Steering Smarts | Do You Really Need Both Hands?
I always find fun in the steering wheel. Remember, I always wanted to be a race car driver in my childhood. But that didn’t happen practically. In computer games, I find the feelings. I’ve had a racing gaming wheel.
My favorite game is the Need For Speed series. Now, surprisingly, I’m not a kid at all. The steering wheel is my first love.
Today, I’m not here to say “one hand good, two hands bad.” I don’t think like that. There’s a situation, a time, a place, and a use case for every steering wheel grip, including one-handed.
I don’t want to berate one-handed users, two-handed users, or anything like that.
The point is, you should be more conscious of which grip you’re using. You should be open to driving one-handed because, in some situations, it’s genuinely better.
I often drive one-handed. I’m going to give you a few demonstrations today of why you don’t need two hands on the wheel at all times.
Some people might tell you, “We’re going for a spirited drive,” or “We’re going for a normal drive through a little town.”
I’m going to discuss all the things to think about when deciding whether to use one or two hands.
I took the G87 M2 to demonstrate and share today’s experiment.
Reasons Not to Use One Hand
I have to be very clear on the legalities here: if you only have one arm, you’re allowed to drive a car. You’re allowed to drive a car while smoking. You’re allowed to drive a car while eating a banana. The law says you’re allowed to do all these things as long as they don’t impact your normal operation of the car, or something to that effect. A lot of the fear-mongering around driving one-handed comes from old-school instructors who had experience with cars without power steering. A car without power steering had a tendency to rip the steering wheel out of your hands on bumps and undulations in the road. It could be very dangerous.
We’re all driving modern cars now. How many of us have manual steering racks? If you’re a proper petrolhead and have a classic car that you take out once every two weeks on a glorious day like today, maybe you do have a manual steering rack.
But I’d venture to say very few people are daily driving cars with manual steering racks.
Causes to Use One Hand
One-handed driving is absolutely fine. Nothing’s going to rip the wheel out of my hand.
My car has an amazingly quick steering rack. I don’t need a lot of steering input to go around corners. In a very tight corner, I don’t need much steering input. In some cases, I drop down to two hands just because I’m turning a bit harder, and I want a little more control. There are definitely reasons and situations where you should use two hands on the wheel.
One hand is the appropriate number for making large sweeping motions to get around things like roundabouts. Having only one hand on the wheel actually gives you a bit more freedom of movement. When you’ve got both hands on the wheel, you’re more limited.
The worst possible thing that can happen is a situation develops, and I need to take evasive action. Think of a person running out or a cyclist suddenly appearing.
Do you know the best thing I can do in that situation?
I just slam on the brakes. Because I have electric steering.
The car’s not going to try and jump into a gully or follow the camber of the road massively. It’s just going to track straight, and if a little bit of input is needed, I can do it with one hand.
What Are Steering Racks?
I have to say a little bit about modern cars and their steering racks.
Steering racks are getting faster and faster. These steering racks are generally the same even across the base models of cars.
You don’t need to think, “I drive an M2, and I have a really quick steering rack.” If you drive a base model like the 220i or something similar, it’s going to be the same because I’m pretty sure the steering racks are the same—unless you’re talking about the steering racks from the M4. It’s the same for the 420i, the 430i, and the base models there too.
A long time ago, cars had really slow steering racks. My car is two turns lock to lock. Back in the day, it used to be two and a half turns, or even three turns lock to lock.
You felt like you were driving a bus. You just had to keep spinning the wheel for the wheels to lock.
The old cars with their long steering racks didn’t feel very good to drive with one hand because you just needed a lot of input to get the wheels to turn.
But in relatively modern cars—I used to own a 2013 Mini Cooper—it had an incredibly quick steering rack, similar in fact to this car.
Situation to Must Use Two Hands
Now let me give you an example of a situation where you want two hands on the wheel.
I’m going to stick the car in M1 mode.
I am going to have a little fun—I’m not going to go crazy or break any laws.
If I’m driving a bit more spiritedly, I may want more control over the wheel.
On country lanes, when you’re trying to have a bit more fun, it’s not appropriate to be doing it one-handed.
You need control. You need to place the car where you want it, and you need granularity if you’re going to be driving a bit more quickly.
When I go a little faster, I do like having that second hand—it’s appropriate.
I would go as far as to say you need it.
You wouldn’t want to be driving at this pace with only one hand on the wheel. It wouldn’t feel safe. It wouldn’t feel right.
But as soon as the risk goes down, there’s just no need.
In conclusion, one hand is not bad, two hands are not bad.
Use the right grip in the right scenario—that’s how you’ll be the best driver you can be.
And you can ignore all the advanced driving certifications that say this is not okay.