Last Friday, our esteemed Mr. Emslie asked, “Non-Round Steering Wheels, Brah! or Blah?” Many of our readers cited specific cars thus equipped in their responses (amiable, informative, and entertaining—as always). Unfortunately, the hivemind didn’t produce a definitive list of every car that had something other than a perfectly circular steering wheel. So, let’s keep the irregularly shaped party going. Do us a favor and add an example to our virtual encyclopedia entry today.
The Caveats (there are always caveats):
- Production road cars only. No customs, purpose-built race cars, or back-alley hack jobs. Otherwise we could post funny cars, dragsters, and F1 cars until the cows came home and the Interweb tubes were full.
- It should actually have a wheel. Tillers and skid steers would be a humorous first post, but would get old quickly.
- Motorcycles? See caveat directly above.
- Airplanes? Oh, I should slap you for just suggesting it. There are twenty-three gazillion non-round control yokes in planes from Cessnas to military transports. We’re NOT going there today.
- Boats or ships? [Insert Captain Picard facepalm GIF here].
Difficulty: If you go current, not to hard. Not much low-hanging fruit if you want to go vintage.
How This Works: Read the comments first and don’t post duplicates! Bonus points for adding photos.
Image Sources: LOW-RIDER’s Photobucket account, releasedatesnewcars.com (but quite likely ripped off from Car & Driver or some other legitimate site)
1960 Plymouth
And 1960 Imperial.http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2014/10/1960Imperial_03_1200.jpg
Mk5 VW Golf R32 and GTI had just the slightest flat spot on the bottom.
http://images.hgmsites.net/lrg/2008-volkswagen-r32-2-door-hb-ltd-avail-steering-wheel_100274546_l.jpg
FMR Tg500, the four-wheeled unambiguously non-motorcycle Messerschmitt-ish vehicle:
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5015/5403756605_dbe2faa4c6_o.jpg
1977ChevyTruck, please post your horriblawesome Ford GT Versaille again – it has a non-circular steering wheel.
Here ya go!
And I’ll post the car again, just because…
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/3511/7866/original.jpg?w=800&h
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/3511/7868/original.jpg
Ooh, something in that picture makes me think that the Ford GT would look awesome in an all-over wood grain…
Beech, birch, maybe even oak!
Something like this?
Good idea!
This looks really good, and far exceeded what I expected it to look like.
It’s beautiful! Great photo shopping skills, Ford should really offer that!
Thanks, although I don’t know about the skills part…
Also, I concur about Ford offering this.
The Ferrari LaFerrari has a decidedly square wheel.
http://www.dreamcarsite.com/photos/cars01/2014-ferrari-laferrari/14-laferrari-09-steering-wheel.jpg
Makes sense. “The Ferrari La Ferrari” is like saying “The Ferrari squared”.
Take your Ferrari La Ferrari to the La Brea Tar Pits after watching a Los Angeles Angels game!
Austin Allegro
The new Ford GT has a square-ish wheel.
http://i1.wp.com/hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ford_gt_interior_configurator_comp_2160.jpg?w=720
The new Ford GT. It’s actually very similar in shape to the La Ferrari’s. Hmmmm…
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/asset.download.image.web.html/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2015/01/12/All-NewFordGT_10_HR.jpg
C7 Corvette. Might be a Z06 exclusive. http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/attachments/c7-general-discussion/47871198d1426434830-z06-steering-wheel-emblem-removal-success-z06wheel.jpg
Alfa Romeo 4C
http://nicecarsinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Alfa-Romeo-4C-3.jpg?fb2c7b
The new Alfa Giulia
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ASSwo0RHGQA/VYyoBgL4CsI/AAAAAAAR83Q/Xf7ckaDAO8Y/s1600/alfa-romeo-giulia.jpg
Some varieties of Eshelman, including the larger Adult Sport Car, which was at least strongly implied to be street-legal in its advertising, although it’s not the one shown here with a license plate:
http://www.trombinoscar.com/minis/eshelman08.jpg
The poles conducting the electricity and the big rubber bumpers aren’t pictured for some reason either.
Lexus LFA
http://cdn2.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/autoexpressuk/files/styles/gallery_adv/public/0/37//car_photo_537493.jpg?itok=Bv6Gga_u
Audi’s S and RS cars all, if I remember correctly, have a flat bottomed
girlsteering wheel. Because sporty.http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/2016-audi-s6-inline2-photo-665052-s-original.jpg
The optional wheel in the Aston Martin Vanquish:
http://carpriest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2015-aston-martin-vanquish-interior-03.jpg
which takes its cue from the One-77:
http://image.motortrend.com/f/28801489+w750/aston-martin-one-77-steering-wheel.jpg
Jeff, you’re going to turn me into an A-M fanboi yet.
Mk 6 VW Polo GTI
http://indianautosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015-VW-Polo-GTI-steering-wheel-at-the-2014-Paris-Motor-Show.jpg
I have similar, only slightly non circular wheel in dd VW and every time hands meet that flat section, which is not often as you need to make U-turn or similar to reach that section, it feels strange, unnatural somehow. Seems like a very pointless feature to me.
Matra-Simca Bagheera
http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy26/moqueque/New%20Matra%20Bagheera/DSC04312.jpg
Portrait-mode stereo also, possibly the topic for another encyclopedia-hoonatica right there!
It’s probably the only one though, knowing Matra!
Went to the car show last week and saw a lot of flat-bottomed steering wheels. But, also saw a lot where the central pivot point is moved down a bit, that seems even more common way to get thigh clearance. By contrast, the steering wheel on my Cressida is the most perfectly centred and circular of any car I’ve driven. It’s almost spooky to unwind it from lock and see nor feel nary a wobble.
Rover SD1
http://www.aronline.co.uk/images/sd1_04.jpg