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I always liked the mid 80's wheels from fords xr series cars, always meaty, the XR4i one was lovely with the knobbly bits as said before, had a fiesta si 1997 a while back and it was nice and meaty, a skoda felicia that i had had basically bakelite covered wire rim that was very uncomfortable, most favourite was one on a cavalier sri that I had which I replaced with a leather rimmed one from a calibra turbo,....nice....:)
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Best probably the Momo in the Subaru Legacy I had, although 944 has aftermarket Momo which is pretty good.
Worst is the Metro wheel that's in the Scimitar, just horrible, but the cars on E Bay at the mo. No 160008662464
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Base version Focus and BMW horrid wheels. Nice wheel on SE spec BMW, not too thin, leather covering well made. Mind you I have to say that mid 90s basic Vauxhall wheels were pretty nice.
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3 spoke leather trimmed mk2 cortina was the worst one i remember as it turned my hands black every time i used the car.
Best steering wheel was in a 1984 reliant with the savage 500 wheel trims ,harry moss auto reverse stereo with a mossfet front end and a steering wheel covered in that plastic twine stuff you had to keep wrapping round the wheel and pull at the same time,i had hours of fun with it waiting in car parks pulling bits off it as the wife was in the market haggling over the price of carrots............... ;-)
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Best steering wheel was in a 1984 reliant with the savage 500 wheel trims ,harry moss auto reverse stereo with a mossfet front end and a steering wheel covered in that plastic twine stuff you had to keep wrapping round the wheel and pull at the same time,i had hours of fun with it waiting in car parks pulling bits off it as the wife was in the market haggling over the price of carrots............... ;-)
How Quintessentially British.
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The worst looked to be BL's attempt to re-invent the wheel by fitting a square one to the Allegro. A classic case of if it ain't broken...
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My 1964 Plymouth had an oval steering wheel to go with its very stiff pushbutton controlled auto transmission. Also had about four and a half turns lock to lock. You had to be pretty quick and precise if the tail went away, so it was a situation well worth avoiding.
Best wheel I can remember was on a new Audi 80 in sporting clothes. It was a three-spoke sports item costing £252 as an extra, and had a central horn button that was exceptionally pleasing.
Airbags have ruined steering wheels and turned them into bloated discs with a few mean slots round the edge. Carp.
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Airbags have ruined steering wheels >>
Yes that was true in the 90's. The 1996 Mondeo's bloated wheel an example although not an ugly wheel by any means.
The current Passat's various airbags are much more compact and to a casual observer you could say it doesn't have an airbag. only the SRS logo would give it away/
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Best one I tried was a half wood half leather steering wheel in a 5 Series. Looked more elegant than it sounds, was also heated and a treat to use. Second best was a wood rimmed one in an Alfa 156, simply stunning. Worst ones I encounter are in the SUVs I get as rental cars in the US. Thin rimmed, plastic and not nice to use (like the vehicles to which they are fitted).
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The best stering wheel I drove using was the one I made from a sheet of duraluminium sandwiched between 2 lumps of hard wood and carved polished spokes and all to fit me like a glove. I bolted it to an alluminium boss with crome headed bolts and fitted it to various cars I owned simply changing bosses to suit the column shaft.The only down fall was it was perfect for me but others who drove the vehicles were unable to get on with it.It even went through MOT's.
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rustbucket (the original)
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Land Rover series 3 a proper mans wheel
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Talking of LR steering wheels, some Saharan guerillas I used to know swore by ordinary, petrol, LWB open Land Rovers which they said were very durable, economical on fuel and easy to fix. They were painted matt sand colour and had everything shiny - instrument rims for example - painted over. Artistically parked in a watercourse among shrubs, three or four of them were virtually invisble from a couple of hundred yards. Steering wheels tended to be draped in cloth, but some had those velvet steering wheel gloves one used to see on suburban Fords and Austins here. Really made me giggle, chaps with headcloths and Kalashnikovs driving along with this mum-and-dad accoutrement.....
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but highly practical......LR Steering wheels can get very hot indeed.
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And are shiny, which was the real point in the circumstances... even a tiny glitter in the distance can make watchers home in on the spot with their binoculars, artillery sights etc.
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I remember the newsreel footage of these in the Western Sahara...remarkable vehicles.
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No windscreens though, so a long trip at night could be an object lesson in temperature contrasts. It doesn't get freezing at night, but a couple of hours of 30mph breeze can make you feel very cold indeed.
The Land Rovers, judging by their white tailpipe interiors, were perfectly tuned for about 30mph in top gear and were virtually silent at that speed except for constant scrabbling of stones under the wheels. Frugal too at that speed. I travelled many miles in them, and the drivers virtually never engaged 4WD even when apparently driving straight up cliffs, which they would attack in third with a snatched change to second. Sometimes felt as if the vehicle with its seven or so passengers and load of weapons, food, water etc was going to fall over backwards...
Yes PU, that's where they were. Elsewhere people tended to disparage Land Rovers, not as fast as Toyotas etc... but economy, simplicity and strength was what counted there.
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The alcantara trimmed wheels on sporty Audis are rather nice when new. I've heard they don't age well, however.
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And are shiny, which was the real point in the circumstances... even a tiny glitter in the distance can make watchers home in on the spot with their binoculars, artillery sights etc.
Eeek! Even Ken doesn't advocate shelling 4X4s ;)
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Moroccan military don't hesitate though.
Give him time NW, he'll probably come round to the idea.
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Best steering wheel - Bentley 4 1/2 litre, 1927 - 4 spokes, large diameter, string-bound rim. But it needs to be in a Bentley.
Worst steering wheel: the one in my Metro came off in my hands while I was overtaking, I don't think they come much worse than that!
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The diameter of the rim I think is fairly important. The thicker it is the more of an illusion of sportiness of the car (arguably)
Ford are the masters of this. Take a look at a wheel in a 1981 XR3.
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I just love woodden wheels. Thing is, I always thought they weren't grippy enough, but... no ! Now I know for sure, they're much better than leather wheels, which eventually always get sticky, dirty, shabby and worn-out ? you simply cannot do anything about it.
Hate those ordinary, plastic ones. Make me feel like making love to a girl who drank too much at the party.
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Free enterprise is the basis of western economy.
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BTW: Take the 'Arnie' as an example. A car soooo, sooooo stunning, yet with a wheel just too big & skinny - well, that's my personal opinion (sorry Murphy The Cat...)... Same for current-generarion Toyota Camry.
I must to admit Volvo's wheels are great... SAAB's as well. Cadillac's woodden are nice, too.
And yes, I just have to write this - I especially like the 3-spoke wheel in Astra & Vectra.
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Free enterprise is the basis of western economy.
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The 3 spoke multifunction M steering wheel fitted to E46 and E39 BMW's from late 2001 onwards.
Lovely.
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No mention of the old single spoke wheels on Cits? Not so lovely if you were impaled on one though, I gather.
I liked the one on my 1949 Sunbeam Talbot - 3 spokes each of which was 4 "wires" linked to a white plastic (bakelite?) wheel with a big horn button in the middle and the dip switch a chrome lever extending from thebase of the hub, semaphore indicator lever at top of hub
www.unicornmotor.com/Brians%20Images/IMG_1388.JPG
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Phil
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I seem to remember the single-spoke DS-type wheel was supposed to be collapsible... still, its capacity to injure may have depended on its position at moment of impact... always liked it myself. My Bijou had one. My first car, a Light 15, had two carburwttors and a four-spoke wire spring steering wheel similar to imagos's Sunbeam Talbot.
One of my Skodas, a coupe, came with a wheel - 2-spoke in a sort of inverted V - whose plastic coating had separated from the metal carcase most of the way round... even worse than the oval wheel in my Plymouth, until I got a good one from a breaker.
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Best one I've used is in my mums 3 series- its the M-sport one so its got a really thick rim but small diameter. Lovely.
My Corsa ones not too bad as its covered in leather and has hugely useful stereo buttons on it- Can't understand why these were standard on a 10 grand supermini 5 years ago but VW still don't fit them as standard on current Passats and Golfs. The tightwads.
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Liked the BMW M sport whel:-)
Liked the 1929 Riley one with ignition advance/retard and hand throttle.
Did not like 1936 MG: chrome thin spokes and plastic wheel.. (in a crash:-(((
Had a uartic Allegro. Surprisingly it was not the shape of the wheel that was worst but the fact the plastic flashings left from the moulding were on the underside of the wheel and were so sharp I cut my hands.(yes really). I sanded them down.
(Quality control? whassat?:-(
Yaris leather wheel with stereo controls is nice..
I remember a Lanica Aprilia in a scarpyard with a luverly wood rimmed wheel. Scrappie would only sell it with the entire car. Sad .. looked very nice...
Lancia Fulvia ones were nice especially on 1600s iirc..
madf
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