[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by LMH

Original steering wheels are 16". Without a dish to the wheel, it would hit or be too close to the cockpit edge and the door for you to get your hands around the wheel.
Larry

And the steering wheels used with cam and follower steering were subject to catastrophic failures (break spoke or spokes). The flat wheels flex spokes if users push or pull on the rims. Fatigue cracks follow. I used to see multiple original Cobras with all kinds of home grown repairs for cracked or broken spokes. One warm spring day I was watching CSX2108 being driven hard at the drag strip in Tulsa Oklahoma. The driver got so excited after a really good quick pass he literally jerked the rim off the hub. From the stands we saw the car angle off and go way out in the grass as it slowed. The driver got the car back to the pits slowly. When he got there the steering wheel rim was lying in the passenger’s seat and he was steering by hanging on to two of the three stubs of broken spokes.

The dished wheels for CSX2126 and later cars were much stronger in resisting flex and resistant to fracturing.