Should You Left Foot Brake?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2024
- This week's question is from Richard and he asks "My track car is a paddle shift so I made myself learn to left foot brake. During a recent spin in a friend’s GT4 race car, I was told that those guys actually right foot brake!"
He wants to know if he should left foot brake...
In this video Scott Mansell founder of Driver61 discusses the pros and cons of left foot braking and why, or why not, you might want to use this technique.
The tutorials Scott mentions:
How to left foot brake: • How to Left Foot Brake...
How to Trail Brake: • How to Trail Brake: A ...
Understanding Weight Transfer: • Weight (or Load) Trans...
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This video is part of a Driver61's "Driver's University" series. Got an aspect of racing you'd like me to explain? Ask in the comments!
The definition of left foot braking is very simple; using your left foot to brake.
It’s become a much more accessible technique over the last decade as more and more road, track and race cars have paddle shift gearbox systems, meaning there’s no need to use the clutch when on the track, thus freeing up your left foot to focus solely on braking.
![Are you making these MISTAKES when braking [Sim Racing]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fonXd097vks/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for watching. Here are the tutorials I mention:
How to left foot brake: th-cam.com/video/artiwTZKJA4/w-d-xo.html
How to Trail Brake: th-cam.com/video/tvcuGoVhpxw/w-d-xo.html
Understanding Weight Transfer: th-cam.com/video/qCE54-H2zkM/w-d-xo.html
Hi could you please do a video on Charles Leclerc in Bahrain. His driving style and why he was so quick.
I am youst too left foot brake because my first pedals were only 2 padels do you have tips too improve right foot breaking.
An extremely effective way to learn it is to start drifting on wet roundabouts behind (slow) traffic ;d and it's also very fun ;d
It's amazing that our left foot is only good at _lifting off a clutch with feel_ which is totally different from pressing a brake. lol
Real men right foot clutch
🤣
Real man get driven by the car
real men go to pub and get driven home!
Real men who are sometimes physically deformed, can not drive with either foot.........
Real men pulls the handbrake and pushes the car.
I think when he says "during a recent spin in a..." he is using a colloquialism for taking a short drive, not actually spinning in the car.
I tend to read it the same way.
Yep
Yeah I'm pretty sure you're right...
Yeah, exactly what I thought. But just shows you need to be precise and unambiguous with your language, I blame the person who wrote the question.
Short drive... I tried left foot breaking when I was in a straight line and nobody was behind me or in front. You don't do stupid stuff on the road. I drive a manual.
First time i tried left foot braking i almost left foot braked my whole family out the front windscreen.
Same dude, my gf literally smashed on the window xD
ahahahah ;d yeah, I made my father try it ;d it was very funny ;d
Real bad, dog flew of the back seat 😂
@Zwenk Wiel I know, Audi's especially, the size of the brake in automatics is bigger than a clutch and accelerator pedal combined
SAME DUDE
Left foot braking also has a benefit in turbocharged cars. Keeping the throttle opens keeps the turbo spooled which saves time coming out of certain corners.
Yep like in my saab 99
I don't know dude, isn't it bad to stay on gas while braking? It's like doing a burnout
@@mattrixx007 Not really, it's more that you'll have to brake harder to stop the same amount. Definitely would cause more heat and wear over a race, though. Mostly a rally technique, I'm pretty sure so that you can get boost out of a turn as soon as you let off the brakes.
In the Audi sport quattro when walter was driving, he said he feathered the throttle, not to keep the spools spinning but to keep the damn car on the road, not his exact words but that's what he had to say when racing the group b monsters
thats what anti lag is for
As a manual gear driver using my left foot for clutching for 10+ years I once accidentally broke using my left foot. it was scary I can tell you.
The amount of power I applied was immense, luckily nobody was behind me.
After driving a manual for many years, I bought an automatic, and I about ate my steering wheel thinking I needed to shift out by hammering the brake. 😂
For those wonder why it seems normal to LFB in a sim but feel totally strange in real car I think I might have a possible explanation for it. I was practicing earlier today and I realized that my overall muscle memory of using my left foot in braking is fine but it's the actual momentum and g-force that affects you in real life that you don't experience in sim racing. Naturally when you're sim racing, your brain learns to modulate the input pressure based on your visual senses, but not based on physical forces. This would explain why when you LFB in real life, your brain doesn't know how react since it hasn't been trained to associate braking pressure with the actual g-forces you feel when braking in a real car. Additionally when your weight is transferred forward (especially when you are new to LFB in real life and apply too much pressure too soon) having your body weight move forward adds more factors which makes it more challenging to get a feel for your braking. And lastly, depending on your seat positioning in your car, it might be a lot different than in your sim position. I know in my BMW F32, even though it is sporty, the brake pedal sits in a position that is more comfortable to right foot brake (for me at least) than how my pedals are positioned when I'm in my sim rig.
There’s also normally way more travel in a normal road car’s brake pedals than a sim racing rig’s
you should watch on board videos of Walter Röhrl in an Audi S1 Sport quattro. that's footwork like playing a piano.
He is Walter Röhrl. Not a mortal driver like we are :) but i’m sure there will be so much to learn in this video. Can you link it?
@@sansatepki7722 it's hard to find anything really where the material of his footwork correlates to the footage from the windshield. it's all cut for entertainment purposes sadly.
th-cam.com/video/wdy8CG09rSU/w-d-xo.html
Go watch Keiichi Tsuchiya that footwork like a ballet while talking like a madman.
@@lordofrims i am familiar with tsuchiyas driving. respect it too, but he's not half the driver Walter Röhrl is.
Watch a cathedral organist - that's footwork like playing the piano, while playing the piano ☺️
it's odd. in sim I always leftfoot brake and can't get the right feel with the right. In a real car, it's the other way around.
That's very interesting. Maybe because you don't find yourself needing to use left because you're not racing at high speeds?
I'm sure its because one is a sim and one is real life, we often forget that a sim is not as real or accurate as real life and most likely never will be
For me the right feels natural in life and on sim (minus the pressure needed, and pedal feel/feedback). Left foot was awkward in both although I eased into it in real life before trying on the sim. Seems like the brake is usually more centered on sim vs varying offsets in real life.
Do you have a load cell for your sim break??
I kinda assume so.
I’m kinda the same... pretty much exclusively left foot brake in sim, the handful of times I’ve been on track I mix left foot braking in with right although it’s mostly right as I need to work the clutch while heel toeing for most corners... but the corners without a downshift I mostly left foot break. I know I’m all over there with what I do with my feet in RL lol... I guess my feet are all over the place.
Exactly the same for me! I can race 250 kph in the streets of Belle Isle, inches away from out braking myself, but IRL I either eat my steering wheel while left foot braking, or get very suprised about how I'm not slowing the car down at all
So, I think Richard's question was more like, "Hey, wow, these pro-ams (or whoever) are actually right-foot braking in their GT4s. Is this common among pros?" Which I think is an interesting topic in itself (particularly as it relates to the benefits and drawbacks of manipulating the clutch while out on track).
But that's not to say that I don't enjoy hearing your thoughts on left-foot braking in general.
GT4 cars have fuel cut off on the brake, i believe... meaning as soon as he touches the brake, gas is ineffective, so if you start breaking too early, you are losing time... i saw a video of someone having a spin in GT4 mclaren, and the crew actually told him not to left foot brake
4:20 also in a road car with normal seats and belts, when you brake, your whole body shifts forward putting moreforce on the pedal, normally you counter this with the left foot holding the body weight.
so, i would also look at improving seating positioning when learning this.
I've been left braking since I was 18. Works very well. It's driver preference.
Since I only touched a wheel at 20, that is, in driving lessons, I never had experience with left-foot braking, as that is how I was taught by my instructor. If you had this experience from 18, good (I don't know if it was your instructor or you just went idiot coincidently on a high-level technique), but as a beginner and having a little enough awareness, a mistake in the left foot in the clutch can only stall a car. A mistake on the brake will crash it. After 4 years, I am starting to practice left-foot braking, but that is not because I prefer right-foot braking. I just felt logical that by dedicating the right foot to throttle and brake, I can't step on both pedals at the same time by accident.
Edit: got experience in rev-matching, now gotta learn either heel-toe or left-foot braking, whatever comes first
@@NothingXemnas Left-foot braking with or without clutch will make a better driver, hands down. Keep practicing and with experience you will you get it down.
It's most definitely a driver preference I haven't even got my license yet but I will have to force myself to write foot break for a few months but as soon as I get my license I will left foot break for the rest of my life
@Zwenk Wiel Half a second at 70 mph is about 50 feet. That's the difference between killing the guy with the shovel and the orange vest, or just making him shit his pants. Haha
this channel deserves much more subscribes.
True, best place to learning driving
Great video! Loved it as much as I love left foot braking. I’ve been braking like this for more than 10 years and the first time I did it I slammed on the brake with my left foot haha just as Scott said. I’ve been using it mostly in my road car by the way.
You can practice depressing the brake with your left foot when the car isn’t moving to get the feel and comfortable position. Then you’re good to go and try it out on the road.
I learnt left foot in go karts. The direct one no gear change. It teaches u a lot you have to keep momentum going because you don't have a lower gear to bring the revs. Back up. Is something you have in all cities I imagine a indoor fun go kart place.
I have always left foot brake since on the road. U can use gas pedal to prime engine in go karts that way. Lots of fun
I feel like a few major components which make left foot braking in a car challenging are factory pedal offset (leaning heavily towards the right side) and the physical weight shift in the car. In my car, the brake pedal is very far over to the right side making it very uncomfortably/awkward to left foot brake as I basically have to sit almost diagonally to do so. Additionally, in right foot braking people usually make use of their left foot by pressing against the dead pedal for bracing when slowing down or coming to a stop. This leads to two things, it develops a habit of pressing the left foot heavily against something which when done on a brake pedal causes the notorious (left foot brake headbutt) and because the brake pedal has travel where as the dead pedal does not, people often times get thrown out of whack when they now have to finesse a brake pedal while their weight is shifting forward due to the g-forces.
That advice to learn the skill on a road car is a seriously good one, especially if you drive a regular automatic car, most of them let you know if you accidentally press both pedals by cutting the gas, which in time also corrects your foot position to prevent slack or accidental braking
Been using my left foot for braking for many many years. I don't think I could use my right anymore except when I am driving a manual gear box. Thanks for the explanation on why someone might have trouble with it and ways to help improve left foot braking.
I learnt to drive in karts, so once I could drive a car on the road I was getting a feel for it. L plates and all. I found on gravel it pays to keep your left foot trimming the balance of the car mid corner. (I drive fwd) you can get the car to rotate a bit more without applying more lock, essentially not putting extra requirements on the front tyres
I left foot brake and i love this video. For a second I thought you were going to just leave it at, well for most drivers its not the ideal technique so don't do it. But i really appreciated that you gave some tips on how to learn to do it. I started doing it on the street until i could do it as comfortably as my right foot
Honestly i love left foot braking. I learned that i could take corners more aggressive while staying in complete control. But definitely recommend in a low horsepower car thats forgivable and i do it in a 08 crown vic, and it definitely shows the cars potential on stock suspension
I have left footed the binders since the early 80s, myself
Great for taxi driving! Many avoided collisions. Besides getting those darn Pontiacs to turn in.
For whatever reason when I was learning to drive, I decided that left foot braking would be better and now Im teaching myself how you guys do it it feels so slow
A couple weeks ago i started to learn how to left foot braking, i practice a lot on high speed corners, thanks to your tutorial i understood how i can make the car goes faster with this technic
As an ADI, if teaching a manual user who's converting to an auto box, I got them to remove their left shoe. The unusual sensation they got as soon as they moved their left foot, usually prevented the ghastly stamp on the brake pedal.
Cheers for answering my question Scott. Much appreciated and keep up the great work.
Cheers for the question! Hope it helped.
Very helpful thanks Scott. I'm now practicing in my road car and working hard on that very gentle weight transfer ....
Wait did you spin the car or did you take your car out for a spin?
When I first drove an automatic, no one told me how to place my feet, so I just placed them in the way that seemed more logical, so I have always used my left foot for breaking.
Agreed, two pedals two feet makes sense 🤷♂️
Always use my left foot to brake in a paddle shift car or my sim. Sometimes use my left foot in my manual if i dont need to change down.
If you are struggling too left foot brake in a road car maybe try throttle and braking first.. have abit of throttle applied and then slightly press the brake pedal and get used to the feeling once you've done that then try just braking...that's how I learnt and worked for me 👍
Practice using the acceleration pedal with your left foot in a road car in a safe place.
I this is exactly what I did, if you can train your left foot on the accelerator you will build up a lot more sensitivity. Which will make braking that much easier and better. If you drive a regular h pattern where u have to blip, lfb becomes super helpful because different downshifts in different corners require different amounts of blipping.
I think I might have some foot videos I can upload, lemme check
@@rjlive o:
@@rjlive you dont use LFB when you need to downshift, unless you have auto clutch.
@@dakota9821 heel-toe driving.
@@dakota9821 lot of guys have paddles now
I just started left foot braking but i’m left footed and i’ve only been doing it maybe a total of 4 hours in driving and it feels so much better than my right foot. it’s just so much more natural for me to use my left and i complained that i couldn’t use my left when i first started.
I was outrunning State Troopers when I was 16, drove Taxi and Limos for 20 years in Los Angeles, 1.3 million miles in Los Angeles alone. Always left foot. Would you drive with one hand tied behind your back? Of course left foot braking is better. If you're traveling at 70mph you're covering about 100 ft per second, stuff happens quick, if you sense trouble you move your left over the brake, you are ready to act instantly. Here's a tip that will help anyone, when you have the road to yourself try changing lanes as fast as possible and then back again, as if a child ran out in front of you, and you had to go around the kid, but back in your lane asap to avoid a head on collision. You will be surprised how dramatic you can be without losing control of your car, WITH PRACTICE, the key is to whip the wheel, and then center the wheel, it's like magic. Whip center, whip center. If you practice enough, it will help you when the time comes to use it. Also in a emergency situation it's sometimes best to accelerate out of the situation, because you will most likely have a bunch of cars plowing into you if you brake. If you do brake remember to not freeze up, brake hard, but continue to steer around the problem. The anti lock brakes allow you to continue to steer. Practice your chops. On empty roads. Rule one of course is to leave space ahead, it helps in many ways. Least of which, is your friends won't be holding on for dear life lol. Nobody likes riding with a tailgater.
I mean... if you can left brake you can do it, you just same time
Simracing helps a lot, i stared as a child breaking with left and now i can easily do trail breaking with left even in real car ofc
Very nice explanation, thank you! Btw, like it was mentioned, our left foot is trained for the clutch. Therefore be carefull when driving an automatic on the public road because you can still make a mistake thinking that you hit the clutch. That is why I ducktape my left foot to the door when driving an automatic.
@Zwenk Wiel its for the idiots that need to stomp on it with 2 feet cuz they can't drive for shit
Also, would you please consider making a video comparing contrasting the driving styles of the current F1 grid, and their various strengths and weaknesses, thank you! :)
Go karting. With mandatory left-foot braking and brakes on the rear axle only thus prone to locking up you will learn the left-foot feel really quickly.
Years ago I started to left-foot brake in automatic/DCT cars, and I can confirm - initially ONLY practice with no cars around you and no passengers in the car. Your first attempts at "gentle" braking will be more like a full-panic stop. But then the speed of gas-brake transition and the feel of control of the car will be awesome. In regular driving with long stretched of no braking, hovering your left foot above the brake may get a bit tiring, but you can get used to it.
Touring car drivers used different left foot brakinh back than. They pushed the gas and the brake at the same time in the corner to make the outer wheel spin faster so the car turn faster. They also used the handbrake in sharp corners to turn the front of the car even faster.
My old man always made me left foot brake when he taught me to drive. "Two pedals, two feet. Do the math." Plus Go karting, where you can only left foot brake, has given me a decent feel for it. But I will use my right foot sometimes when I'm on the road (it's something you have to do to pass your driver's test in Canada).
I cant wait to buy a package from you guys. I really want to get at least the top 5 someday in ACC online.
I just got my first force feedback steering wheel yesterday at the age of 13. It's a T150(tried to find a pro, but they don't have one). My dad always tells me to right foot brake, in both GT sports and F1 2019. In GT sports, it fine in some slower cars like Matia or golf, but not in proper race cars. Also in F1 2019, you can't right foot brake. At Paul Ricard, the second chicane after the second DRS, you really need your left foot. You have to brake until you turn for the first part of the chicane which is the left hander. Then, you need to accelerate for a spilt second, and brake for the second part of the chicane. When I tried left foot brake, it's fine! If I use right foot to brake, I found my self pressing the brake when I need to press the throttle, and pressing the throttle when I need to brake. It makes things so complicating, just left foot brake, release brake, throttle for a spilt second, then brake with your left foot again! Simple! Why use your right foot for more confusion?
BC they don't have 3 pedals in F1. Anyone in a regular 3 pedal car will use RFB 90% of the time. Its almost pointless to LFB if you also need to shift gears as try to heel toe the clutch is a good way to crash
Learning to drive in a Go-Kart you are required to left foot brake. Would recommend to anyone who wants to get up to speed with it. Initially your feedback is through your seat, makes it easier for your brain to form the feel relationship with your left foot. My 2c.
It's comical that as much as things change, it's still the same! I've been driving for almost 60 years, lots of big Healeys way back. Heel and toe was easy in European cars. while here in The U S cars had brake pedals of immense size, highlighted by chrome signage. Anymore prefer automatics, it's easier, trans are far superior, yet standards are more fun except on L.A., freeways! Right out of the Army (1969) went to a 3 day school (Bondurant). Now truly enjoy these videos, finding out what one did wrong! Being left handed really is a plus! Take care of your equipment and avoid the 29 minute grenade scenario!!!
Don’t know about a racetrack, but in my car on the road, I use left foot brake. I struggle to modulate the brakes with the right foot, don’t know why... however, me, being in India, means that left foot braking saves a lot of time when braking, when there’s a bloody cow on the highway. I’m comfortable using left foot with an automatic car, but in a manual, I’d rather right foot. I’m basically a f1 driver (never been to a racetrack lol). I never learnt how to right foot brake
It's about weight transmission - often use brake under left foot while accelerating to transfer weight to front of thee car - to pass corner faster and add little oversteer.
I’ve been driving for almost 6 years now and it’s only 3 days ago my friend pointed out to me and made me realize that I was using my left foot to brake and that it was a dangerous thing to do. We had a heated argument about which was correct, left or right foot braking. When I got home and did my research on the internet I was shocked to know left foot braking was STRONGLY discouraged. All I this while I thought I was going it correctly with my left foot. Then I started learning to use my right foot and my breaking is not as smooth as my left. I even panic a little and get confused at times on the pedals when I use my right foot. So many persons have complemented me on how excellent my driving is, this is just to confirm how perfect I am with the smooth transitions between the left foot braking and right foot acceleration. I don’t know what to do anymore, if I should keep learning to brake with my right foot, which is a struggle or I should just keep on braking with my left foot. I will greatly appreciate a response.
Right braking is the standard for road driving due to studies which indicated people tend to push both feet down in a stressful situation, i.e. wreck and therefore should train with right foot on brake. The idea is if you push down brake all the way you might lock up. If you accidentally use right foot to stomp gas during a wreck it will make the wreck worse. Just what I’ve read (and I’ve also been driving for 25 years.)
I think it helps if you try out things like Go Karts, not very fast but its a good way of learning left foot braking without putting anyone in danger. That and you don't get the option to do anything but left foot braking. Its actually a useful skill to have in day to day life as well if you need to react quickly to a situation ahead of you.
in rally I guess it makes a lot of sense, better control when not expecting to lose too much speed from brake etc especially on loose surface with heavy left foot
What about left foot braking for balancing the car? In my opinion that´s the most useful usage for any driver below say a formula series
i remember almost going thru the screen my first and last time , was just over 40 years ago , lol
That´s a common one! XD
As a dutch drive instructor, I see weekly guy's having problems with this issue. The are mostly gamers, using the left foot for the break pedal. Thats what they see with prof race drivers. In a normal manual shift car, they have to make a transition to right foot breaking, and in the same time have to change gears. Often they start to break with their left foot, and don't be able to use the clutch, and they loosing control of the car.
@Zwenk Wiel You exactly making my point clear. You do mess it up yourself, not the drive instrctor. You were thought the right way, and yout screw it up yourself. Get some new driving lessons.
The main reason why left foot breaking first time is a massive overdo, is because left leg normally handle inertial forces, keeping the driver in place. When left foot steps onto breaks, the whole mass of the driver goes forward, causing more breaking. More breaking cause driver mass to go more forward, giving even more breaking force, and so on. It's called positive feedback. That is also the reason why left heel should be firmly anchored on the floor.
Try right-foot braking in a kart. And most (if not all) F1 drivers come from karting. It's a curve. While you're learning, initially you will be slower, but in the long run you'll be quicker and safer and can balance the car better using both feet at the same time.
Interesting you mention practicing in a road car. In shifter kart racing - right foot braking is not really an option. So all I knew in racing was left foot braking, so my left foot was highly trained to find maximal braking. When I first tried left foot braking on the street, because I thought, why not, well, my left foot wanted to go for maximal braking. The problem was then that after "training" my left foot to NOT go for maximal braking on the road, well, my left foot got lazy on the track about going for maximal braking.
Well Ben Collins was getting sim racing lessons from Jimmers in a recent video. During which he said he right foot brakes…since he was The Stig, I guess that settles that debate!
It just depends on what style the driver is better at. I do quite well with my left foot on the brake. But, I use both, depending on the driving situation.
Just watch Audi 90 IMSA GTO driver explanation about left foot braking, you will understand why they used left foot braking. it is about using accelerator pedal in the same time to avoid turbo lag.
I don't sport around in automatics, so ill stick with heel-toe. It works and is proven effective.
It may read like I'm being a smartass but I'm not. Manual over auto any day! Heel toe and left foot braking are both beneficial. It can be easier to get the feel in an auto with the huge pedal closer to your left and no clutch in the way. Plus if you're too hard or hasty the auto trans and revs will keep the car going forward. Heel toe is more to set the car up for a corner, while left foot braking with right foot throttle control (manual or auto) is more for setting up without a gear change or mid corner to settle and/or control the weight transfer....awd, fwd, rwd same concept but different principles. Most race tracks provide time to set up for obstacles but with autocross or canyon runs you don't have time to switch feet and get the results you want. The reason some drifters can maintain a sharp angle even at slower speeds while roasting the rears is front brake bias applied by the left foot while controlling throttle with the right. Sorry for the lonnnng comment!
I remember the first time I used my left foot for braking and muscle memory kicked in. I stopped the car so quickly that my eyes almost popped out.
Ha exactly! Same here.
And it was the exact opposite for me when I tried using my right foot. I’m a left foot breaker and always thought I was doing it right, then I was told it’s wrong.
Braking with foot off the floor board is best technique, dragging heel is limiting feel and control at limit, but do whatever feels most comfortable for safety, while try to get proficient at keeping feet in air in controlled practice. Its like LFB, which feels clumsy at first compared to years of RFB, but floating the feet while dancing on the pedals ultimately creates greater car control feel for the edge of grip. Thank me later.
I tend to agree with this. One thing I cannot do with LFB is to have my entire feet off the floor. However, I can do this with RFB because my left leg can be used to brace myelf. Hard to say which is ultimately better but LFB definitely has an advantage all else equal.
@@garytsuikk Its OK and appropriate to begin LFB in a street car, but the problem is, like you said, you sacrifice your stabilizing left foot on the dead pedal. However, it is imperative to be completely harnessed in a race seat to improve and perform serious LFB, especially threshold braking and racing. Otherwise, you are sliding forward on deceleration zone and it is impossible to properly modulate the left foot on brake pedal. You cannot steer properly as well when not harnessed securely either because you are using steering wheel for stability. Once properly synched into seat, you can actually drive to highest level. Having heel on floor boards dilutes to fine discriminating brake feel/traction sense at the limit, the heel acts like an anchor point. Just like getting a turn right, braking at limit with feet in air operating foot control surface will feel amazing when you do it right.
Which foot I use depends on the transmission. Left foot for two pedals, right for three. Left foot sometimes with three pedals if the car has noticable turbo lag and you're trying to keep it on boost through technical sections without a downshift.
In sims I'm breaking with right foot in cars with clutch pedal and H-shifter, and with left foot in cars that have only brake and gas pedal. Isn't that obvious?
Johann Daart I thought the same.
and IRL cars with only brakes and gas pedal, brakes are still used with right foot by pros
and you can still brake with left foot on some corners when you don't need to downshift and only needs a little deceleration
@Zeronality It depends on your golas. If you want to be the fastest at all cost, then LFB with paddle shifter, speed shifting and no damage is the way, no doubt about that. But for me, while driving Lotus 49 only RFB and H-Shifter makes sense, with heel and toe blips.
@Zeronality That's true... But heel and toe is fun! :D
That's funny you said testing left foot braking in your road car can almost send you through the windshield. I decided to try it one time and I thought I was just ever so gently easing into the brakes and suddenly the tires locked up out of friggin nowhere. No idea my right foot had so much finesse for the brakes!
this smh happened to me in a vice versa situation and i am so confused with it
Used to do it in my Alfa GTV6 going into a sweeper at the end of a long straight. I could take the corner flat if i brushed the brake to throw a little weight onto the front to aid turn in. Was i consistent ? Not even close but i was only out there for fun anyway. I love heel toe downshifts also but you dont need to do that either. Just more chance for locking the rears. Love these vids and i wish i could have watched them 20 years ago.
I've been training myself or maybe untrained myself not to use left foot as much. I race multiple segment racing and for auto x left foot can cause you to over brake instead of rolling through with more speed. Auto cross racing I right foot and road course I left foot. Opposite of what's typical but gotta find what works for you and your short falls
As a left footed person and someone who does a lot of karting, left foot braking comes quite naturally
I struggle a bit with right foot braking in the sim. And I struggle a bit with left foot braking in the real car. But I can do both, every time a bit better.
I use left foot braking in my road car, during day to day driving, when It's not needed for the clutch. Heel and toe down shifts, not because I'm ragging the car everywhere all the time, but so both become second nature in my actual car, and on the sim rig lol
If I don't have to downshift for a corner I typically left foot brake. If I do have to downshift I right foot brake with heel/toe.
I always use left left foot braking in my DAF 66 Variomatic.
Did I miss something here? It seems to me that trail braking would require LFB. I seem to recall that the acceleration should begin to increase as the brake is slowly backed off; Is that possible using only RFB? I will check-out your tutorials. Thanks.
Always a left foot breaker. Think it’s from running go karts as a kid haha. I use right foot for brake when I drive stick shift like normal it has never bothered me switching back and forth
Hello!, Dear Scott, can you please clear up the question, why do drivers, not the f1 presumably, do some blips on a brakes while on strait. Does it correlates somehow, with brake preheating or kinda, what's the matter there, with these actions? Thank you very much, very hoping to get answer from you)
The explanation I was given is that they are actually testing the brakes to make sure they still work before heading into a fast corner. It has nothing to do with preheating.
I learned to ride a bike before I learned to drive a car, it came as a surprise when I found out breaking with your left foot wasn't considered normal.
Love your videos. Thanks for all the useful advice.
Disappointed by the cursory description of why you'd want to lfb. What about overlapping your braking and power (and the advantages of that), or race cars that only have room for two pedals, etc.
You can left foot brake even in a manual car because you don't always downshift everytime you brake. You only have to right foot brake when you downshift.
I developed the habit over the years of depressing the left side of the accelerator pedal with the right side of my right foot and then having the left side of that foot hovering over the right side of the brake pedal. I can depress either pedal independently with ease with my right foot or both simultaneously, with whatever level of brake/throttle bias I need for heel and toe braking or rev-matching. I developed this skill on a Porsche that I had years ago and have continued and refined it with the Nissan 370Z I have now. I feel very comfortable with it and have used it successfully on some very tight and twisty roads along the Northern California coast on spirited drives. I do not drive paddle shifter cars and only drive a 6-speed manual transmission. When I do try to brake with the left foot it feels very awkward and I find I do not have the sensitivity and control that I do with the right foot. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to try to learn left-foot braking? Thanks.
It probably makes it smoother for drifting when you're chasing a car. Tried left foot brake many times and it is just not clicking in my head. I would rather just tap the break with my right foot and slow up a little bit
4:22 so true and it's learner driver style all other again.
my tip is to start with the little toe side of your foot and progress one by one to all toes :o) your left foot is conditioned to the pressure of the clutch and so you "muscle memory" presses the brake with the same pressure
Thanks Scott, love your vids.
I like yours vidéos ! And it's funny because a use thé tips than you hiver to us : for improbave m'y left foot braking i practice with m'y road car from severals years. First to become more efficient in karting and after that for sim racing.
Continue tour great work an thanks for all of your jobs and tips 😉
First time I drove an Electric car I was told to try out braking with the left foot.
I braked so hard, I almost travelled back in time!
I have a 2002 Prius and for me, left foot braking is the only way I could get used to the drive-by-wire braking system.
I've never tried left foot braking on purpose, but sometimes right after I get into an automatic car before driving a standard for a while, I try to hit the non existent clutch and end up hitting the wide brake pedal with my left foot. Stops quite quickly
In racing, very yes. Learn to heel n toe as well.
In traffic... Please don't try either. You could miss the brake and hit the clutch and hurt someone.
Several things to add. First, recognize that most drivers think they are better drivers than they actually are. Something like 80% of drivers think they are "above average" drivers. Obviously, only 49% of drivers are better than the other 51%. Most people interpret this to mean that everyone else is deluded, except them. The odds are that you (or I) are worse drivers than we think. Additionally, when a driver experiences a potential driving emergency, our brains move our thinking to the Amygdala, which doesn't think very well. In other words, skills go out the window save for, arguably, some of those that have become muscle memory.
Thus, nearly everyone (which means you), when driving on the road, should be using their right foot to move between accelerating and breaking so that in an emergency they are not accidentally pressing the acceleration pedal at the same time they are pressing the break pedal.
The road is NOT the place to race or practice racing because, among other important reasons, driving is a community, cooperative, group activity where the object is supposed to be everyone arriving at their destination safely - drivers, passengers and vehicles. **Everyone's job while driving is to help themselves and everyone else arrive at their destination safely.** If you are exceeding the speed limit, weaving around, driving recklessly you are NOT helping yourself nor others arrive safely at their destination. Realize that "others" includes children and grandparents and that if your reckless driving results in a serious injury or death of another human, that is not something most people will get over, from a mental health perspective, in the course of their lifetime (and rightly so).
So don't use your left foot to break....Please....
I am confident that Driver61 will agree with the above....
Hi Scott. Im wondering what you thought about the concepts Rob Wilson teaches? Thank you
It would seem that Scott would be a fan of the idea, I'm only saying that based on the '6 phases of a corner' video where he briefly talked about what you could consider the mid-corner manipulation of the car's weight transfer and rotation (similar to what rob talks about). Not too much on the initial steering turn in inputs, but I too am curious.
For anyone that isn't familiar with British sayings, "taking a spin" means that you drove a car/vehicle. I think it might be one of those linguistic nuances that separate Brits and other English speakers, like Trainers/Sneakers, Trouser/Pants, Jam/Jelly.
It’s common in American English too but was probably a poor choice of words in this case.
I just thought about this, what if thinking about feel being less about it coming from your foot but your brain, and using what your whole body feels to give feedback to your left foot. It might help you be able to be more ambidextrous.
I'm a 24 year old male, been driving since I was about 17, and ever since I've stepped foot into a car I've always used left foot for brake and right for gas, but I don't rest my left foot on the brake, I usually have my left foot on the clutch position (I've exclusively driven automatic my whole life) and at this point, it feels uncomfortable and weird to try to use my right foot for both brake and gas, should I try to switch, or should I stick with what I know?
A friend taught me driving and said to never use the left foot for breaking, because it can become a bad habit when driving with a clutch.
Your friend is wrong
First time I tried this my knee hit a trim piece that covers the underneath of the steering coloumn making me unable to press the clutch.
I imagine a good sim rig with a quality set of pedals would help with feel in the left foot
I have a full fanatec setup and hundreds of hours on assetto corsa. I got really good at left foot braking and now when I track my M5 Comp. I actually left foot brake and am way faster that way.
So left foot braking should only be used when approaching corners?
Thanks Scott
First time I left foot braked, I put way too much pressure on as most people do, so much that I couldn't lift my foot off of the brakes because of the force, stalled the car in fifth
My road car actually has a limiter when you're on the brakes so it won't rev past 4 grand or so. As much as I'd like to try this, it seems like it won't really work.
well in racing it's common to left brake, I would like to left brake too as it is a lot of fun and precise control but my car's acc and brake pedals are too close together as they set up for the right foot only, it would be very awkward and tiresome to thigh squeezing my balls all the way to work because I have a huge pair of balls but anyway it wasn't the point
not sure of the terms so bare with me . I have learnt to left foot brake so the car down with my left foot. then i have progressed to balancing the car with my left foot. throttle and brake at the same time that took longer to learn as i was over using the brake. this is all for rallying unsure if these skills are used in racing. now I have the chance to have a go of a single seater Jedi race car which i've been told I have to in simplistic terms hit the brake hard and reduce pressure as the speed drops as the aero comes off as I will lock the wheels due to reduced grip. who knew braking was where all the speed actually is . anyone can floor a throttle and have a basic understanding of racing lines braking is a whole other ball game
I have been using left foot braking on the sim for a bit on sweepers. Specifically, turns 3, 4, 6, 9, and 10 at Laguna Seca. Found I can brake and use the gas to keep the car balanced especially in downhill turns like 9 and 10. All these corners are third gear, and I trail brake into the corner quite a way while applying light throttle.
Does that sound like I am doing something wrong?
(NOTE using Assetto Corsa with a Miata NA, 5 Speed)
(Another note ... in real life, do a bunch of karting in single-speed jobs)
this is funny bc i broke my right big toe and can use that foot for the accelerator but the brake is too stiff so I learned to left foot brake recently.