Old Driving Habits.

[Mmagus]

After driving for 36 years with “10 and 2” being the default hand position I am finding it difficult to go to 9 and 3. When I watch my in car vid I see my hands going back to the old position at times. I know that “seat time” will start to shift these habits and I do try to use it when driving on the road, but wonder if any of you found a way to accelerate the process. Also I am curious, what old driving habit has been the hardest for you to change?

[Michael Dolphin]

They say that 21 days is about the average time needed to break old habits. The good part is that you recognize the difference between the old and where you want to be.

Dont try to rush it -- be patient. There is no nicotine patch for steering corrections...

[Dan Chambers]

...and I do try to use it when driving on the road ...

Remember the old coaching adage: "Practice like you play, and you'll play like you practice."

Yes, old habits die hard, and you'll tend to "revert" to old styles and habits when you're under stress. There's a lot to be said for muscle memory, so don't be discouraged.

Just keep practicing good hand positions on the road. Try and be conscious of your "driver's position" every time you get in any car, and if necessary ... whisper your driving habits you want to change to yourself when driving (if you wear a cell-phone headset people will think your talking to someone else ... not yourself).

Tell yourself: "look far ahead. Drive the line. Find the apexes. Hand and foot inputs must be smooth. Look far ahead. Anticipate." With time, the memory (both cerebral and muscle) will re-learn the process and good habits will prevail.

"Patience, grasshopper."

[rshon]

Do they still teach "shuffle steering" at the PDS? Shuffle steering keeps you from "glueing" your hands to the wheel. If you practice shuffle steering when you're driving on the street, then your hands will (eventually) tend to be closer to 9 and 3. (You can even try shuffle steering at 7 and 5 with your palms facing upward, like an Italian).

My (breakable?) habit is to lift when I see a pedestrian in my forward field of view. So lots of corner workers (especially the kind with their back to you) really makes me slow. I also tend to lift when entering a corner above 115 mph, but I'm working on it...

[gulf911]

Somehow a joke about habits may not be appropriate here....

[mrondeau]

Somehow a joke about habits may not be appropriate here....

What about old....or driving....

[gulf911]

You see, he's a pastor... and a habit is also something nun's wear...oh nevermind...
Have to explain everything to these youngsters..

[mrondeau]

You see, he's a pastor... and a habit is also something nun's wear...oh nevermind...
Have to explain everything to these youngsters..

You see, you're old and didn't drive too well at the last AX... oh nevermind... You old people forget things..

(that's gonna get me in trouble. )

[gulf911]

Sorry for the offtopic hijack...now back to regularly scheduled programming.
Can't wait for the 15th..

[mrondeau]

Sorry for the offtopic hijack...now back to regularly scheduled programming.
Can't wait for the 15th..

+1

[Kim Crosser]

So - for something related to this topic... (What a concept!)

I think the habits that took me the longest to break/change were:

1. Turning in too early. Even now, sometimes I have to mentally tell myself - "wait, wait, wait just a little more" - before turning in.
2. Shuffle steering. Took a couple of years, but now I shuffle steer in parking lots. Practice, practice, practice all the time.
3. Drive the line, not the track. Now I try to visualize my desired path and keep the car in that path. Cones do not exist, grasshopper, just follow the path to enlightenment and success! (But your desired path cannot intersect cones.).
4. Brakes are NOT your friend - they just slow you down. When I first got my Boxster and found out how great the brakes were, I kept trying to dive into the corners as fast as possible and brake as late as possible, sometimes actually taking the whole corner while the ABS was chattering away. (Doug Briggs was one of my first instructors. I remember the corner at the end of the PDS big straight, with Doug saying "BRAKE. BRAKE. Drive off straight... How did you make that turn?") This took me a few years to "un-learn" how great Porsche brakes are, and learn to minimize their use. I still haven't gotten very good at coming off the brakes smoothly, but I keep trying to remember to work on it.

[mrondeau]

So - for something related to this topic... (What a concept!)

I think the habits that took me the longest to break/change were:

1. Turning in too early. Even now, sometimes I have to mentally tell myself - "wait, wait, wait just a little more" - before turning in.
2. Shuffle steering. Took a couple of years, but now I shuffle steer in parking lots. Practice, practice, practice all the time.
3. Drive the line, not the track. Now I try to visualize my desired path and keep the car in that path. Cones do not exist, grasshopper, just follow the path to enlightenment and success! (But your desired path cannot intersect cones.).
4. Brakes are NOT your friend - they just slow you down. When I first got my Boxster and found out how great the brakes were, I kept trying to dive into the corners as fast as possible and brake as late as possible, sometimes actually taking the whole corner while the ABS was chattering away. (Doug Briggs was one of my first instructors. I remember the corner at the end of the PDS big straight, with Doug saying "BRAKE. BRAKE. Drive off straight... How did you make that turn?") This took me a few years to "un-learn" how great Porsche brakes are, and learn to minimize their use. I still haven't gotten very good at coming off the brakes smoothly, but I keep trying to remember to work on it.

All of this is excellent advise from one of our best instructors.

[4est]

As a graduate of the Secret Service's Evasive Driving course, I can tell you this: 9 and 3 are much better for your passenger car as well. You tend to push on the steering wheel rather than pull on it. Pushing the wheel pushes you deeper into the seat, and makes you stay in place in a passenger car much better. Pulling unweights you and allows you to slide/lean sideways more.

[Kim Crosser]

I encourage all my students to use the 9 and 3 position as well. There are (IMHO) two key reasons for this:

1. In most Porsches, at 9 and 3 your thumbs can feel the cross-bar of the steering wheel. This means that you can feel whether your hands have returned to the correct positions after a turn - you know, almost subconsciously, that your hands are back and in the right position for the next track segment. I never have to look down at my hands on the wheel.

2. Try shuffle steering with hands at 10-2 and at 9-3. (Assume we are making a right turn.) If your hands are at 9-3, you can move your right hand into the 10 position and pull the wheel around a long way without having to reset your hand position. If your hands are at 10-2, you either are limited to pulling from the 11 o'clock position, or you wind up crossing over your left hand with your right. With 9-3, you get an extra 30 degrees of steering wheel turning range without crossing hands. That can make the difference between one hand motion or two in many of our Autocross tracks.

By the way, I shuffle steer on the street in fairly mild turns all the time. Even though I *could* easily get through the turn without moving my hands, by practicing all the time, it becomes automatic when on the track.

[Jad]

While I do shuffle steer and agree with the above, back to the topic of bad habits, shuffle steer does lead to the very bad habit of turning the wheel tooooooooo much. It is a great technique, but turning the wheel past about a 1/4 turn really slows the car down and eats front tires. Shuffle steer, but get the wheel straight-ish no later than the apex cone as you go to the gas.