Left hand on the 12 - why?
 

So why do most people drive with their left hand at the 12:00 position on the steering wheel? Is it really that comfortable? Do people realize how easy it is to over correct or have less control of their vehicle when their left hand is in that driving position? My favorite is when teenagers do it and drape their wrists over the wheel, so they are not even holding on to the steering wheel.

Normally, I would just keep my comments to myself, but today I passed a really nice Black Cayman S on the highway, and he was in the position.... My first thought was, he obviously bought his Porsche for the wrong reasons.

6:00 would be too close to the peepee, and might remind that silly Porsche driver about his small peepee.

[QUOTE=lilacRS;3524208].. drape their wrists over the wheel, so they are not even holding on to the steering wheel. ..QUOTE]


Thats how I drive, the right hand is sometimes busy...

Gangsta style, that's how we roll.

long stretch of road, no one around for miles...mind starts to wonder...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192056023.jpg


Thank goodness for kleenex and loose fitting shorts...

Damn, you beat me to it!

I think that AAA has finally changed its decades old advice from driving with your hands at "10 and 2" to ...I think "9 and 3" due to the potential for interfering with a deploying airbag.

Speaking of that, I had a VERY close call last week. Stopped at a four way stop sign in a residential neighborhood and proceeded across. I didn't know it, but the person in the car behind "rolled with me" instead of making their own stop-and-look. They got absolutely CREAMED broadside by a car cresting the hill on the cross street. I had my windows rolled up and could still hear both the airbags deploy! The collision drove the hittee up onto the lawn of one of the houses, spun the other car and NEARLY swiped my rear and I was out of the intersection. I had never stopped to think how loud those bags are. Driver shaken but okay. Passenger didn't get out, ambulance took her. She was the meat in the sandwich of the T-Bone! :eek:

Detroit Lean, of course.

In most vehicles the steering is so light and over boosted and the steering feedback non-existant, that driving with one hand is pretty easy. I used to drive with the left hand at 11 or 12 most of the time (cruising in a straight line) in my pre-sportscar cars. Even then it used to seem odd to me at the folks that drove with the right hand at 12 and the left arm dangling out the window like. It's like that left arm was made of stinky cheese, or maybe they had helped birth a cow earlier, and didn't want to be sharing space with that arm.

Years ago when I was interested but clueless I picked this video up at my local Blockbuster.
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...SL._AA280_.jpg
That video stressed driving with both hands.

It wasn't really until I bought my 911 that I had to drive with both hands. Now it's pretty much habit, and I do notice how much more control that I have with two, but convincing your avg numbnut that control is better than looking cool and convincing them that they have more control with both hands is just not going to happen.

Still, driving with one hand at 12 is better than driving with your knees or with a couple of fingers at 6 or with your hands on the spokes as if you were riding a bicycle.

PS I actually did learn a few things from the video, but then at the time, I was clueless, so that really isn't saying much.

The Porsche 911 will teach you better driving techniques. One of the first ones you will learn is to keep two, or at all times at least one full hand on the steering wheel.

Yep, there's no high speed cornering in a pre-'89 911 with a good alignment and grippy tires with only one hand on the wheel.

How about the clowna$$es that have one hand at 12 and are leaning over so far to the right that they should just sit on the passenger's side?

or the guy that has his seat reclined so far back that he could sit in the back seat?


pffft dorks


Oh wait, that's right, they are much cooler than everyone else.

It's to counteract the imbalance of their flat-billed hat that is cocked severely to the left (represent'n the suburbs, yo).

As a DE instructor, you can't imagine how many newbie track drivers think that the left hand at 12 o'clock and the right hand resting on the shifter is the ideal driving position. It is one of the more difficult habits to break.

-Z

I drive with the window down, my left arm resting on the door, left hand holding the wheel at 9 and my right on the shifter. Except on the track, when I steady myself by holding on to the left a-pillar, steering with my knees, and shifting with my right.

knees, while lighting up a cigar, talking on the telephone and putting mascara on

who was that guy in the 83 SC :)