left foot braking

[badkuk]

i recently learned that some racecar drivers do this. di ko magets ung advantage nito over, say, just easing up on the gas. di ba same effect lang?

[nicolodeon]

AFAIK a lot of race car drivers do this. Especially those who have a strong karting background. It's a technique used by rallye drivers and formula 1 drivers. But for rallye driving, this mostly applies for front-wheel vehicles. It's like doing a hand-brake turn but when you do left-foot braking, you lock the rear-wheels with your left foot stepping on the brakes. Now, vehicle balance is achieved through the right foot stepping on the gas pedal. AFAIK left-foot brkaing should not be applied to rear-wheel vehicles.

Now for formula 1, the premise is that the time spend in releasing the accelerator then engaging the brakes can be reduced (compared to when the right foot has to do the brakes and the accelerator). As we all know, F1 cars either does not have a clutch or the clutch is not operated by the left foot. Well, at least the modern F1 cars that is.

There's another technique in racing called "heel-and-toe" where the brake and the accelerator pedals are operated simultaneously by the driver's right foot. This frees the left foot for duble clutching (or is it de-clutching?) or chaning gears while braking.

Left foot braking is a skill. I tried this once (just for kicks and out of curiosity) on my old Lancer box type that I used to haveand I wound up skidding sideways. Luckily, there was no vehicle near where I was at that moment.

[niky]

Left foot braking is a racing skill, but its use in street cars is quite limited. Many very good drivers, including Michael Schumacher, have stated in one interview or another that they don't left foot brake on street cars, because it doesn't take advantage of the car's optimal set-up.

In driving, you have to imagine your performance envelope... your car can do one or two things well at any time, but not all at once.

In rallying, left-foot braking helps to upset the car's balance, which is good for sliding around corners... and heel-and-toe ensures that engine speed matches wheel speed when you slot the car into a lower-gear... (also helps keep the engine in the proper rev range)... On a street car, all your gears are synchromesh now, so there's not much need to heel-toe, as you won't grind the gears going down... it'll be faster to heel-toe, but it's not necessary. Left foot braking takes your left foot away from working the clutch... and pressing both gas and brakes at the same time on a street car will ensure your replacing one thing or another pretty quickly $$$.

[mbt]

left foot braking (or otherwise stepping lightly on the brake while stepping on the throttle too) can help manage the balance of a car when cornering. it can help arrest understeer in some cases, for example.

you'll need a lot of practice with it however, since the braking input we're talking about have to be done very precisely and smoothly... which our left feet aren't trained for in everyday driving.

[gearspeed]

Masubukan nga yan sa harap ng Isuzu Alabang may corner kase dun..hehe..

[nugundam93]

left foot braking, like what mika hakkinen does, is rather faster because your left foot is usually poised over the brakes already, unlike normal right foot braking where you take off the right foot from the gas or move it to the brake pedal.

i can't do left foot braking, i end up braking so hard, it might cause an accident. :lol:

[pissword]

hahaha malufet... left foot braking? nasubukan ko yan nung nakadrive ako ng automatic. nagtataka ako bakit ang bigat ng brake ko laging bigla tsaka ko lang narealize na dapat kanan pala ipangbabrake ko... kasi im used to driving a stick shift tapos bigla akong pinadrive ng matic.

[gearspeed]

nasubukan ko yan nung nakadrive ako ng automatic. nagtataka ako bakit ang bigat ng brake ko laging bigla tsaka ko lang narealize na dapat kanan pala ipangbabrake ko... kasi im used to driving a stick shift tapos bigla akong pinadrive ng matic.

naku baka ganyan ang mangyari sa akin sa matic namin na getz..

[quiksie]

naku natry ko na iyan haha baka sumubsob kayo kasi sanay sa tapak ng clutch kaya mejo madiin ang tapak sa brakes. Try doing this on low speeds

[kimpOy]

ok din itong technique na ito when drying up your brakes pagkatapos mong idaan sa baha ang kotse...

some off roaders do this after water fording...a light pressure on the brake while the other is on the accelerator

[badkuk]

er...pardon my ignorance...why is better than just pressing on the brakes a few times? mas mabilis pong matuyo?

[nicolodeon]

er...pardon my ignorance...why is better than just pressing on the brakes a few times? mas mabilis pong matuyo?

Hmm...it might depend on the...."condition" of your brake pads. See, if your brake pads are soaked for a long time in flood-waters, doing left-foot braking to dry-out the brakes might not be a good idea since it might cause your brake pads to chaff or even to peel-off. See, I have this friend that did some left-foot braking to dry-off his brakes (happened a some years ago - 1998 to be exact). Unfortunately, his brakes were soaked in flood-water for a long time so the pads "softened" and dirt got inside the little crevaces of his brake system. So, when he did some left-foot braking, he noticed a sqealing sound. He though notihing of it until the next morning he inspected his brakes. He found out that his brake pads peeled off, and because of this, his drum-face was damaged. Also, the disc face (at the front brakes) were also deeply scarred due to the dirt that ground on it when he was doing his braking thing.

[niky]

You can hold a light pressure on the brake pedal while on the accelerator.

[pixelparadigm]

I think left foot braking is more on shifting the weight of the car to the front, very useful in FF cars (in racing).

[badkuk]

actually...napatanong lang ako after watching a top gear episode -- the one where they raced a Ford Transit(a van) along this German track. This German girl racer was pointing out to (who's the little guy sa top gear?) that she was braking with her left foot. after readig the posts here, that episode seemed a lot more insane B)

[niky]

left-foot-braking to clean the discs/drums is best done very lightly... too bad for your friend there was debris in there... some modern cars have an ESP/ABS system that automatically applies a slight amount of brake when they detect wet brake surfaces.

Again, left-foot braking is a good idea for racing, as in FF cars, it can get the ends to swap more easily, but on the road... NO.

[cutedoc]

normally sa regular driving with a matic car pede gawin ang left foot braking, sanayan din naman, imagine the left foot you step at is the clutch, pero siyempre youll be doing this for the first time, madiin normally ang tapak, kasi your not use to how it works yet, indi pa tantiado, i tried using left for brakes mahirap, tipong nakakasubsub pag tapak kasi indi controled, hehehe so stick with the norm, sa karting left din brake

[flakez]

pag nag aarcade ako dati ng mga racing games lagi ko sinasabi na sira ung break! hahaha. tapos one time sinubukan ko gamitin pang break ung left foot ko. ayon, napaisip ako na left foot pala gamit ko pang break sa arcade. hehehe

kaya takot ako mag drive ng automatic e. hindi pa kasi ao nakakatesting.

[chris_d]

For regular driving mas mabuti na to avoid left foot braking, I read that for an automatic car your left foot usually rests on a foot rest, adding support to your body which would be handy in certain situations, such as accidents.

[the_wildthing]

You can also use left foot braking for burn out contests. Hehe.