spg993tt

anyone have any tips on left footed braking? nothing to do with the boxster, but for my trans am TA2 mustang, ive been trying to convert from right footed to left footed, since its clutchless shifting. but you have to breathe on the way up the gears which is easy. but you have to blip on the way down. ive been doing it like a a normal clutch thing other than not using my left foot. but most i speak to left foot brake. and they just tap the throttle with their right. plus midcorner then can modulate. and of course i see most rally guys and high end road racers left foot braking.

been practicing inmy truck and road car on the street. easy there. but on track, wow, so much different. so i decide to give it a whirl in the boxster yesterday on some turns where i could get away without shifting. i almost destroyed the car, or i was way too hard or easy. its like 30+ years of driving a road car and a clutch race car has my right foot modulating the brake like a champ. but that left foot??? wasnt even close. felt silly how bad it was, no possible way to ever race from a safety let alone performance perspective with that left footed braking. plus i felt like i had no stability in the seat. right footed braking, you use the left foot on the dead pedal to stabilize yourself offsetting the g-forces and load, etc.
it was humbling. to say the least.
anyone have any great tips or ideas on how to get good at left footed braking?

txhokie4life

^^^ What he said -- I have the same issue. I've found my left foot is basically a club, on/off switch.

I'm sure its a learned thing, but the cost of tuition looks pretty high.

Mike

Veloce Raptor

Practice practice practice
Start exiting the pits: I'll do a couple left foot taps to make sure I have brakes. Then on the out lap warm up the tires and brakes by repeatedly left foot braking. Then start doing a gentle left foot tap or two on longer straightaways to make sure there is no pad knock back. You'll develop a feel for it quickly this way with few if any consequences.
As for grip in the seat...make sure your seat and harnesses are a good fit for you and are set up properly. This should not be an issue left or right foot braking IMO

mark kibort

Spend some time at the Karting track.
so, what is the utimate goal?

Coochas

I think it's just practice practice practice. You are unlearning something that your right foot has done for decades! I started by driving my truck left foot braking. I was very fortunate to pick it up very quickly in my formula car and now brake as well with either foot. One difference might be your pedal arrangement in the TA car. In my formula car I am smashed in by a bead seat and it is very easy to keep my left foot over the brake pedal. There is also a structural bar above my pedal assemblies that I gently pull up against with my left toes when I'm not on the brake. This helps a ton. I love the transition from brake to gas by driving two footed. Sometimes I'll tap the brake at full throttle on corner entry just to get the fronts to bite.

morsini

As was said above, it's all about practice and I do it while street driving.

txhokie4life

For me -- I know there are corners where I either want to scrub speed, but immediately want to be back on the gas to stabilize the car -- Turn 4, 5 entry in the Esses at CoTA, or I want to get more front bite, but be in the gas
to keep the RPMs up. A few hairpins around here I think I could be faster through, instead of plowing.

It would also give me some comfort tapping the brakes before going into T11, T12 at CoTa without getting off the gas.

But since I'm unable to do it -- I don't know!

Mike

mark kibort

Hey Mike, for some of the high speed kinks, LFB gives you the ability to use only front brake and no rear, which can help turn in. the weight transfer is the same for any decel g forces, but, if some of it is coming from the rear tires, it can create some instability. PLus, as you say, you can get on the gas faster in some cases.. generally, with most FI cars, that time is not significant.... push the throttle, feel the force. its basically instantaneous now.(the RPM of the engine is not going anywhere if you are in gear. )
tapping the gas is a very easy task. as you are hitting 150 down the fast straight of Cota, just pick up your clutch foot and gently tap the brake. it will firm, or it wont.. it it isnt...... then you might plan for sub par brake issues and drive accordingly as you approach.

as far as plowing into the slower turns, try getting the car in a lower gear so you have the engine helping with forces on the rear tires and allow the Diff to work for you , braking later and harder, will transfer more weight, and then allow for a better on -throttle angle as you exit the turn.

Doing my brake bedding procedure, gives a lot of familiarity with LFB ,because as was said, it takes practice and that left foot has probably never been used to slow the car before , unless you do karting, where it becomes second nature.

one drill that works is LFB on the hyway in your street car, by picking an RPM and try and hold it there all the way to WOT......then start releasing the throttle , and still keep the RPM at that same target level. (might be 4000rpm or something).... This forces you to learn the oppoiste forces and relationship of both throttle and brake with the left foot as you change forces of both , but try and keep RPM the same.. ................. this is fun to do with rental cars, or as i mentioned, using my brake bedding procedure. (LFB training and brake bedding all in one! )

txhokie4life

With emphasis on the rental cars :-)

Thx,

Mike

spg993tt

those TA2 cars work best with left footed braking. 80% of trans am , nascar, etc machines with the new transmissions are left footed. and you can play between the two pedals to get just the right amount of nose down while adding throttle. and the main one is to well get better at something i currently am no good at. fun learning stuff, seeing if its helpful and then deciding which is best. id love to say right footed braking would be just as fast in a TA2 or other car, but a lot of left footed brakers say otherwise. so might as well.
id thinking left footed braking in the paddle shift cars would be a massive help especially a pcar where you struggle to keep the nose down.

mark kibort

yes, always great to learn new techniques. I do see an advantage just in the ability to apply brakes and throttle successively, in certain situations. easily seen in Karts, so i would think in paddle shift cars, it would be a little faster... however, i would get REAL good at it before i started using it exclusively on the track in a race. again, keeping the nose down is more a function of decel forces and theoretically, that can be reached to at a higher level without left foot braking + throtttle. (example, in slow turns).. but high speed turns, it seems to have some subtle advantages, for the high speed "kinks". as a note, when you left foot brake, you remove nearly all rear brake bias if you are still on the throttle. even though the TA2 cars can no lift , upshift and no clutch downshift, it can pay dividends in longevity , if you blip /clutch downshift and not be noticeably slower.

spg993tt

i picked the most simple turn i could at Monticello , i probably broke 2full brake meters too soon and overslowed the car so much i had to go back to throttle, and brake again. to me, its a massive amount of learning because i use the brake pedal in traffic, in close quarters all the time to pin the nose and its like a really intricate dance between the the brake pressures, the throttle, steering. really intricate, really fun. like 9 great athletes playing basketball, full out, and they need a 10th so they ask the chubby kid down the street who's never played a speck of sports. that was my left foot braking. we'll try it some more, here and there. going to be a process for sure. i don't write with my left hand and wouldn't try learning now. but we'll see how it goes.

fleadh

If you're not picking it up quickly, just stick with right foot braking. There's plenty of fast guys who RFB.

-mike

facelvega

A couple of "mechanical" things that might help (did for me...):

Left foot habit is probably to be on the dead pedal, then come over to the clutch and jam it down hard and fast. Your left heel is probably up in the air, especially if it is a racing clutch with a long throw. The way you carefully modulate throttle or brake with the right foot is probably with your heel on the floor. Left heel on the floor means you can delicately modulate with the ball of your foot, just flexing at the ankle versus your whole leg hovering (and bouncing around due to track features).

Second, after getting your heel on the floor, is to lock your left knee against your right knee. This makes the left leg completely immobile, so only the foot movement gets to the brake pedal. Kind of like shooting from a sitting position - you want to get any extraneous movement locked out. From a muscle memory standpoint, brake is very different from clutch; clutch is a stomp, for braking, the leg comes over, heel and knee lock, and then it is a very delicate application.

Last is right foot position. If your right heel is in front of the brake, and you rotate your right foot to operate the throttle, your right foot is in the way of left foot braking. Easiest if right foot heel is in front of the accelerator pedal, and you rotate the foot left for right foot braking. This leaves the area in front of the brake reserved for the heel of your left foot.

...and then practice, and try not to crash...

futurz

I started LFB two years ago in my 981S PDK. To help matters I first had a custom brake pedal built that extended the width to the left. That was so I didn't have to squeeze my leg so far over to the right which was uncomfortable. Next, I cut a couple of hockey pucks and glued/screwed them to the floor pan. I use them to give my heel something stable to rest against as I'm braking. I find it gives me more control than when my foot is dangling in the air. I have a ways to go in order to take full advantage of LFB, but this has helped me.