Partners About Press
Roarington

The Key 2024/2025: The Story of the Evolution of the Steering Wheel

  • 02 August 2025
  • 1 min read
  • 3 images
The Key 2024/2025: The Story of the Evolution of the Steering Wheel image

The first steering wheel fitted to a car appeared in July 1894, mounted on Alfred Vacheron's Panhard 4 CV during the Paris-Rouen race, considered the first automobile race in history, organized by journalist Pierre Giffard for Le Petit Journal. More than a race, it was a demonstration event, a clever promotional effort for a technological innovation still seeking recognition: the automobile.

On The Key - 1 Steering wheels were embellished with high-quality materials such as wood or Lucite, a type of transparent plastic that appeared on the 1949 Delahaye 135M Cabriolet by Guilloré.

How has the steering wheel evolved over the course of history? The Key - Top of the Classic Car World traces the evolution of the device that allows the driver to control the car's trajectory, from its origins to the early 2000s, analyzing the innovations introduced. Initially, steering wheels were embellished with the chosen material, such as wood or polymethacrylate like Lucite. Then, experiments began with shapes that weren't necessarily round and the integration of car controls within them.

On The Key - 2 The 1957 Ford Edsel introduced the Teletouch system with the automatic transmission controls integrated into the center of the steering wheel.

Each proposal had its own logic. Sometimes they were advances, many others were ingenious attempts, but not enough to replace the classic steering wheel we're used to. It's fun and interesting to see how far design imagination could go. Racing, such as Formula 1, also influenced the evolution of the steering wheel: particularly on Michael Schumacher's Ferrari in the late 1990s, it was transformed into a true control center, with integrated controls and functions, all easy to operate. Production cars have also adopted this approach: today, the steering wheel is often multifunctional and not necessarily round.

On The Key - 3 The 1996 Ferrari F310 steering wheel was the first to feature the "Manettini" controls, a feature Michael Schumacher strongly advocated for, allowing him to control every function of the car.

In the 2024/2025 edition, The Key offers a 16-page journey through the history and transformations of this iconic object, recounting its evolution from the first experiments to the dawn of the new millennium.

👉Order The Key here: The Key 2024/2025