What next after H/T?

[JimLill]

After driving MT all my life, and not having done much karting, I have decided to add left foot braking to my dance steps.

I plan to use the same approach that I used for H/T... that is, to do it every day when I street drive. Was playing around on my wife's Jetta today and got good with the timing and juggling feet to include H/T transition at the same time, but the feel/presure is something I need to work on. I have my Volvo all set up pedal-wise for track driving, so will get serious with that.

I'll never be a Walter Rohrl though!

[JimLill]

I should have included that I have no immediate need for this in my race car... with that level of power less braking the better! No way on the S-B Formula Dodge cars, the steering column runs between the brake and clutch.

I am thinking about the future and my next racer (or ride) I guess.....

[JimLill]

Short of getting an auto to practice with, anyone have any thoughts and how to turn by less sensitive left leg into something better for braking?

[jstecher]

Well I played with this quite a bit and short of having an auto I think that you can do the following:


Break with your left foot approaching stop lights by just popping her into neutral.
Work on left foot braking in the city in areas where you dont have to shift gears
Get a video game and steering wheel / pedal setup

[kbrew8991]

short of practice, I don't see another way to get your left foot/leg used to doing that smoothly

[Stack]

I think you need to look at where you might need to use left foot braking...

The way I see it, you'll only use it when you don't need to downshift (obviously?). High speed kinks where you might want to settle the front end a bit, low-speed third gear sections where you need to get on and off the gas/brake quickly (this might also be a need for some left foot trail braking).

I'm sure you've already realized that left leg right now is more of an on/off switch than anything else, and thats what you'll need work on. Being able to modulate your left foot is the hardest part. I did it for a few years when I drove my 300zx automatic, and got pretty decent at it I must say... but I have yet to try it in my manual tranny cars for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is that even with driving shoes on, my brake/clutch pedals are too close.

Road Atlanta seems to have a lot of turns where left foot braking might come in handy... especially if a car is torquey enough to hold 4th gear at T3 to start the esses. With better tires, I should have been able to hold 4th gear through the whole track except for T10a & 10b. As it was, it was pointless to try cause my tires weren't up to par (as you'll all see once I get my video back :D).

[jstecher]

I think this video is a fairly good example from a guy in italy about how to effectively use your left foot to brake for some turns in a manual car on the track. There are some strange parts under heavy braking I dont agree with but its the best I can find.

485979177438419959

[Stack]

I dunno john... I almost think he's just doing that to get some heat in the brakes and tires... the last 2+ minutes or more he doesn't do any left-foot braking, and is a lot smoother IMO

[jstecher]

That could be true Stack but its the only video I could find where someone was actually left foot braking. :)

Like I said there are some really strange parts but he is using all three pedals at points.

I should file this under a possibly example instead of definitive example.

[Stack]

That could be true Stack but its the only video I could find where someone was actually left foot braking. :)

Like I said there are some really strange parts but he is using all three pedals at points.

I should file this under a possibly example instead of definitive example.

It is a good example of the two different types of heel/toe :) He uses both side-of-foot-roll-over-to-blip and the rotate-use-the-heel-to-blip method.

[Skeen]

I don't know what that video was, but it's not something I'd try to emulate.