On the way back from Le Mans Phil the techie had an unfortunate experience with a French sausage. Called an Andouilette it's apparently something of a local delicacy and often made from colon. Which is, according to Phil, exactly how it tasted.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! And to think 'custom ordered'
Now we on PH are as partial as anyone to a good old fashioned banger but when it comes to sausages never was the phrase 'ignorance is bliss' more appropriate. Not so for the French, who take peculiar pride in the Andouilette's provenance. Why anyone would want to eat such a thing is something of a mystery. Why anyone would seemingly use it as an inspiration for a 'custom' extra phat steering wheel is an even bigger one. But there it was, staring out from the advert for a
CLK63 Black Series
recent Spotted story
. And cartoonishly embodying all that's wrong with the trend for overly fat steering wheels.
Following on from my recent rant about exhaust etiquette I fear I'm about to go off on one again about a personal preference. And if I'm a lone voice in preferring a skinnier rimmed steering wheel then I'll shut up and sit on my own in the corner. While I'm on my soapbox though I'll have to use it to respectfully disagree with PHer Waugh-terfall who responded to our Mazda3 MPS story with a very insightful post about why, after months of lusting after one, the literal first-hand experience was enough to put him off. One of the things he hated was that the steering wheel rim was 'too thin' but here I and Waugh-terfall are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Porsche wheels used to be slender and tactile
To me a skinny steering wheel rim is the height of sophistication. We bang on a lot about steering feel in terms of the communication fed back to us about what the front tyres are up to through the rim of the wheel. And to my mind quality and depth of that feedback are the desired qualities we're looking for.
So why muddy that with a stupidly fat and squashy steering wheel? Look at driving shoes - pixie racing boots are thin of sole to permit finely tuned applications of brake and throttle. Try driving in clogs or, indeed, left-foot braking if you're not used to it, and discover how much you depend on this delicate sensation of pressure through your feet.
To me those fashionably thick steering wheels feel like you're driving with a pair of boxing gloves on, begging the question is this trend dictated by the manufacturers fitting them or the demand of customers who think they want them? Nature or nurture, if you will.
I can plot the moment it all went downhill precisely via Porsche's switch from skinny to fat. I can't remember exactly what Porsche it was I drove first - possibly a base first-gen 2.7 Cayman - but I was struck by how delicate the wheel felt in my hands. And that to me was an instant message about how this car was to be driven; with precision, accuracy and finesse. And so accorded it would reward likewise. Not long after I drove my first E92 M3 and thinking the wheel ridiculous in its girth, the misplaced inference that this was a masculine driving experience for manly hands instead seeming to me like it was designed to be manhandled by gorillas.
Italian wheels favoured by 90s Jap cars just so
Come the direct-injection facelifts for Boxster, Cayman and 997 911 and those beautifully proportioned skinny rims were gone, replaced by fatter wheels with elaborate thumb cutouts. Bluergh! And it's a blight of many modern German cars, as annoying as the over-firm handshake of those out to prove a point about supposed manliness and over-confidence on first acquaintance.
Japanese cars tend to be better, those Momo and Nardi wheels fitted to various 90s classics including MX-5s, Subarus, Evos and hotter Hondas always wonderfully tactile. And the GT86/BRZ continues this trend.
It's not hard. A wheel needs to be round (clue in the title there, boys), it needs to be skinny and consistent in girth, free of unnecessary dimples, texture changes or other distractions and generally focused on the job, literally, at hand.
As it stands this trend for over-stuffed helms is about as appealing as sampling Phil's sausage.