Best Steering Wheel Hand Position

What is the most important part of driving a vehicle on the road, is it your tyres, your engine, the petrol you use, the make/model of your car?

No, the single most important aspect of driving a vehicle is YOU, the driver!

You can spend hundreds upon thousands of your hard earned dollars upgrading your car, with more power, better tyres, tinting, beefy exhaust and whilst some of these things can be a safety upgrade for your car, they do not come close to how important your driving skills are.

If you spent the same amount of time as you do sitting on the toilet in enhancing your driving skills, you could improve the safety, handling and longevity of yourself, your family and your car exponentially!

So join me on a quick journey to learn one interesting fact about how to improve your driving skills.

Yes, some of you may already know some of the tips I plan to let you know about over the coming weeks and months, but a refresher course never hurt anyone AND you might pick up a little tidbit you didn’t know about.

Right, first things first, you slip into the drivers seat and what is the first thing you do after starting the car?

Grab the steering wheel but are you doing it correctly?

Think about it, how you hold the steering wheel is absolutely critical to how you control the car, and there is no “cool” way to do this, there is a right way and a wrong way.

The right way is to take your left hand and lock it in on the thumb rest, take your right hand and lock it in on the other thumb rest, so your hands should be at 9 and 3 on the clock.

And don’t move them from there unless you really have to.

The reasons for this are quite simple, firstly it maintains your head in an upright and centred position, which is absolutely critical in maintaining special perception.

If you’re driving with one hand at 12 o’clock on the steering wheel, sure you look super cool, but as you turn into corners you will find that your head tilts into the corner as well, you really can’t perceive what is going on and that is going to be a liability in an emergency.

Secondly, with your hands at 9 and 3, you are indexed into the straight ahead position, which means that no matter how stressful the situation gets or how dire the emergency, you are ready to move to the right of the left in a confident, comfortable manner which ideally keeps you and your occupants as safe as can be.

Picture holding the steering wheel at 12 o’clock with only one hand as an emergency hits, and the funny thing about emergencies is that they don’t generally give you a heads up 5 minutes prior to say “hey, look out, trouble coming!”

With only one hand on the wheel you can lose control more easily and find yourself, your occupants and your car wrapped around the nearest tree.

The other compelling reason to put your hands at 9 and 3 is that your arms won’t get in the way of the airbag if it deploys during a crash and this is kind of important!

Again, if you drive with one hand at 12 o’clock and plenty of people do, in a crash your arm will spoil the deployment of the airbag and that’s kind of unfortunate as the airbags job is to spring into position and protect your brain.

Instead if you’re arm is at 12 o’clock, the airbag is going to blow your arm into your head at around 300km/h which I am sure you will agree, is far from optimal.

If your shoulder needs to leave the seat back when you are turning at or past 90 degrees, you are sitting too far away, bring your seat back closer to the steering wheel.

You should be able to sit your wrist on the top of the steering wheel with your shoulders resting comfortably against the seat back.

Get the hand placement right and everything flows from there. After a few weeks it feels like the most natural possible way to drive because, well, it is!

Once you get used to it, it’s actually more relaxing to drive with your hands at 9 and 3 than in any other positions.

For more information and a great job in explaining this better than I can, check out John Cadogan’s You tube channel.

His insightful, and at times “colourful” way of explaining things is not for everyone, but here at Brisbane Car Shed we love his views on all things cars!

BEWARE: John tells it exactly as it is, so if you are easily offended you may not enjoy his hard truths as John calls a spade a f%$#@ing shovel!

Remember if you’re looking for a new car or need to sell your current car, talk to me! Call Paul on 0411 362 229.