I dont like Wood steering wheels

Let's not forget that the best wood steering wheels aren't brand spanking new, freshly finished. They are used, but not used up, with a personally applied patina and unique feel. Parts will be rubbed slicker than snot, while other areas never see so much as a stroke. When a wood wheel is right, it's like laying your hand on your best girl.

 

I don't understand the OP. You state "I don't like wood steering wheels", and then you ask a question like you've never used them. Perhaps it would be better not to prejudge and just go and find out if they are what you think they are.

I never have an issue with my GTC's wheel. I love the feel of it, it is part of the experience. Sweaty hands have never caused me to lose grip on the wheel. But I do occasionally use driving gloves - more of an aesthetic thing than anything else. And I never complain that my 365BB doesn't have a wooden one. These cars are what they are, you love them for what they are. Older Ferraris have a wooden steering wheel. Newer don't. Moving along.


Onno
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Exactly.

My '79 Alfa has a varnished wood wheel. I'm on my sixth set of leather driving gloves for it. (In 30+ years.)

If you put the leather on the wheel, you don't have to wear gloves. But you wind up with a ratty looking wheel, after a while.
(Especially after damp weather.) (The wheel leather on my Celica was pretty grungy after 15 years.)

But since today's cars are built to last less than five years, the lifespan of the wheel cover isn't the issue.

You do wind up with a wheel that gets pretty cold in winter. And the black leather cover on a GTS's wheel can get scorchingly hot when left in the sun.
While the gloves in your pocket stay at a constant temperature.

So part of the shift from wood wheels to leather covered wheels would be tinted glass and the greater attention given to the climate control in cars.


Come to think of it, didn't wood wheels disappear about the time the US virtually banned convertibles? ('80s)

 

There were issues complying with the then new safety regs. concerning splintering.
Not as much an issue on dashboards where veneers could be employed.

 

And air bags pretty much preclude wood wheels, today.
(The push for those started back around the '80s, too, I think.)

 

Looking good, Onno!

From s/n 9543 that I took a year or so ago.

Nothing like the modern German wheels you described, Robb.

Matt
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They're combined on some aftermarket wheels, aren't they?

 

The last nice wood steering wheel I recall seeing was on a 1986? Aston Martin Zagato. Strange color combination on that car - dark green paint and a dark red leather interior.
CH

 

I had one in my '72 Datsun 240z. I had to wear gloves in the summer time because when I parked the car in the sun with the windows rolled up the wheel was too hot to touch. The core is steel. It's my understanding that more custom wheels were made from used saw blades. Never had the same problem with any of the other cars I have driven with wooden steering wheels, probably because they were all rag tops.

 

I test drove a Merc SLK a few years back with the optional wood package, and I thought it looked ridiculous and seemed to offer less grip than the excellent standard leather-covered wheel. It had so much gloss that it may as well have been plastic. However in an S-class I think it's a more stately, less sporting car so probably works well and matches the elegance of the car.

As others have posted, we're not living in the '50s or '60s anymore, so from a functional perspective I'd agree with the OP that the modern wood steering wheels are more ornamental than anything, and IMHO they look out of place in the modern digital cockpit. But vintage cars tend to be a very different driving experience -- the steering wheels tend to be larger; the cars were often lighter; the driving position usually had you sitting closer to the wheel and instruments (no airbag to kill you); and as mentioned driving gloves were actually used back then -- and for decades prior.

I have the original plastic steering wheel in my 356, and it has been in the car since it was raced (very successfully) back in the '50s through 1976. Lots of guys used wood, though seemingly more in the British and Italian cars than in the German ones. (When wood steering wheels were used in Porsches, they seem to have been mostly Nardis like the beautiful one in Onno's 330 GTCs, or Derringtons, which were British-made.) I think the concept of a leather covered steering wheel is pretty recent even among sports cars but will defer to our historians here.

 

For some reason, ornamental carbon fiber bothers me more than ornamental wood. Love the wood wheels in my old cars, love them. Wife has a steering wheel with wood trim in her car, it seemed pretentious to me when I first saw it, but I've grown to like it.

 

It's a very poor design. (Though the new SLKs are terrific -- would have gone with the standard steering wheel.)

 

I think that in 8-10 years we're all going to look back on the current carbon fibre craze and laugh.

 

is that right?

 

There was a time when steering wheel flex was a key part of isolating road shocks. A wood rim and spring steel spokes worked well.
Back in the day of lower geared steering (more turns lock to lock) having a wheel that could slip through your hands as it unwound was a plus too.
As you change one aspect of car design it effects other aspects as well.

 

Yep and still do,for all the reasons you have put forward.
I actually changed the(Momo wood) wheel on my GT4 2+2(kept it 'cos it looks great), because in the tight and twisty stuff it became dangerously slippery,found a second hand Momo on Ebay for $80 with the Cavallino on it,it off a................................................
















Mazda RX7!!

 

When you drove my 330,did you use the 'classic'10-2 position?
I find I drive it more like you sometimes see Fangio pic's,4-8,depending on the task at hand,of course.

 

there was a time when the steering wheel was part of the car's suspension..on my t35 bugatti everything was mounted solid to the frame..the giant wood rimmed wheel not only helped with steering [long moment arm] but the thin steel spokes and flexible wood rim acted as a shock absorber as well...[i won't even mention kidney belts as a standard item on rough roads]

 

I have the big thin wooden wheel in my '65 Corvette.
It has the rounded finger grooves in the back of it.

Works well. Easy to hang on to.
Part of the fun of driving an older car.
.
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Sweet,mate.

I had custody of a split window for a while when the owner was trying to sell it.
Drove like a 1886 horsedrawn cart,I guess yours is probably better than that.

 

Yeah, my car is fixed up a little so it drives like a modern horse drawn cart.
It is fun to drive but it has a non-linear feel to the steering as you increase the side-load force when you go through the corners briskly.
Makes you appreciate how good those race car drivers were in the 1960's at places like Sebring and Daytona.
.

 

This came off an older Ferrari we had, I never did like the feel of the thin wheel, hard to grip with gloves, but gave you plenty to pull on to get the blasted car to turn at low speeds.
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