ok, so its obviously advantageous in an automatic or a "flappy paddel gear box", but in autocross, or any other racing, is it the same story.. i myself dont presume to know as much as i would like to know about the subject.. but it seems to me that, in autocross at least, that while there are certain tracks where you dont get out of second gear, there are also some that you do. so how do you left foot brake and shift at the same time? i dont know, which is why i leave to you to tell me.. thanks for reading guys
-J

 

i never done it, not sure if i wanna do it either..

 

you dont left foot brake and and shift.... period... unless you want a new gearbox...or unless you have a computer controlled sequential.
You can and do use left foot braking while on throttle through a corner to tighten your line without upsetting the car and/or falling out of the powerband in our application.

 

Left foot braking is so you can go from throttle to brake to throttle faster. It will save time in autocross as it reduces "dead time" between lifting off the gas and applying the brake and vice versa.

You can also, as mentioned above, brake and feed throttle at the same time to keep things spooled up though its very hard on everything.

 

Prob not a good idea, but you can do it if you use the throttle to manipulate the rpms and you can slip it out of gear and then if you get the rpm's right you can slip it into the next gear. Used to be used more but now alot of rally cars have sequentials.

 

I have a cousin who drives like that... scary as hell. His response time to braking just doesn't seem as flawless as right foot braking. Then again he doesn't drive an Evo and doesn't drive a 5 speed.

 

Tell me about it. My autocross co-driver set my brakes on fire, on a 60-second course by too much overlap of brake and throttle. He was very fast that way, but it's not worth it.

 

We teach left foot braking at our Performance Driving Schools. There are MANY reasons to use it on course, whatever the course.

Transition time between throttle and brake is a plus.

Trail Braking is another.

Settling and unsettling the car for better balance and rotation is probably the biggest.

Like every other took in your driving bag, this technique can be abused. Never, NEVER use it to "keep the turbo spooled". We hear that in EVERY class and it's just plain BAD THINKING. That's what anti-lag is for and if you are at the point where, competitively, that is the difference between winning and loosing by tenths of seconds, you don't need to ask about left foot braking... because you'd already be using it.

Left foot braking is the FASTEST way to drive competitively. Period. But it can be done wrong.

Scott

 

Actually, I'm not sure I agree whole heartedly about the tenths of seconds thing. I know of a driver that can move his foot so fast from gas to brake that the data doesn't even catch it and actually shows him braking before he lifts, despite keeping his left foot on the dead pedal. The only big reason I see rally guys using it or anybody with an auto-blipping gearbox is to just keep steady over bumps and whatnot and keep from missing the brake pedal in transition.

I'm sure the left foot thing works for some time per lap/stage, but with practice you can cut that down to maybe a couple hundredths per transition.

 

Rally drivers use their left foot on the brake (LFB), with the right foot on the throttle, to balance the directional attitude of the car through a corner, via the interplay of the two pedals ... i.e. steering input stays constant, interplay of brake and throttle is used to modulate the directional attitude of the car through the turn ... and in videos of world class drivers you can see examples of both throttle lift when LFB'ing, and also constant thottle on while LFB'ing (mostly just a quick stab to settle the car or tighten up the line), as dictated by the situation.

 

Left foot braking works very well in rallyx. It is way easier to be smooth between gas and brake with 2 feet then 1. Warren