One Guess How This Guy Crashed

On a recent junkyard trip Sean and I came across this monstrosity in a Ford. Sean’s comment: “Wanna take one guess as to how this guy crashed?” Known most commonly as a “spinner knob” (or alternatively as a “suicide knob”), more sturdy and functional versions of this thing made cranking a whopping huge steering wheel around three or four full revolutions lock-to-lock easier. But with the advent of modern power steering — and a strong desire among most state motor vehicle departments to discourage the inaccurate steering inputs that lead to over-control — spinners are actually illegal in some places around the U.S.

But a non-spinning version made from nylon tape and a golf ball? That’s just an accident waiting to happen.

It’s also pretty desperate, considering that one can easily score a full-on-styled chrome skull knob for just $17. Toss in another $2 and you can have an 8-ball, cue ball, or even a purple 4 ball [What’s This?]. For the truly budget-minded, JC Whitney’ll sell you a plain-Jane model for $11.

Kidding aside, though, unless you’re driving something from the ’50s or have a medical need to drive single handed, why not just keep both hands on the wheel — and your car out of the junkyard?

PS: We also saw another head-scratcher on this pick-n-pull trip in the form of a car that looked for all the world like it’d been through a crusher. But on closer examination we found little circles all over the car — almost exactly the same size as a five-pound sledgehammer. Damn.

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