does anyone do it? I've been playing around with it and i was just wondering when you guys usually do it? I know not to do it right before entering a turn but other than that when do you guys usually use it?
left foot braking
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+1 indeed.
id practice in open lots, but not while i daily drive, snow is probably when i do it the most, other than that, while i rallyX'd a bit. normally i would just stay on 2nd (I drive auto btw) and do the scandinavian flick and use excess throttle to keep it going along with counter steer.. sometimes, i get more aggressive and would drive on a higher gear (3-D) and drop it down, but it's risky with my shifter, especially with no shift lock :mamoru:
Handbraking... i've yet to try :lol:
I do it all the time. Literally.. that's why when I hit a moose I had little damage done to my car.. quicker reaction time compared to withdrawing your R foot from gas pedal and moving to break pedal. School zones with children.. yada yada. All the time.
Why wouldn't you do it right before entering a turn? Are you talking tarmac/gravel/snow?
With proper breaking techniques you can pretty much do JUST LFB on gravel/snow and don't really need to rely on stepping on the throttle or using an E-break to induce oversteer.
As I understand, when done properly, you should be doing heel/toe breaking for tarmac, yes?
Oh and another good use for LFB on snow is in straight lines, esp going up steep hills. You can use it to reduce wheel spin and maintain traction... (don't stand on the damn brake, just hold it lightly)give it a try this winter, works great.
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RIP McCrae. He was truely awesome!
If I'm going slower than 40MPH I can just keep it in 2nd and then keep my left foot on the brake.
If I'm going slower than 40MPH I can just keep it in 2nd and then keep my left foot on the brake.
my foot is too big to do it well....sadly
mm so is it used in the snow or gravel more? I was just running down my local mountain with a civic the other day and i saw him do it and was just wondering if you guys did it too. We were on a public road though and was wondering if it helped or not as much
Left foot braking. The whole purpose is to minimize 'turbo lag' and to keep the kettle boiling under foot. It started when early turbo applications had big lag times...
It's a very simple process... Right foot stays down hard, left foot slows you for the corner ~ full to nearly full boost is maintained in entry and at the apex. The second you can see you exit out of the corner, release you brake and you will exit like you are being shot out of a cannon down the next straight!
The early turbo/rally guys started the technique and it is still used today by many. Even 50% of the F1 pilots left foot brake today.
Obviously, it is hard on the equipment on a day to day basis, and you need top notch brakes that will tolerate this. But, it is pretty simple to learn the technique in a quiet canyon after a few days of blasting.
I can do it in my sleep (but now that I am back in an N/A machine, there is little to no need to do it). But, whenever I was giving test drives in the STi's or EVO's, I fell right back into the swing ~ And I had some pretty BIG eyeballs from the customers in the right seat on the exit of some of those corners!!!
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It's a very simple process... Right foot stays down hard, left foot slows you for the corner ~ full to nearly full boost is maintained in entry and at the apex. The second you can see you exit out of the corner, release you brake and you will exit like you are being shot out of a cannon down the next straight!
The early turbo/rally guys started the technique and it is still used today by many. Even 50% of the F1 pilots left foot brake today.
Obviously, it is hard on the equipment on a day to day basis, and you need top notch brakes that will tolerate this. But, it is pretty simple to learn the technique in a quiet canyon after a few days of blasting.
I can do it in my sleep (but now that I am back in an N/A machine, there is little to no need to do it). But, whenever I was giving test drives in the STi's or EVO's, I fell right back into the swing ~ And I had some pretty BIG eyeballs from the customers in the right seat on the exit of some of those corners!!!
And here I've always thought that it was for weight transfer...
That's what I use it for in my N/A, open rear diff, scooby in the winter. Gotta stay on the gas to catch the oversteer, gotta get on the brakes to induce it, cant steer off line or you go in the ditch, quick stab of the left foot makes the weight transfer off the back, and onto the front.
Also useful with solving understeer in a FWD car (mom's grand prix ftw??!!).
and i've never used a handbrake for attitude correction in my life.
Um.. What?Left foot braking. The whole purpose is to minimize 'turbo lag' and to keep the kettle boiling under foot. It started when early turbo applications had big lag times...
It's a very simple process... Right foot stays down hard, left foot slows you for the corner ~ full to nearly full boost is maintained in entry and at the apex. The second you can see you exit out of the corner, release you brake and you will exit like you are being shot out of a cannon down the next straight!
The early turbo/rally guys started the technique and it is still used today by many. Even 50% of the F1 pilots left foot brake today.
Obviously, it is hard on the equipment on a day to day basis, and you need top notch brakes that will tolerate this. But, it is pretty simple to learn the technique in a quiet canyon after a few days of blasting.
I can do it in my sleep (but now that I am back in an N/A machine, there is little to no need to do it). But, whenever I was giving test drives in the STi's or EVO's, I fell right back into the swing ~ And I had some pretty BIG eyeballs from the customers in the right seat on the exit of some of those corners!!!![]()
For some of the stuff you said, yes that's true. However, you totally discounted the effect of LFB on a FWD vehicle. LFB will effectively lock up your rear tires (or at least slow them down) while power is still going to your front tires. As I am sure we have all noticed, if you let off the gas and jam the brakes on a dirt corner (in any car), your front tires will skid inducing an understeer, front wheel skid, drop of a line/apex and potentially going off course/road.
Anyone running a NA subaru with the normal open diff, non modded drive train will benefit from LFB if done properly, still this will cause the rear tires to react the same way it would in a FWD vehicle while keeping power to the front tires. Once you've induce oversteer to the pitch required to maintain full throtle through the corner, you can release your left foot, countersteer slightly and prepare for the exit.
As far as having big feet (previous post) .. what size feet do you have? I am 6'2" with size 14 feet, I can LFB all day long without any issues.. heel/toe is a whole nother story though.
Weight transfer is one use of it for sure. But hell, honestly we can say lifting off the throttle, as well as applying the breaks in general create a weight transfer.
Really if you were to say it had a 'main purpose', it would be to maintain power going to the front tires while reducing/eliminating power going to the rear tires.
And for an open statement, LFB is useless on a RWD of course because ~65% of your breaking goes to the front end.. LFB would just induce understeer. The only good time to do LFB is if you want to throttle through a hairpin and your vehicle doesn't have the power to induce oversteer at speed w/ throttle only.
Introduce them, after a while they'll warm up together and make rally babies.
ill stick with my right foot, and leave the left for the clutch that way i wont cause any trouble for my safe drivers around meIntroduce them, after a while they'll warm up together and make rally babies.
No rally babies for you! :flame:
Really? This technique was learned on a 425WHP twin turbo charged front wheel drive Saab, in the day that intercoolers and 16 valve engines had to be sourced from race suppliers and Saab's rally department! And at the time was the fastest and strongest Saab in the U.S. That is EXACTLY how you dive a BIG turbo front wheel drive car! Rear lock up??? Did I ever say you didn't need skill? :jerkit:Um.. What?
For some of the stuff you said, yes that's true. However, you totally discounted the effect of LFB on a FWD vehicle.
Yes, you can use left foot braking to position the car as well in slippery sufaces, and this is JUST what the early rally cars did. But, when 'left foot braking' became 'public knowledge' it was ALL about keeping the turbo spoolin'! I was doing it when your Mom was dating ~
rly:Your original statement never even took into consideration the use of LFB on a FWD vehicle. If you had ever mentioned the use of a FWD vehicle I wouldn't have discussed that point. Hell, even the quote you did of me states that. In the non-turbo world, yes it does exist still, LFB is just as important, hell if not more important as we NA guys cant rely on power to pull us to the front of the pack...what's that word I'm looking for... oh yah, skill. This is where LFB truely shines. It's use of weight transfer, traction control only increase it's importance as a car control technique. If I were you, I wouldn't even attempt to differentiate between turbo and non-turbo, as the application is still the same.
And frankly, you don't even know how old I am so the final statement of yours is just an blind douche-bag statement. :yapyap:
Oh yah, and in terms of needing top notch brakes to practice this technique.... bullshit. Don't kid yourself. The first vehicle I ever learned to LFB on was a '90 VW GTI.
Thank you, come again.
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