Old Driving Habits.

[Dan Chambers]

Just a friendly reminder; as taught in the PDS (Mark, you might remember this) moving the hands on the wheel (shuffle-steering) should occur only when your hands will exceed the "12-and-6 o-clock" position and you need to turn in slightly more. If you can complete a turn without shuffle steering/moving the hands on the wheel you are better off and the inputs are much smoother. So, shuffle steer only when exceeding the "12-and-6" positions in tight turns.

Also: these types of turns (where the steering wheel turns more than 90-degrees) are most commonly experienced at Autocrosses and Gymkana's. Those drivers who participate in big-track events rarely need to use shuffle-steering, with a few exceptions recognized, because much of the turns at big tracks carry more speed and are much broader in radius. Yes, there are a couple of exceptions to this statement(turn 2 at Streets of Willow, turn 3 at Buttonwillow, turn 9 at Autoclub speedway, etc., etc.).

What Jad says is very important: the sooner you "unwind" the steering wheel, the quicker you can be on full throttle on the exit of a turn. If you don't have to shuffle-steer, the unwinding after the apex is less time consuming and much, much smoother.

Also very important to remember: the throttle position is directly related to the steering wheel position. If the wheel is neutral (straight ahead driving) the throttle can be applied fully (depending on the length of the straight). When he wheel leaves the neutral/straight position the throttle should be adjusted off of the full position accordingly (unless, of course, your Jad). The more the wheel leaves the neutral position by degree, the less the throttle is on the floor by percent of throttle throw-distance. If the wheel goes to 90-degrees or more, chances are great that the throttle is off or nearly off.

Finally, what Ralph L. told me makes simple ... if not total sense: the straighter the wheel, the faster the travel. Getting the wheel back to straight quickly is key to adding in speed.

Just my rambling ....

[Kim Crosser]

... moving the hands on the wheel (shuffle-steering) should occur only when your hands will exceed the "12-and-6 o-clock" position and you need to turn in slightly more. If you can complete a turn without shuffle steering/moving the hands on the wheel you are better off and the inputs are much smoother...

Concur, but in our AX's, there are usually a lot of turns where you need to shuffle steer. Also, if I am going into a long sweeper, I prefer to shuffle steer going in and out so that my hands are close to the 9-3 position throughout the curve, making it a lot easier to make small adjustments as needed. (Ok - sometimes large adjustments. )
What I found funny at some recent AX instructional sessions was how hard it was to get the students to STOP changing their hand positions in the simple rhythm sections and keep their hands at 9 and 3 unless they really needed to turn.