In a message dated 6/17/99 3:17:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Laura.G@141.com
writes:
> Someone at a car show a few weeks ago told me that a larger steering wheel
> gives more control.
Laura,
At the risk of sounding like a male chauvinist pig....<g>...!
I'll paraphrase our president -- it all depends on what you mean by "more
control." If, by more control you mean more precision, then he was right, a
larger wheel will definitely provide more control. If you mean faster
response, then he was wrong, because a smaller wheel will give more control.
To illustrate, lets consider two extreme examples. In the first, let's say it
takes 10 inches of steering wheel rim travel to produce one inch of front
wheel movement, and in the other, let's say it takes one inch of steering
wheel rim travel to move the front wheels one inch. Further (again using
extremes to prove a point) lets say that the driver can only position the
steering wheel to within plus or minus one inch.
In the first case, the driver can control the front wheels to within 0.1
inch, while in the second case, he can only control to the nearest inch. The
larger wheel has ten times as much precision.
Again, assuming the driver can move his hand at the same speed, regardless of
the wheel size, it will take him 10 times as long to position the front wheel
with the larger steering wheel than with the smaller wheel. The smaller wheel
has ten times the speed.
What do you want -- precision or speed? Evidently, race drivers want speed,
truck drivers want precision? On the other hand, maybe F1 cars use a small
wheel because there just isn't enough room for a large wheel? Or, perhaps,
the F1 driver can't afford to reposition his hands for a large turn, as he
would have to do with a larger wheel? If you watch a truck driver make a
large turn, you can see his hands get quite busy.
I'll get off the MCP stand now, and say I don't know -- maybe some of the
race drivers on the list would care to comment? I'm curious myself as to why
the small wheel.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://members.aol.com/danmas/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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