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Hands Off Of The Wheel Before Impact

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A friend of mine recently went into the wall with his WRX and I asked him if he let go of the wheel before impact. He looked at me funny and said he had never heard of that. I've been watching the Indy 500 since I was a young boy and have seen the commentators talk about this every year. Anyway here's a good example of why you want to let go of the wheel before impact.

 
For sure - one of the first things the instructors at Skip Barber told us when I was driving the Formula Skip Barber cars.....

Unless of course you don't like your thumbs
 
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I did the Bertil Roos school and they said two things about this. First in an open wheel car it's much more important. Two it's silly to take your hands completely off the wheel because any correction you can do up until the last moment can be huge. Meaning getting the car turned even the slightest to hit on a corner and not straight on can make a big difference as to the impact. They said take your thumbs out of the center of the wheel but keep your hands on the outside to try and make some correction.

Jake


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302 Hi Pro

Boss 302 - Racing Legend to Modern Muscle Car
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Yes, I can see doing that at 200 mph when your about to hit the wall in an open wheel Indy car. But I don't see the correlation to our application.

Just keep your hands away from the airbag in case of deployment.

2HP
 

Fabman

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Yes, I can see doing that at 200 mph when your about to hit the wall in an open wheel Indy car. But I don't see the correlation to our application.

Just keep your hands away from the airbag in case of deployment.

2HP
Air bag?
We don't need no stinking airbag....

17498736_10155130237648535_7361535495994138807_n.jpg
 
"Yes, I can see doing that at 200 mph when your about to hit the wall in an open wheel Indy car. But I don't see the correlation to our application."



In working F&C Corner's for many races (and HPDE's) I have had several occasions to work on driver extraction after a big impact. Sprained wrists and broken fingers on several from last sec stiff wrist on the wheel and or wheel sudden snaps. Most didn't recall it happening until the pain starts when the dust settled. A some hurts to ankles too from still standing on the brakes. If you know your going to hit, "hands off and feet in" is good advice.
 

Fabman

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This one sprained my wrist:

 

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