left foot braking and few other things. - Page 2

trinydex · Sep 13, 2005, 05:30 AM

uhm... iunno if this is gonna sound like abummer but i left foot brake with ease, of course i have a racing seat, sparco corsa, that helps a LOT so i totally know where you're coming from. i guess racing seat is important?

uhm... iunno if you want tips on practicing but the way i got into it really well was actually by brake boosting on the freeway, just like when you needa pass a car... instead of downshifing brake boost instead, or.... downshift and brakeboost. cuz it's a lot less strenuous when you have wide open spaces.

also when i left foot brake i tend to first "settle" my foot, the ball part, on the lower left corner of the brake pedal, then i ease into the braking and then transfer the whole foot. and then most of the time for setting up the left foot brake i hold my foot over the brake but don't touch it.

this is of course all easier if not only possible with a racing seat.

ev-slo · Nov 17, 2005, 06:50 PM

lfb is weird, ive never came into this part of the fourms, i do lfb when im driving because i get bored.... but it feels weird, i slam on it to hard....

ev-slo · Nov 17, 2005, 06:51 PM

off topic, did you know the brake lever thingy for your foot brake is the strongest metal on the car. It sin the manual somewhere, if you slam on your brakes in an accident or preaccident you dont want that ot brake hehe

trinydex · Nov 17, 2005, 07:21 PM

lfb is all about finesse takes lots of practice... the whole point of lfb is to not upset the car wtih jarring throttle lift + brake application but to be able to slow down without incurring any balance change.

06MR895 · Nov 18, 2005, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevin_stevens

Don't forget to move it over before you stab the clutch.

KeS

I did that in a race at Sebring in January on the warm-up lap....I looked in the mirror right after I did it and I saw three cars going different directions

homiusang · Nov 20, 2005, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 06MR895

I did that in a race at Sebring in January on the warm-up lap....I looked in the mirror right after I did it and I saw three cars going different directions

holy cow i hope those drivers were alright!

Tougefreak · Dec 2, 2005, 01:11 PM

I find it hard to do since I have long legs and It makes my ankel really uncomfortable after a while. Especially with the G-force added in I no longer can use my left leg to make my body more still and due to I have to move the seat back more. my body moves a lot more too.

trinydex · Dec 2, 2005, 04:25 PM

this is when you find it necessary to get the proper equipt to aid driving comfort and stability. racing seat with an adjustable slide and mounted nice and low for a tall guy like you sounds like what the doctor is ordering.

tenkra · Dec 7, 2005, 05:37 PM

when u apply some brakes mid corner, weight shifts from the rear to the front, providing more traction up front than in the rear = oversteer to neutralize the natural understeer.

trinydex · Dec 7, 2005, 05:48 PM

mmm i don't know exactly your point for saying this but there are varying situations to which the above philosophy can't exactly be applied.

most of what you said this is assuming that for one your front tires aren't overloaded, which means you have enough traction to both steer and brake. when you are over the limit of adhesion... the braking will only cause more understeer.

left foot braking is beneficial when you DON'T want this extra weight to go onto the front causing an overload. for instance in a varying radius turn... if you have a reducing radius turn you progressively have to brake more while going into the turn adn sometimes it works VERY nicely just as you described... but sometimes you lose too much speed and the corner exit is weak or sometimes the decrease in radius and the need for deceleration overloads your front tires. so in these cases left foot braking are good.

also... you should never apply brakes mid corner. you should be braking into mid corner but never starting to brake while you're mid corner, that's when you know you f'ed up and it's a hairy situation because if you brake you're screwed but slowing down if you don't brake you have some more control (not much) but you're still screwed. at that point you're just heading for something hard and ti's gonna hurt.

also... initiating a brake midturn also upsets the balance of the car... which might bring your traction bias up front... but will most likely overload the tires at least for one instat if not for hte rest of the turn.

chronohunter · Dec 7, 2005, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trinydex

mmm i don't know exactly your point for saying this but there are varying situations to which the above philosophy can't exactly be applied.

most of what you said this is assuming that for one your front tires aren't overloaded, which means you have enough traction to both steer and brake. when you are over the limit of adhesion... the braking will only cause more understeer.

left foot braking is beneficial when you DON'T want this extra weight to go onto the front causing an overload. for instance in a varying radius turn... if you have a reducing radius turn you progressively have to brake more while going into the turn adn sometimes it works VERY nicely just as you described... but sometimes you lose too much speed and the corner exit is weak or sometimes the decrease in radius and the need for deceleration overloads your front tires. so in these cases left foot braking are good.

also... you should never apply brakes mid corner. you should be braking into mid corner but never starting to brake while you're mid corner, that's when you know you f'ed up and it's a hairy situation because if you brake you're screwed but slowing down if you don't brake you have some more control (not much) but you're still screwed. at that point you're just heading for something hard and ti's gonna hurt.

also... initiating a brake midturn also upsets the balance of the car... which might bring your traction bias up front... but will most likely overload the tires at least for one instat if not for hte rest of the turn.

You don't use it to slow the car (let that sink in)...but to affect the balance of the car and to add torque to the drivetrain (puts power to the outside tires) which help the car turn. You can be accelerating the car (cars speed is increasing) while dragging lfb which keeps the car from running wide (understeering). I use it all the time in the snow it works wonderfully but it takes time to develop the sensitivity so it does not unduly upset the balance of the car. You can make a car act like it has tight limited slip diffs with lfb even if it only has open diffs (like the 03-04 front)

On an AWD car it will tighten the line of the car

On a FWD can you car actually cause substantial usefull oversteer with lfb

On RWD you can minimize entry oversteer and use it as traction control on the exit

On turbo cars use it as anti-lag

I find the EVO seat good enough to lfb. Harnesses certainly help though and as does a good seat like an OMP (not Sparco IMO).

trinydex · Dec 7, 2005, 08:54 PM

mmm points taken!

05SilverEvoVIII · Dec 9, 2005, 05:19 PM

sounds really complicated for me
think i will stick with normal day to day driving techniques

trinydex · Dec 9, 2005, 06:34 PM

but it is :]

blackhawkRA · Dec 22, 2005, 04:52 PM

There's some good info here... I've been teaching myself LFB in the past couple of days and it really is an amazing technique, especially for FWD cars that understeer entirely more than desired (like the RA). If you're about to learn the technique, I suggest finding a long stretch of parking lot or empty road in which you won't have to focus on traffic or objects, that way you can put most of your attention on pedal placement and sensitivity of your left foot. For your first few attempts to LFB in a straight line (just for accustomization) it might be a good idea to rev it up to more than cruising RPM (maybe 3k or 4k) in case you brake harder than intended and have to suddenly switch to clutch in order to not kill the engine.

Last night I found a parking lot with enough space to practice and one nice sweeping turn. Though it was really wet and not very uneven, I was able to get a good sense of LFB in my car. I kept the car in a constant LFB almost drift-like state for several rotations around some objects and my left foot was on the brakes for at least 10 minutes in total. Once I parked I thought of checking how hot the brakes were so being the dumbass I am I just dabbed the front disc with my thumb not really taking any precautions. They were so hot that I still have a big patch of discolored skin right now! Yeah so don't touch your brakes after LFB for a long time, but I guess everybody here cept me would think of something like that

.

From what I've learned (in the car), it's all about giving it enough pressure to keep the back end as loose as you want it, but without lowering the vehicle speed lower than you want. I'm sure this practice in an N/A car will help for once I get a turboed car (hopefully) sometime in the future.

Just one question: when using LFB to balance suspension state through a constant-radius corner, would you guys normally make slight ongoing adjustments to brake pressure, or just mainly with gas and steering? I know that I use every control to adjust the car, but how do you guys do it?