abikepeddler
Member
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but I guess Tesla forums is not exactly going to be chock-full of track rat, high performance car crazed types. Proper high-performance driving generally dictates never removing your hands from the steering wheel. So a circular steering wheel in theory is not needed so long as the steering rack ratio allows the driver complete access to the steering ratio without removing their hands. Meaning, let's say you're doing a u-turn, You're simply keeping both hands on the wheel (at around 9 and 3) and rotating until your arms are crossed in a x pattern. Not many cars have such a ratio because it can make the car a bit over responsive in day-to-day operation. I suspect the Roadster will have a steering ratio that is even steeper than the one used on the test mule to accommodate access to the full steering ratio. Proper hand position during spirited driving is pretty much a fixed ergonomic design for performance cars and while I like a traditional steering wheel the introduction of a Formula One style wheel in a production road vehicle would be an interesting one. I think the BAC Mono also has a similar steering wheel. The steering ratio in the Mono is likely similar to the Roadster and as you can see you would not want to do hand over hand steering inputs as in a traditional car... nor would you ever need to.
http://image.superstreetonline.com/...2015-bac-mono-steering-wheel-instrument-panel
http://image.superstreetonline.com/...2015-bac-mono-steering-wheel-instrument-panel