Racing Schools - Driving Tips - Steering

Driving Tips - Steering

The ability to steer a car with absolute precision for long periods of time at extremely high speed is absolutely critical to a race car driver's success. Of course, every driver knows how to steer, but the race car's steering is extremely sensitive -- less than a quarter turn of the wheel will make the race car turn as tightly as it can. It connects the driver's body directly with the ground -- few race cars have power steering. The race driver steers under high-g stresses, often for hours at a time.

Every race car driver knows the importance of hand position on the wheel and body position relative to the steering wheel. All too often, these basics are ignored by the passenger car driver, yet they're every bit as important, for safety, efficiency, comfort and reduction of fatigue.

Seat or body position first, the most overlooked factor in steering: short people, in particular, tend to sit close to the steering wheel in order to reach the car's pedals. This puts their forearms in a plane parallel to the wheel. It's impossible to steer accurately and smoothly this way. Further, given the way most passenger car restraint systems work, it's extremely dangerous. The arms should be comfortably extended to the steering wheel, with both upper arms and forearms at about a 45-degree angle, with the elbows bent at about 90 degrees.

The driver should be close enough to the wheel to reach any place on the wheel with either hand and without lifting back or shoulder blades off the seat, but no closer. If you have to get closer than that to your steering wheel in order to reach the car's pedals, you should consider getting extensions for the pedals. Held into your seat by your seat belts, you have no reason to hang onto the wheel for support or to grip it tightly, both of which will wear you out and cause you to over-steer the car.

The classic, standard hand position on your wheel is to put your hands at 10 and 2 o'clock. That old standard derives from a steering technique called "hand-over-hand" in which, in a large turn, the arms nearly cross and the driver releases and regrips the steering wheel if necessary. Since virtually all movement of the wheel is accomplished by the downward-pulling hand, the 10-2 position, which puts the palms downward, uses some of the arms' smaller muscles for steering.

A better steering technique is called "shuffle steering." In this method, the pulling hand and arm move the wheel while the other hand loosens its grip slightly to let the wheel slide through. If necessary in a large turn, hands can shuffle and steer alternately. The driver's hands, when not turning, are farther down, at 9 and 3 o'clock on the wheel. With palms turned more inward in this position, the driver uses larger arm muscles. This gives better control and produces less fatigue. The hands are always on the wheel, and the hand that's "shuffling" is ready to regrip the wheel to turn in the opposite direction instantly. Recent studies of airbag safety and internal injuries have indicated that perhaps the 8 and 4 o'clock hand positions are even better.

This 9-3 or 8-4 hand position also decreases the likelihood that the driver will over-steer the car. All unnecessary steering wheel movement should be eliminated from your driving, in the interests of efficiency, comfort and tire wear. Far too many drivers make tiny and unnecessary corrections to their car's direction constantly. They saw at the wheel, however slightly. Looking well ahead of the car, as we discussed in our first article, will help eliminate this.

Highway engineers are paid large sums of money to design highways and freeway ramps. There's a consistency in their designs which has implications for your steering. Virtually all highway corners are constant radius turns. That means that you can establish your car's turn to match the highway's radius and leave the wheel unmoving through the turn. There's no need, in fact it's dangerous and uncomfortable, to constantly steer back and forth through a modern highway turn.

Freeway on- and off-ramps, on the other hand, are almost always decreasing radius turns. That means that they get tighter as you go along them, but they do so at a constant rate until they start to straighten out. Steering through one of these highway devices entails slowly turning the steering wheel throughout the ramp's length, matching the car's turning radius to that of the ramp. This can be done steadily and dependably. There's no reason to be surprised or have to make a sudden turn as you exit or enter a freeway. A look at the outer guard rails on most ramps will tell you that too many drivers aren't looking ahead and aren't turning steadily.