![]() Secondly, you need to consider the wheel's size. Admittedly, suede is harder to keep clean but wearing racing gloves while on the track will ensure the wheel stays cleaner for longer. Suede gives a more tactile, motorsport feel, and like suede, leather is grippy and seen by many as the original go-to choice for tearing up race circuits. If you're after a steering wheel for the track using a leather or suede grip is ideal. Both of these materials are hard-wearing and much easier to keep clean when it comes to removing hand grime. If you're after a steering wheel for the daily driver, then you'll want leather or wood. Firstly, you need to figure out what material is best suited for the type of driving you’ll be doing. What material is best suited for your driving style? What design do you prefer? Are there any specific features you need? Choosing the perfect steering wheel can be tricky, but don't worry - we're here to help. But we can’t help but speculate: Given the rapid pace of autonomous vehicle development, it could be that the future of steering wheel design is none at all.When it comes to choosing a new steering wheel for your car, there are a lot of things to consider. It wouldn’t surprise us a bit if the square wheel finds its way to the production model when it appears in Europe in 2019. In September of 2017 at the Frankfurt Auto Show, Honda unveiled the wildly popular Urban Electric Vehicle Concept, which sports an elegant squared steering wheel (below). Formula 1 steering wheels are incredibly complex, housing all the vehicle’s instrument readouts and chassis and engine management controls. Above, two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso demonstrates the unit on his 2016 McLaren-Honda MP4-31. With their tight cockpits, reclining driver positions, and ultra-fast steering ratios, Formula 1 and Indy cars virtually demand a tiny, rectangular steering wheel. Or maybe the designers are just reaching for something different. Perhaps the design provides a more sporting grip, or a clearer view of the instrument dials, or a bit more knee room. ![]() Squared steering wheels continue to turn up now and then in sports cars and exotics like this 2015 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. The Allegro reverted to a conventional steering wheel in 1974. However, the company’s stillborn Rover P8 prototype used the same design a few years earlier. In British car lore, the oddly shaped wheel was cooked up late in the Allegro’s development when it was discovered that a round wheel blocked the driver’s view of the instrument panel. (Read the Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi story here.)īritish Leyland adopted the term “quartic” to describe the rectangular wheel used on early models of the 1972-1982 Austin Allegro, above. Check out the push-button automatic transmission shift control at left, the swiveling bucket seats, the rearview mirror mounted atop the dash, and the Highway Hi-Fi record player underneath. Chrysler introduced a number of quirky cockpit features in this period. Take this 1960 Plymouth Fury (above) for example. We know that Gabriel Voisin for one employed the feature on his C6 Laboratorie way back in 1922, and if we look a little harder, surely we can find earlier examples. But Mopar did do its best to attempt to popularize square wheels in the early ’60s, including them on select 1960 though 1964 models. The Chrysler Corporation certainly didn’t invent the squared-off steering wheel. None of them ever caught on, but these unusual forms continue to appear occasionally to this day. (They were borrowing from the marine world, we presume.) But it wasn’t long until creative variations on the theme began to appear-square, rectangular, ovoid shapes. ![]() A solution in search of a problem? Perhaps, but square and rectangular steering wheels still have a long and fascinating history in the car biz.įairly early in the development of the automobile, pioneer inventors seized upon the steering wheel as an ideal method of controlling a vehicle. ![]()
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