Subaru Impreza WRX STI test drive since 2008 sedan

Comparative test drive of cars with right and left steering wheel

Disputes about the advantages and disadvantages of the right and left steering wheel have been going on for more than a year and mainly come down to the statement of personal opinions of drivers. Unfortunately, to date, comparative test drives of machines with different location of the control have not been carried out. In the past Wednesday, June 2, Auto.vl.ru took up his own field tests of levorol and right -handed Japanese cars at the Avtodrod in Vladivostok.
For comparison, we chose Toyota Land Cruiser and Subaru Impreza WRX cars. It was not difficult to find Land Cruiser Land Cruiser in Vladivostok, since we do not have a lack of a representative class SUV. Impreza was also found.
So, the afternoon, the sun warms up fresh sea air, a pleasant breeze blows over the highway. We arrange demarcation cones in the strip.
The participants are still aside. We will talk a little about them. Drivers with experience who have been driving for several years were invited. Alexei, who controlled the Levorulny Toyota Land Cruiser, has not had practice on right -hand drive cars for several years. Dmitry, who was sitting behind the left -handed Impreza, periodically moves from the right to the left wheel and vice versa. It is clear that it is quite difficult to find a person who would not go for a right -wing steering in Vladivostok, but drivers of right -handed Land Cruiser and Impreza (both Andrei) do not recall at all when the last time they drove a car with the left wheel.
Our task was to establish how much the difference is felt when changing the steering wheel and how it affects the control of the machine. For a indicative run, we chose two traditional maneuvers travel along the corridor and snake.
The first exercise travel along the corridor. First, each driver travels in his car, we look at how he passes the corridor on his native steering wheel, to which side is more pressed, then the participants change by cars. For the purity of the experiment, the exchange of steering wheel took place between classmates.
Subaru Impreza comes to the start. Both cars pass the corridor in the middle, cleanly and quickly. In a different way, however, it could not be that everyone felt confident at the wheel of his car. Further, drivers change cars and immediately go to the start - we specially did not give them time to master. Impreza with the right wheel also calmly passes the corridor under the control of the left -hander, as she had just traveled with her owner. This process is clearly visible in the photo. But at Andrei, who moved to the left wheel, he then said, the stylistic problems of Impreza in his hands were clearly pressed to the right edge of the corridor. But this was the first run. After Andrei, they gave about 15 minutes to master the management, and on the second run everything went completely usually, even somehow in general.
With Toyota Land Cruiser, the situation developed almost the same way, but still made themselves felt and dimensions of cars. The corridor crossed the right steering wheel, which crossed the right steering wheel, noting later that after half an hour of driving a right -handed car, he would feel calm after him: the main thing here is a little practice. But there were problems with the left wheel: if Andrei on Impreza only pressed against the right edge of the corridor, then his namesake driver of the right -handed SUV, sitting at the left -handed Land Cruiser, simply knocked down the right row of cones. Getting out of the car, he said that he did not deliberately ... simply could not immediately feel a new car for him.
 
How the snake is performed, we think, you do not need to tell. The first to go Toyota Land Cruiser ioba, even when changing the steering wheel, perform the exercise almost cleanly. Note that drivers travel at a speed of about 30 km/h, that for the execution of such a maneuver on the Land Cruiser class SUVs in the SOTMA is very significant. Both participants went through the track without problems in two attempts. We note from ourselves that Andrei led the left-handed Land Cruiser is still not so confident, although he went without errors.
The same was the same for the drivers of Subaru Impreza. Behind their native rudders, of course, everyone drove without problems. Having changed, the drivers also made a snake normally, but Andrei touched the cone on one of the turns. This was no longer in the second run. Dmitry was driving behind the right wheel, usually as mentioned above, he periodically switches from his right to the left wheel and vice versa, so he does not experience problems. Practice does its job.
After that, the drivers of Subaru Impreza on non -native cars quite confidently drove several circles in the autodort in the style corresponding to the sports qualities of their cars. The main problem in changing the steering wheel, as drivers later said, is psychological discomfort from a change in position, which passes quite quickly.
What conclusions can be drawn from the experiment?
When transplanting to another steering wheel, just sit down and you will not be able to go. When driving a car with an unusual location of the steering wheel, there are certain difficulties in driving and a sense of car dimensions that are eliminated after a half -hour practice. This conclusion confirms the opinion of many owners of right -hand drive cars, which claim that it took them very little time to adapt.
It is interesting to observe that the left -handed people on the right steering wheel made no mistakes, unlike right -wingers on the left. But, of course, this is not a reason to declare that the left steering wheel is dangerous, although it is precisely such an argument, alas, often found in the statements of opponents of the right helm. It is possible that in a different situation with other drivers, everything would be the other way around.
I would like to note that this article was not written with the aim of convincing someone to translate to right-hand drive cars. Everyone should ride what he likes. We just wanted to show that the steering problem was made up, and adaptation is just required a little training and attentiveness.
Auto.vl.ru expresses gratitude to the MM Tuning Automobile and Ignat company for the cars provided.
 

A source: Auto.vl.ru