Thumbs

[Kiwi XTR2]

So, what's the form ?

Thumbs In or Thumbs Out ?

[GravelBen]

generally thumbs along the rim unless i'm being lazy. was taught by my old man to never have thumbs wrapped around the wheel when driving off road or playing on gravel, as the wheel can whip round and break your thumb. guess it kinda stuck.

actually thinking about it I probably do wrap my right thumb around it fairly often, to help hold the wheel steadier while changing gear with the left. or something.





or have I completely missed the point?

[Kiwi XTR2]

Yep, that's what I was taught as a boy.

Years ago when hooning around on gravel it was quite obvious what could happen if you dropped a wheel in a water-table.
But for urban driving . . . is it an issue ?
Or on the track, bashing ripple-strips ?

[Lion Red Mode=On]
Do you ever steer with your left knee to get a better grip on your air-guitar ?
[Lion Red Mode=Off]

[robdickinson]

Offroad thumbs out...

typicaly along the wheel.

[kylie]

You got me thinking what the heck do I do? So just for you Graham I went down stairs and sat in the green German and held the wheel. I think to be fair the sneaky thumbs tend to almost wrap around the wheel at 10 to 2. For long trips the hands drop down to 1/4 to 3 I remember from my last track outing in the Loti, I suffered severe white knuckle syndrome in another words holding on for dear life I have a feeling bad practice was also used Was never taught about the thumb rule. Guess it had something to do with assuming I was going to be an urban driver only

[Esprit]

Thumbs along to in..... depends on the car and the form of the wheel, but generally, the thumbs aren't fully in, more diagonally along, tending inwards.... if that makes any sense at all.

[Kiwi XTR2]

The only experience I've ever had of having the steering wheel ripped out of my hands (almost breaking a thumb) was on a sealed road.

One saturday morning, about 6 months after I got my first car (180B), I had 4 'new' retreads fitted. Later that afternoon, on the way home from beating the Whenuapai Air Force hockey team . . . BANG . . .

Steering wheel wrenched out of my hands, car uncontrollably veered across the oncoming lane and into a gravel stockpile just short of a narrow bridge.

The RH front 'new' retread had completely delaminated, wrapped itself around the stub axle and . . .

The tyre company 'offered' to replace the retread. After a brief discussion they modified their offer to 4 new tyres, fitted, with me just paying for the alignment.

[slinky]

OK, I know I'm not from NZ... but thumbs OUT!

Was racing 8 months ago and the thumb on my right hand still hurts..

OUT I tell you.. OUT!



slinky
587racing.com

[GravelBen]

Kiwi XTR2 said:

But for urban driving . . . is it an issue ? Or on the track, bashing ripple-strips ?

urban driving, depends if you're planning on hitting kerbs at high speed often round corners in town I just tend to palm-steer, habit formed from driving work vans with stupidly slow steering racks and long wheelbases.

power steering might make thumb position less of an issue as less force is carried from the front wheels to the steering wheel I guess. (unfortunately also less feel generally)

on track, well I've never tried it so don't know how rough ripple-strips feel, but if you keep it on the black stuff (or only go off onto smooth grass ) and aren't playing drifty-games then it shouldn't make much difference. of course, its the unexpected incidents that are gonna catch you out anyway...

[speedy_thrills]

Kiwi XTR2 said:

So, what's the form ? Thumbs In or Thumbs Out ?

I’m a thumbs out chap, it probably allows you to shuffle along the wheel faster as well.

The one which I hate is people driving with their palm on the wheel to turn the car!