Hands Placement on Steering Wheel /Track Technique

[sidsideways]

I am struggling with finding the best technique as I am told by instructors to not let go of the wheel when requiring more than quarter to 3 can cope with! At extremity of this grip turning left one has to take left hand and replace it across the right forearm to the original 9pm position[now at 3pm] and continue turning wheel the explanation being that the front wheels need controlling at all times in case they hit a change of surface and the driver needs to know at all times when the road wheels are dead ahead of the chassis. Fair enough but what happens when the radius of a long bend is such that it requires exactly the steering wheel turn as at the point of the new grip? One is driving with severely crossed arms for some distance and if the surface is slippery and changeable will also require rapid adjustment of the steering wheel either in this grip position or with rapid grip changes back and forth which is one of the reasons given against other methods.
If one lets go of the wheel at times of rapid transition and regrips at quarter to 3 when judged to be the right time I see the advantage as always being at quarter to 3 with full steering wheel control in the optimum arm position.
I do not, at the point of writing, see that one does not know where the front road wheels are as they are always pointing in the direction of motion of the car whether forwards or sideways due to castor action but I do accept that there must be some loss of control while the steering wheel is spinning freely under castor action.
I look forward to hearing expert opinions as always looking to learn.
Thanks guys!

[arcamalpha]

Interesting question. I've always been taught to pre-empt the turn when possible.e.g. for predictable track conditions when the surface isn't changing.

Whilst going straight before an upcoming left handler that I know needs more than half a turn, I would alter my grip to be approx 4:55 (left hand at 55mins and right hand at 20mins/4hrs) so that I have good fine control through the turn. Then go back to 2:45 afterwards.

[sidsideways]

I prefer this one also to the crossing arms technique but any comments from rally drivers in particular or race drivers who have to use a slow rack?

[AndyBrew]

Thought I'd post my experience in here rather than clutter the bonfire thread!

As you know I did a drift day yesterday and spent from 8:30am till 4:00pm with a great instructor at Bovingdon Airfield awesome day thoroughly enjoyed it.

My experience was that when changing the cars direction and the weight swings the car in the opposite direction I simply let go of the steering wheel and let the car do the work and simply applied friction to the back of the wheel with my finger tips to control the speed of the rotation. I can't imagine there is any technique that will act fast enough to go from lock to lock other than that one??