Scort]

keep pushing down with your left and retake the wheel with your right at 2, then put your left back at 10. then when the exit comes, let the car straighten on it´s own. but by that time the guy with the 80000 dollar viper is already so far behind you, it doesn´t matter what you do.

 

[Pimp_scort_89_GT]

Some people just get a kick of making a mountain out of a mole hill. First off you should be in the gear you are going to take the turn at before you enter the turn, there by allowing both hands to be on the wheel. Also, I don´t know what crazy ass corners you are taking where you have to turn the wheel so far that you have to readjust your hands from 3 and 9. Even a sharp 90 degree turn, or a 270 degree clover leaf interchange the most you will turn your hands from 9-3 to 12-6

 

[Mibz]

I dunno bout you Americans, but here in Canada we have a thing called a curb. Now when you´re making a right turn in a residential area that curb thing makes it so you have turn the wheel at least 3/4. Unless of course you wanna go out into oncoming traffic for a few seconds. Parking lots require 1.25 turns all the time. There´s always gonna be a situation where you need to remove one of your hands from the wheel so that argument is invalid.

As for what to do in those situations, it really matters on what you´re doing. If I´m gonna be shifting in the near future then I´ll usually palm the wheel. If not then it´s hand over hand. Dunno why hand over hand hasn´t come up yet. It´s what I learned in driving school, it´s the reason wheel covers have 3 grips.

Like I said though, it could just be some Canadian thing

 

[James92Scort]

we weren´t talking about turning at 90 mph in parking lots and residential areas. he was talking about a hair pin curve on a roadway trying to roast the Viper. geez stay on the hypothetical subject here.

 

[siragan]

woot!
So when I let the car level out on its own, do I just let the wheel spin freely while I loosely grip the wheel at 10-2?

And what´s the best way to strut your stuff when you roast the viper with your wagon?

 

[siragan]

and yeah I´m talking hypothetically. I haven´t autocrossed yet, and I don´t plan on doing any anytime soon, but if I ever do, I want to know the "right way" to make a turn successfully. Even just roaring through town, I sometimes find myself with my hands binded up at the bottom of the wheel, and I knew something was wrong. So I came here to rectify the problem. And I eat vipers for breakfast, by the way

 

[Diane]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%>[TR][TD]Quote:

[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]

On 2002-10-31 07:40, Zeemax wrote:
The VA DMV recommends hands at the 3 and 9 positions. But I don´t see anybody driving like that except little old ladies with chins up on the steering wheel. In that position your hands are likely fight each other causing side to side movement (sorry, WEAVING). I drive with one hand between 10 and 11 and the other either on the shifter or at 3.

[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]

[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]

Zeemax, I´d love to meet up with you someday to *show* you why you should keep your hands there. It was graphically proven to me the first time I went on the track. I´ve showed it to others along the years and it never fails to impress people. It works best if you have one large and one small person (especially if you assume large = strong and small = weak).

In a nutshell, you not only have more control over the car if your hands are at 9 and 3. Plus if for some reason you have to do a full lock in an emergency situation, you can more easily do so while not having to move your hands.

Diane

 

[Type_R]

10-2, 9-3 I just add em up!! One hand, 12!

 

[egtdude]

So here is my take as an ex-autocrosser hehe. I need to get back into it.

NEVER cross arms when turning. It seems like it could be quicker for some turns but trust me with some practise its not. Also if your taking a turn at the limits of grip letting "the car straighten on it´s own" could be really bad. Always keep firm control. If you start to slide a little its fairly easy to fix. if you are just letting the car "go" and you slide forget bout it! you can clamp back down on the wheel but again your at the limits of traction in theory. So now the car has a sudden change in weight because you gripped the wheel all the sudden. It is probably going to make the spin much worse. Racing/traction is all about smooth weight transition. Upsetting the weight of the car to fast give you less grip to use. The smoother you are the faster you are.

I´d suggest This book to anyone who drives. this one is also very good.

I´m not sure about the argument of 10-2 VS 9-3. I saw an article about reaction times being quicker using 9-3 but I´m not sure how much fact there is in that. What you will need to do is autocross for a while and see what works best for you. There really is no universal.

 

[egtdude]

I forgot to mention that you should not cross your arms when repositioning your hand as well. It gives you less room to change directions on the wheel. Keep your hands moving so that they never cross and keep a firm (but not a death) grip and you should be just fine.

 

[93SuperScort]

Keep your back pillow 90Griz. Your hands should form angle about 50digriz. If you are too tall to have your back pillow 90griz. Get a MX3 seats. 3/9 of cuz. Both hands on the stearing.