[alfa] Shuffle Steer v Overhand steer, a rant

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Man it makes me mad to think what idiots we have in charge of testing our 
new drivers. Overhand steering was developed to accommodate those 
ridiculously heavy vehicles the Americans called sedans in the 1950s with 
no power steering (speed knobs anyone?) and it is unbelievable that anyone 
still uses this potentially dangerous method.

I recall quite vividly a "test" drive I participated in, 1978, when an 
Italian car salesman was trying to sell me a Lancia Beta Coupe. I really 
wanted the HPE but the Coupe was on demo. The salesman (the dealership 
owner actually) took my wife and I for an eye opening ride. He was also an 
amateur race driver.

The reason Italian cars have their steering wheels tilted with the top of 
the wheel some distance from the driver is it is totally unnecessary to be 
able to reach the top of the wheel if you know how to drive Italian style. 
Frank drove with both heels off the floor of the car, plying all three 
pedals as required, all the while calmly shuffling the steering wheel back 
and forth with his hands never rising above the 8:20 position on the wheel. 
His arms certainly never crossed, though that also is an acceptable way to 
finish turning in (watch those Victory by Design DVD's and see how De 
Cadenet handles the various steering wheels, shuffle shuffle, with one 
crossed-arm movement at the end of the turn only if he is making  a big 
wheel movement). The test drive was exceptionally fast and exceptionally 
smooth, with the car perfectly place and in complete control even when 
sliding. What a blast.

Note how the turn signal and wiper stalks on the Alfa 164 are perfectly 
positioned to operate with your hands at 8:20 on the wheel and a trifle 
awkward with your hands at 9:15. if you are a ten to two aficionado 
(actually 2:10) then you cannot reach the stalks with your fingertips. 
Italians tend to drive with both hands near the bottom of the wheel and do 
not cross their arms, except as De Cadenet demonstrates). My father taught 
me NEVER to cross my arms on the steering wheel. Why? Because if you have 
to quickly reverse the direction of the wheel (that would be due to 
oversteer, an unexpected skid, or an unforeseen need to change direction) 
you are hooped with your arms crossed except if you have already turned as 
far as you need to and are only unwinding the wheel with no possibility of 
requiring much re-reversing of direction.

So I taught all my three daughters to steer using the shuffle method, and 
also the overhand method to pass their driver's test. In fact, I taught 
them quite  few dumb things to enable them to pass their test with strict 
instructions to go back to the proper, unacceptable methods after they got 
their license. Unfortunately, my youngest will need to re learn dumb and 
potentially dangerous techniques to re-pass her test again when she turns 
18 as we now have a graduated licensing program in Alberta requiring young 
drivers to pass the test twice. Of course we still do not have any proper 
driving instruction or testing but we now test the drivers twice (sigh).

IMHO, shuffle steering is much safer than the overhand method. Proper 
shuffle steering involves always having one hand fixed on the wheel while 
the other moves to a new position, the hands are always in the same 
relative position on the wheel so you never get confused about hand 
position, you can reverse direction of the wheel with the same arm leverage 
at any time and reverse again as quickly as you wish. When in an emergency 
or driving on the limit you need to be able to move the wheel back and 
forth repeatedly and precisely to balance the car and ensure you get it 
placed where you need it. This is very difficult to do using the overhand 
method. One exception is where you are sure you have applied nearly as much 
lock as you will need and will only need to unwind the wheel in which case 
it is good practice, though optional, to continue applying lock with hands 
fixed in position and crossing your arms. It is acceptable to cross your 
arms a long way if you are completely confident that you will only need to 
unwind the wheel. Until that point shuffle works best. Besides, I do not 
consider the crossed arm position to be overhand steering, it is just 
easier to control the last bit of a sharp turn in that fashion, especially 
on the limit.

The shuffle method works regardless of the preferred position for holding 
the wheel. I'm a 9:15 man myself except when driving an Italian car when my 
hands automatically drop to 8:20. I shuffle the wheel moving one hand at a 
time until the turn in is nearly complete, then I fix my hands and continue 
the turn of the wheel  winding on or off additional or less lock as 
required up to a complete crossed arm position.

Finally, in case anyone wonders how often I drive at the limit I remind 
everyone I live in Canada. We have 6 months of winter where I live and we 
also have lots of year round gravel roads as well as gravel and sand on our 
paved roads in winter. The shuffle method allows me to drive with perfect 
safety at and beyond the limit frequently when traction is highly 
questionable, not to say variable and unpredictable. It's the only way to 
steer on bad roads, watch those WRC guys do it.

Cheers



Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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