Shuffle Steering
Our preferred method of adding and reducing steering is called shuffle steering. If you're willing to devote the effort to practice this technique the result should be more precise steering, more accurate skid control and a generally calmer driving environment.

Here's how it works. For a left turn, the right hand moves to the bottom of the steering wheel then pushes the wheel up a full half turn. This places the right hand at the top of the wheel. Meanwhile, the left hand has mirrored this movement and slid up to meet the right. The left hand now pulls the wheel down through another full half turn, while the right slides down the wheel rim so both hands meet at the bottom.

The Advantages of Shuffle Steering
Both hands stay on the wheel at all times.
The hands never cross over or get jammed on the wheel. (Whatever technique you've used, try and reposition your hands so they are close to nine o'clock and three o'clock when cornering.)
The driver is able to steer without leaning and losing contact with the seat back.
There is less flailing around of arms than in hand-over-hand so the driver retains a better sense of where the wheels are pointed. This is especially significant during skid recovery.
The driver retains the stability to feed the wheel back to center after a turn, rather than letting it slip through the hands.
The Don'ts
One of the worst habits we see in traffic is the tendency to steer with one hand on top of the wheel, the other often resting on the gear lever. You'd be hard pressed to find a less efficient position, either for getting good feedback from the car or for control in an emergency. Rest assured that there is no need to hold on to the shifter, either. The transmission won't fall out if you let go. Finish the shift then put the hand back on the wheel where it belongs.

Now that more cars are airbag equipped, this position also means that if the airbag deploys you'll have a brief and nasty fistfight with yourself as your arm is thrown backwards.

This is also a good reason to have a hands-free phone if you must use a cellular phone while driving. Many states are now making it illegal to drive while holding a phone in part for this reason. Drinking from a hand mug or smoking a pipe while driving could also be classified as bad ideas.


Learning to Put the Traction Where You Need It
There are three main elements of vehicle dynamics that a driver should understand. The first of these is load transfer.

Load Transfer
Let's assume we're starting with a car that's either at rest or balanced at a steady speed. The load, and therefore the traction, is equally distributed at the four corners of the vehicle. Any control movement, even the slightest twitch, will transfer load from one corner to another. The footprint of the unloaded tire will lose traction, while the loaded tire will gain traction. If we accelerate, the rear tires gain grip while the front lose grip. Under braking, the effect is reversed.

Power and Traction
A logical conclusion would be that if we are accelerating hard, there might be less traction available for steering. This is true regardless of whether the car is front- or rear-wheel drive. It's important to understand though that this doesn't mean we coast through corners. Balanced throttle, or steady power, can be useful in many situations. However, excessive power through a corner is not a good idea. Even if you get away with it, you'll be developing bad habits.

Stored Energy
The second key to understanding driving is the principle of stored energy or spring rebound. Any time a car changes either speed or direction, springs are either compressed or extended. The return or rebound of those springs can upset the car's balance, leading to the dreaded fishtail effect where the car's back end begins to wag uncontrollably. A good driver will anticipate this phenomenon and be ready to calm the whole process with careful, well-timed control applications.

The Keys to Control
Finally, a good driver should recognize that cars have three rudders, three controls that either alone or together can be used to change direction. These three rudders are the brake pedal, the throttle pedal and the steering wheel.


Slip
Any time a car is cornering, even at fairly sedate speeds, there's some discrepancy between where the tires are pointed and where the car is headed. This is just the normal effect of tire scrub. As forces rise, though, the tires start to slip more relative to the car's direction of travel.

For example, if the front tires are losing traction due to power understeer, the tires may be pointed towards the inside of a corner while the car is plowing towards the outside. The tire's direction represents hope while the car's direction of travel represents reality. The difference between hope and reality is known as the slip angle.

Slide
In high-performance driving, we often use controlled slides, or slip, to direct the car. As a result, we usually hear a degree of tire noise. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means the tires are working fairly close to their limit.

Skid
When a slide becomes a skid, though, it means we have exceeded the traction potential of the tire and it is beginning to break away. At this point the slip anglewill increase dramatically and if the driver responds quickly the result will be a loss of control. When tire squeal becomes very loud on dry pavement chances are the limit is near. On wet pavement, though, there will be little if any tire noise to serve as a warning and the only squealing may come from the driver or passengers.

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