[alfa] Re: row over steering ...

[<mick164@xxxxxxxxxx>]

..i teach some driving here in Ireland, and learner drivers are strongly discouraged from crossing their hands while steering. If you have a look at Roadcraft, the hugely respected British Police Driving Manual, two main methods are discussed: 

The first is referred to as pull-push steering. In this method both hands are always parallel and never cross. You always start with a pull.  To turn left for instance, you start by pulling the wheel down with your left hand while simultaneously sliding the right hand down to meet it. If you need more lock you then push up with your right hand while sliding the left hand up to meet it at the top again. This is a great technique for 90% of street driving, but it does take some skill. Big hand movements help. If a driver cant keep-up with the wheel it usually means theyre driving too fast for the situation, a result of bad planning. Its nice watching a highly trained police driver do it well on those tv chase shows..

The other main method is rotational steering, the hand-over-hand method. Again while turning left, at some point a driver will lift the left hand off the wheel and cross it over the right hand to grab the wheel again and keep turning. Its felt around here that learner drivers can get themselves into trouble with this.. Ive seen situations where drivers have let the wheel slip at a critical moment in a tight turn while their hands are crossed.

On a race track, and with very low geared steering, simply keeping the hands planted at 3 and 9 can work quite well, but on the road youll find yourself running out of options very quickly with this method.

I think the consensus is to use the pull-push method as your default technique, and supplement it with other methods as the situation demands.

Sorry about the lack of alfa content..!

Mike m
91 164 tspark
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