it becomes second nature but you have to practice it...

and make a mental note if you're busy with traffic on the track.


entering a straight and once again before braking for the next corner...


very quick glance, the gauges in a racecar are usually oriented so that if it's in the normal range it is straight up. makes it that much easier, then if a guage is out of position you look closer...

 

dont know if the question was answered but left foot braking is faster just by miliseconds, its for s curves where the first turn will be used by right foot braking but the 2nd partof it sinceu wont be coming out of the correct gear will used by your left foot, it lets you trail brake and once your done you already have the right foot apply a little gas well the left foot is coming off the break, so instead of no gas for a split second there is a little gas applied, hope that helps!

 

Left foot braking is only faster if you can brake as well with your left foot as your right. Otherwise, you're giving up time braking.

I've been discouraged from using it by some racers that I talk to, but I practice it every chance I get, though it is hard to do daily driving when you have to use the clutch.

For those that practice apexing and trackout, be safe and use the confines of your own lane to do that. If you can apex at the dividing line and trackout all the way to, but not pass the shoulder line, you're doing it right.

 

roen has a good point on its slower if you arent use to it, i grew up karting so my left foot feels natural thats the reason i do it, hell you can feel pretty comfortable to your left foot and still be slower.

 

Oh, if you're a karter or grew up a karter, by all means, go ahead and left foot brake.

If you started off driving like a normal person, you may have gotten way too used to the right foot to effectively learn how to left foot brake.

 

Nothing to add,,,, cept Im too tall to left foot brake,,,,----CRY------

 

how tall are you?

solution is a d steering wheel and low low low racing bucket seat with custom rails.

 

would watching some best motoring hot version videos help describe some of there driving movements they do? I really want to start tracking pretty soon

 

They mainly do heel-toe downshifting on all cars, and left foot braking for FF's.

 

its all about track time and what form of racing you are into.

rally racing you dont get the track time so you have to find a dirt road somewhere and hope the conditions might be the same

road racing you can often go to the track and have a practice day before "the big day"

drag racing you have your qualifying times and what not but often the track is open for testing a few days before the actual race day

the track time is the best way to learn how your car will handle around certain corners and eventually you will be able to tell yourself that ... ok this corner is like this one at this other track and i was able to go this fast in this gear and braked here

get alot of track time

 

FWIW...here's my 2-cents.

Definitely read the books. Racing is an art and requires finess, smoothness and precision. You can't go fast by muscling the car around the track. If you do, you'll over drive the car, miss your marks, and blow the driving line. The common remark from the pros is that sometimes you have to go slow, to go fast.

First... understand the art of racing...ie; the proper techniques, selecting the driving line, sight picture, acceleration and deceleration points, RPM & torque, etc.

Second...become "one" with the car. The relationship between it and you should become subliminal. You should be able to operate the pedals, shift gears, and perform all functions in the cockpit without fighting the car. You should be able to operate the clutch smoothly when needed, and be able to punch out power without stalling the engine. You should be able to feel the suspension and know when its fully loaded, stable, or in transition. And you be able to feel the road beneath you know when you've got good grip or approaching the limits of adhesion.

Lastly...practice. One of the best ways to practice is on wet pavement. Find a safe place such as a large empty parking lot, and work on your techniques. You'll be driving slower than on dry pavement, plus you'll have less grip and will be able to know how the car will perform at its limit. Work on 4-wheel drift through the apex, feathering and steering with the throttle. Practice decelerating without skidding and burning flat spots on your tires. Try braking into turns of varying radius, while downshifting and using heal & toe. And left foot breaking at different speeds.

When you can put all this together, not only will be able drive smoothly on the dry race track, but you will also become more competitive if you race in the rain. A factor that few drivers ever develop.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

My input and what i use the techniques for...

Heel and toe downshift - when downshifting, use your right foot to press the brake and twist your foot so with your heel/the side of your foot you dab the accelerator. Just before you hit the accelerator with your foot, clutch down and grab the lower gear. Timing is essential and takes time to master. The idea of this technique is to learn to QUICKLY rev match the engine so when you are changing gear you cannot feel the gear change.

The benefit of this technique is elimating weight transfer. When you brake, weight transfers to the front of the car, the harder you brake, the more weight is transferred. The more weight on the front wheels, the more grip they have - and the harder you can brake (To a certain point)

Try this - drive at 60mph. Stamp on the brakes as hard as you can - youll hardly slow down, and the abs will go crazy if you have it. Now do the same, but this time quickly but PROGRESSIVELY apply pressure to the brakes. once the nose of the car has dipped and the tyres have dug in you can really stand on the brakes and get some awesome braking performance.

Th ereason just stamping on them does not work is that the weight is not transferred to the wheels providing grip, as the braking effort has been too sudden.

now you know what weight transfer does for braking, you can see why youd want to "rev match" The engine using heel and toe to avoid that "kick" you get when changing down. That kick induces weight transfer, throwing off weight transfer and possibly degrading braking performance.

The idea is to practice until you can get a consistent braking force from 60mph or so down to 0, changing down through all of the gears in the process. Once you can do this without feeling a "kick" when you engage the lower gear, your good to go.

Heel and toe is MUCH easier at higher revs (Race situations) and also easier when braking HARD (again, race situations)

Try and do it changing down from 4000rpm stopping for the lights with normal driving and its hard to master. Stamping on the brakes from 100mph and changing down at 6500 will be much easier (only once youve understood the theory and mastered the foot movement! Practice when stationary braking and revving the enigne with your right foot at the same time)

Ok so thats that one over with... sort of! The other benefit again is with using heel and toe to reduce weight transfer. using this technique will allow you to change down during cornering, if so required (For example long bends that tighten and use multiple gears)

So lets say you enter a corner at 100mph in 4th gear, which goes for 100m constant radius, then tightens to a 40mph 2nd gear corner. Obviously braking in a straight line is impossible due to the long corner, and entering the 40mph corner in 4th gear is not an option.

So you enter the first corner, and brake through it into the sharper turn. You change down without heel and toe. You release the clutch - if your on the limit of tyre adhesion, the weight transfer to the front wheels from that downshift "kick" will unload the weight on the rear tyres, giving them less grip - meaning you go sideways and possibly spin out. another benefit.


Left foot braking is generally only for cars that understeer. What you can do is use the brakes through corners while still on the power allowing you to transfer a little weight to the front of the car (thus increasing grip) without scrubbing off too much speed, and without transferring so much weight as the rears lose grip (As the essence of racing is carrying as much speed as possible)

This one you can practice easily. Drive along at a constant speed, then gradually and slowly press the brake. You will feel the car slow down slightly, but not alot - quite a lot of pedal effort will be required to get a really noticeable speed decrease. However - the idea of this technique is just to "feather" the brake through the corner if you have understeer just to bring the front back in check.

note that left foot braking when not pressing the accelerator will more than likely send you THROUGH THE WINDSCREEN the first 100 times you do it. Your left foot is not used to braking, so it takes a while to tune into the pedal effort required.

In my opinion, left foot braking when NOT on the throttle has no use in any driving technique. I can see no use for it... it just confuses your feet and you end up not knowing where to put them

so long story short - Left foot braking corrects understeer. Heel and toe CAN Increase braking performance and also allow higher cornering speeds where mid-corner shifts are required (not in many places at all)

Note that both of the above techniques are advanced techniques that only really benefit driving performance when driving on the ABSOLOUTE limit. They have no "useful" place on the road (unless you deserve to be put in prison!) apart from looking cool infront of your pals (which personally i love doing... )

Dont blame me if you crash or blow a gearbox, both techniques are hard to get used to

 

Agreed with the above and for anyone reading this you should really be concentrating on the above (ie becoming one with the car etc) before trying to master heel/toe left foot braking etc.

You really cannot put a price on the ability to drive a car smoothly. Smoothness is speed. A bad racer shouts his mouth off about how fast he is, takes you for a few laps and you come back white in the face unable to believe how fast youve just gone. A good racer takes you out for a few laps and you come back completely under-whelmed until you look at the lap times and find out he is 5 seconds a lap faster.

Slow and sure is fastest. Fast and frantic slower. Doesnt seem it at first, but as you begin to learn your car and smoothen out your driving style it will feel like your going slower but you will see your lap times decrease.

 

Books will only get you so far, what you really need is seat time, and lots of it. You should start attending as many drivers ed events as you can with groups like NASA, SCCA, Mazda club, BMWCCA, etc.

 

Thanks for all the tips

 

I know this thread is a little dead but if you want to see some awesome left foot braking, check out some incar WRC footage on youtube. They left foot break ALL the time to transfer the weight to the front of the car to assist in throwing it sideways at the entry to a corner.

Drifters also use this technique a lot.