Drive with two hands.

[stomachmonkey]

In my 40+ years of driving i’ve driven almost exclusively manuals.

I have a definite left hand bias for steering input / control.

Yes i still drive with both hands on the wheel but do have a dominant hand.

Meaning i’m not imparting equal input, i switch dominant hand based on need.

I suspect a lot of people drive that way without realizing it.

The car tracks straight even with no hands on the wheel.

Doesn’t pull.

If you are driving down a long straight stretch do you steer the car with both hands the whole time to keep the car going straight or do you impart subtle input to correct any deviation?

I do the later, he seems to do the former and gets into an over correct loop because of a slight drop in resistance TDC.

It’s a small light car so has really light steering to begin with. A 911 it’s not.

[masraum]

Ditto, If I have only one hand on the wheel (tooling along on the Interstate in light traffic for instance) it's the left hand. These days, it's rarely on the top of the wheel. It's more likely to be with my arm on the arm rest and holding the side of the wheel somewhere between 8 and 9.

[red 928]

I always figured that "one hand at 12 o'clock air bag"
thing was a non-issue.

If I was going to hit something hard enough to set off
the airbag, I most certainly would recognize it and
move my hands to a more defensive position while
trying to avoid the collision.

If by chance I would not recognize the impending collision,
My being behind the wheel would be a greater concern than
my hand position on the wheel.

[Skytrooper]

Does he drive with his arms straight ? My wife used to drive like that and you could get seasick when she was driving. I taught her to get a little closer to the wheel so that her arms were comfortably bent at the elbows. Her driving smoothed out immediately. She noticed the difference immediately too.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red 928

I always figured that "one hand at 12 o'clock air bag"
thing was a non-issue.

If I was going to hit something hard enough to set off
the airbag, I most certainly would recognize it and
move my hands to a more defensive position while
trying to avoid the collision.

If by chance I would not recognize the impending collision,
My being behind the wheel would be a greater concern than
my hand position on the wheel.

I understand, but at the same time, accidents often don't happen to alert, defensive drivers unless they get momentarily distracted which can happen to anyone. No one plans to not pay attention and get in an accident.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Skytrooper

Does he drive with his arms straight ? My wife used to drive like that and you could get seasick when she was driving. I taught her to get a little closer to the wheel so that her arms were comfortably bent at the elbows. Her driving smoothed out immediately. She noticed the difference immediately too.

I don't think so. He know the wrist on top of steering wheel method for seating position but he could pull his shoulders back.

I'll have to watch for that.

[peppy]

My son is going to have a hard time driving with me in the car. He is starting drivers ed this fall.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by peppy

My son is going to have a hard time driving with me in the car. He is starting drivers ed this fall.

Fingers and Thumbs not palms??

Hands at 8 and 4 is probably not horrible for folks that aren't driving aggressively, especially since almost everything these days has power steering. But obviously, driving an older 911 w/o power steering, 8 and 4 would be bad.

[Por_sha911]

My wheel seems to encourage 10 - 2. What is this "air" "bag" you speak of?

[pwd72s]

My Mustang has thumb rests in the same position...

[911 Rod]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

My wheel seems to encourage 10 - 2. What is this "air" "bag" you speak of?

Looks like 9 and 3 to me. Most wheels are like this.

[cockerpunk]

looking at the wear on my steering wheels (ive worn out two now), looks like i grip harder with my left, but always 9/3 and 2 hands whenever not shifting.

you'd never see a race car driver drive a manual with one hand, and anywhere other 9/3. any other method is wrong, period.

[ted]

Originally Posted by p911dad

Suggest he pick a point further ahead to focus on. If one focuses too close you will have a tendency to constantly correct. Easier said than done, but you can catch it early.

Hurley Haywood was riding with customers and immediately he would ask some if they often drove in traffic?
He could tell because those drivers are trained to look mostly at the front of their own car instead far ahead where they want the car to go.
Eye control maybe your young driver is only looking directly in front of his car.
And he was nervous long trip driving with dad shotgun.

[GH85Carrera]

Every car I ever owned for the first 19 years of driving was a manual. I am 100% a right hand dominate person, except for steering.



On a road like this, which is NOT at all uncommon around here, I will rest just my left hand on the top side of the the bottom of the steering wheel and relax my right hand with the cruise control set to maintain speed. Minor corrections is all it takes to keep it between the lines. I am in the left lane only because I did just pass a truck to make a better photo.

In traffic, certainly it is two hands on the wheel except during a shift.

My last wreck was in 1978 when some dumb blonde decided she did not want to scrape the ice from her windshield, and she ran a stop sign at a 4 way stop, she could not see the stop sign because her windshield was frosted up. I would have sworn I saw her stopping or I would not have pulled into the intersection. Steering wheel hand position had nothing to do with it.

Now I see drivers swerving all over the place because they are texting and not driving. Again, just bad drivers and nothing to do with hand position, except their hands are on the damn phone and not the wheel.

On the track, yea, no doubt, both hands on the wheel, 10 and 3 or so.

[pwd72s]

Touch pad panels on dashes...absolutely hate them. I do believe they contribute to the accident rate.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Touch pad panels on dashes...absolutely hate them. I do believe they contribute to the accident rate.

I suspect they aren't contributing much more than stereos did back in the day. Plenty of folks used to look down at their stereos and fiddle with knobs and buttons while driving instead of paying attention to the road. The new infotainment centers may have caused an uptick, but I suspect it was relatively small, especially compared to cell phones.

Phones, absolutely, huge distraction.

[monoflo]

Give it time --bet his approach changes with experience.

[911 Rod]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Touch pad panels on dashes...absolutely hate them. I do believe they contribute to the accident rate.

I guess it is because I'm getting older, but when I look down at anything I have to be careful to stay between the lines.