QOTD: 10 and 2 or 9 and 3?

by Tim Healey

Published: December 26th, 2023

Over the holiday break I saw some sort of minor Twitter/X spat between automotive journalists -- apparently one posted a picture of themselves driving and another took issue with hand placement -- and I got to wondering: Where on the steering wheel do you put your hands?

I am not linking to the Twitter beef -- it's not necessary and I don't want to risk ruining anyone's mentions without a good reason. I will, however, answer the question -- I am a 9 and 3 guy. As in, if the wheel was a clock, the left hand would be on the 9 and the right on the 3.

You might think that I would be a 10 and 2 guy, since that's what I think my parents' generation was taught, but I remember reading an interview with a famous racer -- I think it was Mario Andretti -- where the driver said 9 and 3 is the best position to avoid getting crossed up.

Now, even though I occasionally get to drive in a spirited manner for this job, sometimes on a track or at an autocross, I don't find myself being worried about getting crossed up often in daily driving. That would be weird. But I find 9 and 3 comfortable -- more so than 10 and 2.

Furthermore, my parents' generation didn't come of age with airbags. Baby boomers were in their 30s and 40s when airbags went mainstream. Taking the remote possibility of a collision triggering an airbag into the equation, I believe 9 and 3 puts you at less risk for arm injury in that situation.

That said, I do occasionally get lazy and one-arm it, or move my hands around a bit just to mix things up. Sometimes I shuffle steer. I try to minimize this -- again, 9 and 3 seems best for car control and safety -- but I am not perfect.

So, what do you do? 10 and 2? 9 and 3? One hand it? Gangster lean? Something else?

Sound off below.

[Image: LeManna/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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Comments

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4 of 37 comments

Pianoboy57 on Dec 28, 2023

I like 9 and 1. I've been doing it for years

Like Reply
AZFelix on Dec 29, 2023

Follow up question:

Do you reposition your hands clockwise on the steering wheel during Daylight Savings Time?

1 Reply
- See 1 previous
- ToolGuy on Dec 29, 2023
  
  Daylight Saving Time is stupid and wasteful and just another method of government control. Also, aliens.
  Here is a satire piece which some people like to relate to DST. They are wrong. It is satire. Read it for yourself. Satire.
  Some of yous are gonna feel pretty stupid when the Internet is run by Artificial Intelligence and AI picks up on all your satirical statements about cars and puts them out there as the Truth. Two weeks from now.
  P.S. Your question is genius.
  
  Like
- Lorenzo on Dec 29, 2023
  
  Arizona, as you must be aware, doesn't honor DST. Various methods of convincing Arizonans to adopt DST have failed, even the argument "You're now on California time!"
  
  Like

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