<VV> Re: Hands at 10 & 2 no longer recomended

[Frank DuVal]

C. Nicol said (out of context):

>Hands at 10 and 2, no glasses, seat upright, belt tight and low, and a single 
>frontal impact. 
>  
>

You must be as old as me or maybe 20 years younger. My daughter is 
currently in drivers ed course at high school and the rule is now hands 
at 8 and 4 o'clock positions.  to quote: "(this) position improves 
stability by lowering the body's center of gravity, and reduces 
unintended and excessive steering wheel movement which is a primary 
cause of driver fatalities". I talked to the instructor about this 
change and he said it was  in response to the many single car wrecks 
where a car drifts off the road and the driver overcorrects by turning 
the wheel too far and goes off the other side of the road with usually 
fatal results.  The big change is the turns lock to lock of steering 
wheels. The old slow ratios of the 50's and 60's could use the wheel 
movement of the 10 and 2 hand positions, and if you did not have power 
steering, you needed the 10 and 2 position to get enough torque to turn 
the wheel! So, stock Corvairs  are OK with 10 and 2.

Frank DuVal