A technique question for the group,

[curious]

Funny, but the very first thread I started on this forum was intended to solicit feedback from other instructors on this exact question. In the end, my take-away from that discussion was, "everyone's got an opinion and many of those opinions are pretty strongly held, even when there's no consensus."

My two cents (we can talk about this more tomorrow), is that (i) unless your arms get crossed up, keep your hands at 9 and 3 but (ii) if you've got to add more input then you should do whatever works for you.

On the track, I shuffle steer (by pre-positioning my hands going into the corner), and I've never bought into the argument that by moving my hands, I somehow won't know where "straight" is. But others swear that's a problem. For autoX, I'll go hand-over-hand, but that's because autoX often demands huge amounts of steering input, and it's just easier when you're doing a very tight turn.

My two cents. Other opinions may vary.
Curious

[sbarton]

I used to shuffle steer. This came from my autocrossing experience. I did it for a few years of DE. About a year or 2 ago I made an effort to stop shuffle steering and use the 9 and 3 approach.

Having done both, I now feel that the 9 and 3 approach is much better for track work. I have improved so much since I switched. YMMV.

-Scott

[PAracer]

Seat positioned at 9 and 2. Left arm hanging from the top of the wheel. Right hand on the shifter. Racing is mostly about style and looking good anyways.

I'm pretty comfortable with my shuffle steering. I'm not a very big guy, so crossing my arms would get a bit tiring after a couple days.

[Stack]

Originally Posted by PAracer

Seat positioned at 9 and 2. Left arm hanging from the top of the wheel. Right hand on the shifter. Racing is mostly about style and looking good anyways.

I'm pretty comfortable with my shuffle steering. I'm not a very big guy, so crossing my arms would get a bit tiring after a couple days.

Nice

My favorite is the 11 & 1 hand position... its all about leverage I guess

[curious]

How about the suburban-mom approach of having both hands on the right-hand side of the wheel at 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock. It works well because minivans only turn left...

[steveh]

I recently attended a BMWCCA event on a fairly tight track where (1) classroom instructor taught "shuffle" (and the dangers of crossing arms); (2) first-day instructor taught "pre-position"; (3) different, second-day instructor taught "set the wheel, steer with your right foot"; and (4) check-out ride instructor's only criticism was that I shuffled in the tight turns (he favored the 9 and 3, don't let go of the wheel approach).

Personally, I'm most comfortable with (3) in most instances, and only shuffle steer in the tighter turns, where more than 11 and 5 is needed (per my Skippy instructor, hands meet at 12:00, not at the bottom of the wheel). As this thread and the earlier one show, you can have almost as many opinions on the subject as there are people.

Great discussions, thoughtful answers -- should we move on to world peace next?

[Warpedcow]

Originally Posted by steveh

should we move on to world peace next?

Okay...

[Stack]

Originally Posted by steveh

Great discussions, thoughtful answers -- should we move on to world peace next?

How about this: http://www.trackpedia.com/forums/sho...2947#post32947

[FM #13]

Some of us use these and don't have a choice. But even before I had one of these, I still was taught and believed that shuffle was only to be used where absolutely necessary. OK, back to the garage..........