Gadgetory

now I'm guessing you were taught to drive with your hands at ten and two it's been driving schools dictum for decades kind of what I'm doing here you got this big leverage at the top of the wheel and one of the things that was good about 10 and 2 is it gave you this big kind of cranking force up here like you're sawing away at the wheel of a ship but that was then starting in the 80s cars began to come with power steering almost universally and that changes a lot of things about how you address the wheel if anything steering in the 80s didn't really matter where you put your hands starting then you could operate the car steering with the least effort you could drape your wrist over the top you can steer it down here with one finger the classic kind of big American car thing and people really got sloppy about where they put their hands too many of them just do this starting in the 90s its power steering evolves it's not so numb and dumbs variable-ratio that means it requires a different number of turns to navigate the lanes at speed than when you're parking for example the steering movement from lock to lock is much smaller this reduces accordingly the steering effort required during the entire parking maneuvers but the big change is in the 90s we start to get air bags and they show up everywhere in the car eventually but the one that we're concerned about is this guy this high explosive staring you square in the face all the time this demands a new discipline of how you hold the wheel if this airbag goes off while you're up here in the traditional 10 and to a whole list of bad things can happen including slamming these bony arms and hands of yours into your eyes nose and face degloving the flesh and muscles on your hands and arms don't even ask and burns from your hands and arms being in this area and perhaps trapped while this solid rocket propellant basically deploys this bag in 30 milliseconds let's get out of here so 9 + 3 or better 8 + 4 is where you want to run your hands on a modern high-tech car and notice most car makers prompt you to put your hands there with the wheel design and look at race footage you'll find most race and rally drivers keep their hands here as well for the best fine motor control and so they never obstruct the gauges as they work the wheel and finally with today's power assist systems which are often variable you almost never have to turn the steering wheel more than about 3/4 of a revolution if you do however get in the habit of shuttling the wheel between your hands still in that virtual position not riding them up and down like this or even worse grouping them and doing this nonsense that leads to really clumsy steering dynamics and again your hands are in a dangerous place and of course it goes without saying that 9 + 3 or 8 4 keep your hands in position to use the steering wheel buttons and paddle shifters that are so common on cars today compared to 10 + 2 which puts your hands in a completely different zip code