This driving tip is going to center around what may sound like a bit of a hot take. But, please, try and save your outrage and emails until you’ve read the whole thing, because, in my humble opinion, this summary is unassailable in its logic and relevance.
A question I hear a lot from driver…
"I have wide shoulders and kind of stumpy arms, so I’m not super comfortable going past about 150-degrees of rotation."
This is me. Add to that, in the Abomination I am as big as the driver's side of the car. With the seat back as far as the roll bar would allow, there wasn't room to move without elbows hitting something. I learned shuffle steering with that car and it stuck. Even with all the room the Mustang has, I still tend to shuffle steer on the tighter turns.
I think 9-3 is just a good starting point. In martial arts we used 3 stages- shu-ha-ri. Basically learning the establishing rules. Then when you have mastered the dogmatic approach, starting to experiment with variation. Then transcendence where you establish your own style that works for you. I see the cross over of the idea in a lot of stuff like this.
I think we start 9-3 to establish a habit of always griping the wheel the same way. Students will come in with all sorts of positions and lose track of where they are on the wheel. It establishes that good foundation. Next you mention variations on positioning in corners. Like you said, 150 degrees rotation works for you. Where you decide to change your position, etc. The last would be making your own thing, which probably would show up more between disciplines. Like my autocross handwork is very different than my track handwork. Or Pete Halsmer has is own style like you mentioned.
So I think learning 9-3 is important, but its just a stage in a journey that you'll eventually adapt as your own or perhaps come up with something completely new.
In reply to theruleslawyer :
I really like this approach, even for non-driving things.
On a less serious note, this read like something on a motivational poster or a t-shirt 
So I think learning 9-3 is important, but its just a stage in a journey that you'll eventually adapt as your own or perhaps come up with something completely new.
As an EVOC instructor, the lesson plans mandated shuffle steering. For street speeds, and tighter turns where lots of steering lock is needed, shuffle steering is a good technique that allows the driver to maintain control of the wheel. On track, I'm strictly 9-3, except for those rare tight and slow corners that require too much steering lock... then a quick shuffle to get through the corner and back to 9-3. I do think it's more difficult to use shuffle steering with a manual transmission or paddles that rotate with the wheel. As noted above, shuffle steering may be useful in a very tight cockpit.
In reply to theruleslawyer :
Yeah this sums it up nicely. Everyone is free to do their own thing but there's a reason the most common thing is the most common thing. Everyone can build their own house, but use the materials that have been perfected by years of development and regulation.
theruleslawyer said:I think 9-3 is just a good starting point. In martial arts we used 3 stages- shu-ha-ri. Basically learning the establishing rules. Then when you have mastered the dogmatic approach, starting to experiment with variation. Then transcendence where you establish your own style that works for you. I see the cross over of the idea in a lot of stuff like this.
I think we start 9-3 to establish a habit of always griping the wheel the same way. Students will come in with all sorts of positions and lose track of where they are on the wheel. It establishes that good foundation. Next you mention variations on positioning in corners. Like you said, 150 degrees rotation works for you. Where you decide to change your position, etc. The last would be making your own thing, which probably would show up more between disciplines. Like my autocross handwork is very different than my track handwork. Or Pete Halsmer has is own style like you mentioned.
So I think learning 9-3 is important, but its just a stage in a journey that you'll eventually adapt as your own or perhaps come up with something completely new.
By far the most important thing is for your hands to remain 180* apart. 9-3 is ideal and teaching that is the best way to establish the habit. But beyond that as long as you can keep track of where you are and keep 180* separation, the specific positioning doesn't really matter. One of the more common things I see when doing autocross instructing is that people will start with decent hand position and slowly shift through the run and end up with both hands at the top of the wheel by the end of the run.
Shouldn't matter as long as your brain can sense where straight ahead is, taking your hands off the wheel supposedly resets this.
The center stripe on some racing wheels helps with this.
When instructing folks in modern cars I discourage shuffle steering unless the person has some physical limitations (stumpy arms would be one)
It's not that it's necessarily bad; it's more of a case of new drivers who do this seem to make abrupt inputs.
As for me I shuffle steer when hustling a car down a gravel road but I try not to on road courses. I have to shuffle steer slightly in left hand corners due to an injury.
Should we also discuss how you unwind the wheel? Learned from our old friend Marc D. many moons ago: Instead of letting the wheel slip through your fingers, actually unwind the wheel so you’re always in control.
I remember 25 years ago I attended Skip Barber Racing School at Laguna Seca and they taught shuffle steering. They had us practice in a very difficult situation: A Dodge Ram pickup with bald rear tires and brake pulled on wet tarmac. The instructors could catch it, but I couldn't move my hands fast enough every time. I don't think anyone other than the instructors could manage it to do it fast and smooth enough in that situation. Very frustrating!
Nowadays racks are so much faster, it seems unneeded in most cases, except in the tightest autocross turns. And even still, I rode with a nationals level driver who crossed his arms over rather than shuffle steer, and he beat me by over a second. I'm no longer a believer except in certain situations.
My car has a humongous stock wheel and overboosted power steering so it is very easy to turn the wheel past 90° but the wheel is so big that my elbows hit me. So on tighter turns I will shuffle.
I'm embarrassed to say when the traffic clears up and I'm really feeling in the groove I've caught myself driving with only one palm on the wheel.
According to "Dandy" Dick Landy, put your left hand down at 6 o'clock to brace your arm, while you bang shift with your left at the drag strip. Otherwise, you wander all over the place like a drunk.
David S. Wallens said:Should we also discuss how you unwind the wheel? Learned from our old friend Marc D. many moons ago: Instead of letting the wheel slip through your fingers, actually unwind the wheel so you’re always in control.
I race a short wheelbase car and loose is fast; so I'm always unwinding the wheel faster then the car will.
3 cars, 3 different styles lol. 1957 MGA - shuffle...a lot. Even with a 15" steering wheel, you need LOTS of leverage to make quick and precise changes on 205-215 wide tires. E Street Miata - some shuffle, mainly fixed position. Never gets going quick enough to need drastic movements - it's a stock (ish) Miata with power steering, you could do autocross or track with a single hand on top of the wheel if you wanted to. XB 280hp supercharged Miata - fixed position. This thing can get away in a hurry, especially in the wet. Quickness is mandatory, don't move your hands otherwise you're liable to be facing the wrong direction.
In reply to buzzboy :
Two hours into a stint at Lemons, if the car was going straight, I would frequently have an elbow up on the window ledge, one hand on the wheel, and my helmet resting on the cage.
A properly done Lemons race is fairly boring in a slow car. It's not a sprint, the car won't take the abuse of a real race car, you are just out there making laps and staying out of trouble. After 40-50 laps it's pretty easy to get comfortable, look for traffic, mash the gas, and take a break until you get to the brake marker.
If you're at a track day, I'd say do what you want. But if you're at a race, autocross or time trial, jerky inputs change your friction circle, which means lost traction, which means lost time.
If someone had some data to compare, I think you'd be surprised at the spikes in g load with shuffle steering, compared to a more linear line with hands on the wheel.
In reply to racerfink :
The wheel doesn't jerk. It's one continuous motion, just not all with the same hand.
The Abomination was super unforgiving to jerky inputs. It would stomp the person who jerked the wheel or wasn't smooth with the throttle. That car taught me more about being smooth than any other vehicle I've owned.
I have been doing a bit of coaching for decades. I am basically a 3-9 guy and prefer that in students. I discourage what we call "happy hands", where they change position for every corner, often reaching up for more leverage with the hand that is on the inside of the corner. That particular move is usually brought about by years of sitting too far back from the wheel.
But, my argument is that we get massive amounts of information, from the wheel, on what the car is doing. Every time you move your hand from the wheel, that information thread is broken. Also, it takes a certain amount of brain power to keep moving your hands into new positions and they have better things than that to be thinking about.
Dirt roads and autocross are a different environment, but smoothness is ALWAYS good.
I've been mocked a couple times for shuffle steering.
Some people can keep their hands on the wheel in the same position, and make nearly every turn.
I cannot.
Heel and toe is much the same: my leg and ankle do not allow turning my foot the way that heel and toe is generally taught.
Help. Not sure what do.
nissantech89 said:
Help. Not sure what do.
You gotta grip those corners, man
I’ll let JG tell the story of a former Solo national champ known for wheeling the car with just one hand.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I remember in car many years ago from a Toyota Pro Celebrity race where Parnelli Jones (I think) was driving with one hand on the wheel and the other on the shifter.
David S. Wallens said:I’ll let JG tell the story of a former Solo national champ known for wheeling the car with just one hand.
Oh yeah. Jeff Altenburg was a truly gifted one-hand driver. It even carried over to his road racing when he started running showroom stock cars. At one point he did one of the big formula car talent finder schools that was profiled in Car and Driver and there was a sentence about the instructors yelling at a student who was driving one handed and everyone that read it immediately knew "oh yeah that was definitely Jeff." When he later started running World Challenge with Mazda he finally started breaking the habit, but he was definitely one of the guys that proved there was more than one way to make a car go fast.
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