DOUGLAP1

I always left foot brake in my 22 year old formula car. Great thing about a Hewland, is you don't need to use a clutch if you are competent at gear changes. Not sure why they don't make more gear boxes like that one.

Unfortunately, I have screwed up a few times when autocrossing one of my P cars and forgot to clutch. I can tell you it comes out of gear just fine, but then you are in neutral with no gear selection until you get your feet straightened out and use the clutch.

raspritz

To left-foot brake my 1959 Huffaker BMC mk1 FJ, 1970 Palliser-Winkelmann WDF-2 FF, or my 1973 Merlyn mk24 FF I would either have to sit crosswise in the cockpit with both legs on the right side of the steering column, or have my left leg surgically removed and reattached to my right inner thigh.

ProCoach

Hahaha! After racing Hewland Mk9 equipped sports racing cars and a dozen Suburbans/Tahoes for too many years, I've just bought my first 5-speed car in a couple decades. On the first test drive, I forgot to use the clutch. Thankfully, it's a ZF dogleg box, a damned tank, and popped right in after I reflexively blipped the throttle!

The steering column is at the level of the ball of my feet in my race cars, so no LFB for me, at least in that model of the class. Like I said before, 19 feet covered from throttle-off, brake pressure rise at 135 mph, so I don't feel like I'm losing much if anything to the LFB crowd, at least in transitions.

claykos

I do not lfb much in cars that require using the clutch. I recently got a TA2 car with a dog box and the pedals setup to accommodate LFB. It is a lot of fun and I think there are aspects I am better at but some worse. I think my initial attack on the brakes and overall consistency in really hard brake zones is better with LFB since I have my whole foot centered on the pedal and can really put a lot of force where when heel/toe I'm just using the ball of my foot (all my cars are no abs, manual setups which require a lot of effort). I do think I have a tendency to overbrake a little bit ib more modest brake zones (eg Laguna T4) in the TA2. I think LFB also exacerbates my tendency to get back to throttle too early and not let the car roll/rotate through the center. Did I mention it is super fun though????

Mike Roblin

Damn that looks fun!

ProCoach

Really tough to drive the TA2 cars RFB. Not sure many people can even contort their feet to do that.

Thanks for posting @claykos!

If you slow your brake release a little more, you can kill two birds with one stone. Extending EoB (End of Braking) will keep weight on the nose and make for a crisper turn-in and also delay throttle app so the car can finish turning. I didn't watch the whole video, but it jumped out at me at T3.

It's been fun watching the young guns come along in the class. Connor, Brent, Darin, Nathan and others.

Matt Romanowski

I don't think I've seen anyone right foot brake in a TA2 car. They are all set up for left foot braking. It's uncomfortable moving your right foot far enough left to get it on the brake pedal.

The variation in kids is wild. Ben is 14! I think Brent is still 15, Conor is an elder statesman at 17. The guys who are 20ish are old now!

My favorite was my old 86 Ford Ranger with 200,000+ miles. With a slight roll you could slide it into first gear and then not need the clutch the rest of the drive.

claykos

Thanks for the feedback! I will keep it in mind next time I run the car. Was planning to make the COTA finale but I'm not sure if it's in the cards as things have been a little crazy at home/work the past couple months.....

I think I probably *could* RFB in my car as the brake is pretty far to the right, but it's definitely more setup to LFB. The one thing I need to get used to is dealing with the natural muscle memory I have when in some kind of trouble situation. 20+ years of heal toe is a hard habit to break (brake?) so I noticed that I really need to actually *think* about the braking and shifting versus it happening automatically. That was taking mental focus away form things like traffic management and situational awareness.

Ya those young kids are crazy! 14 year olds running these big cars is pretty impressive.....