My friend came over the other day to try out my rig and was sawing the steering wheel like crazy.He's more experienced and a decent driver. Got me wondering, is this mainly just a personal habit/preference thing or does this develop as you get more in tune with the car? What I'm asking is "Do the best drivers all saw the wheel?" Personally I don't as I don't yet feel the need to, but again just curious here. Either way this does not seem like something you can just up and decide to start doing, rather just develop over time or with your style.
I can't speak for everyone else, but 'sawing the wheel' was something I picked up after racing cars in the real world. I've found making tiny corrections with the steering wheel, especially when entering the corner can give you a better feel for how much grip the track has at that particular time. Due to the way real life steering wheels give feedback, it's hard to notice; but I noticed I had started doing that in sims as well, and it's a lot more pronounced on a G25 for example. Honestly I thought it was just an odd thing I did until I saw some other guys driving styles on YouTube and realized it's just one of the many ways to turn a lap.
I really had to look that term up. Googling "Sawing the w" gave me "sawing the wife in half" as another search option which I also liked. Sawing the wheel imo is something that develops automatically when pushing a car to its limit. I never do it on purpose though I always seem to be doing it. (not always of course but with most cars, usually when I'm still learning a track) Especially in powerful cars like the fr2, p2 and alike.
Thanks for the feedback fellas, makes sense. Interesting that more people have searched about making a clean cut in the middle of their spouse than this term.
I also have the (bad) habit of sawing the wheel, both in my Holy Mancave, and on the roads. When I qualified for driving emergency vehicles, my driving instructor kept picking on it, constantly, unconditionally naming it a bad habit. So I tried to get rid of it. That was more than 10 years ago, and I'm still doing it. As my instructor said: It's ok to make small corrections when you have to, but don't make it a habit. The optimal turn is made when you enter the curve with the correct degree of steering, not having to make any corrections. But I also comfort myself by watching experienced race drivers doing basically the same as me, which means it's probably not entirely and utterly wrong. Probably just a part of some people's driving style. Btw, I'm not the fastest driver around.
what is sawing the wheel? is this when you try and load the outside wheels up on one side when in a turn?
I used to do it a lot more before, and was fine with it also by watching video footage of real drivers. I've noticed though that as time passes I don't do it anymore (the way it used to be, almost all the time) and I'm doing much better in track, wich is consistent with the "theory", you're supposed to find the exact braking point, the exact strenght in braking, the best line and avoid the need to correct as possible. In sims with delta software I've been able to see that actually sawing brings at least tiny amounts of time lost. So now, I consider I did something wrong everytime a need to do it. Ah, and I think one has to consider that sometimes the state of the track is a factor.
Do it a lot in the group 5 and gto not so much in the Gt3, power and balance. I think its a bit like questioning your mate about throttle control cause he feathers his and you just floor it Edit - not you personally, but figuratively speaking.
It just means that during cornering you are constantly making small corrections on the wheel leading to a constant back and forth kind of movement on the wheel. Since sawing is also a similar kind of back and forth movement it's called sawing the wheel. It's not considered a good driving style when driving in normal traffic. As long as you don't drive your car on the edge you really shouldn't need to saw the wheel. Strictly speaking it's also not considered optimal when racing but when you're really on the edge with your car a bit of sawing the wheel is more or less unavoidable. Mostly because you are not driving on a perfectly flat surface with a vehicle that doesn't shift weight or is totally stiff. In reality the road has a structure that leads to varying grip as you go and the suspension and the car itself are moving and flexing around leading to changes in the optimal steering input while you drive. But you should not saw the wheel any more than absolutely necessary because if you overdo it, sawing the wheel leads to unsettling the car even more. I personally tend to sawing the wheel while simracing quite a lot because I constantly try to find the edge in force feedback forces that tell me I'm about to lose grip.
Yeah as stated above its just going nuts back and forth with the wheel correcting the car all the time
Just to add my opinion as I actually found myself talking about this just earlier today I tend to move the wheel much more aggressively and more often with older cars. For w/e reason I find the need/feeling to correct the trajectory of the car through the corner nearly constantly in these cars where as with newer cars I rarely find myself adjusting the steering hardly at all once I've entered the corner. I couldn't quite pin down why this was, but it absolutely held true when I tried both the Bentley GT3 and was smooth with my wheel input, then swapped to some of the Group 5's and was frequently adjusting input throughout the whole corner. Other than just the feeling I get back from the wheel, I honestly can't tell you why I do it though. For some reason I just feel something with the older cars that makes my brain go "ADJUST!" over and over again
I thought of something else. If it is properly simulated, tyre wear should be affected by sawing too. (I couldn't say it's necessarily related but may be one of many factors. It's something that's changed a lot in my own experience. Not long ago I used to suffer a lot for front tyre wear, now it's not a concern anymore).
It should affect wear right now, because it creates friction on tire. But i don't think it will be significant