LFB in LFS, mostly RFB in real life. I tried to LFB in real life a few times, and I was happy I had my seat belt on

When i got my wheel about a year ago decided that day i would start with left foot braking and it wasnt too hard, now its not a problem at all

Depends on how the simulated car is supposed to be driven. Formula cars I use 2 pedals, everything else 3 pedals

I occasionally go with the left foot on the brake and stabilise the car under heavy braking or in critical situations. Other than that, God has gave us a left foot and that belongs to the clutch pedal

well, RFB on the roads, and LFB in lfs. its much easier to react some sudden slides, crashes and stuff. actually, i always have both feet on pedals hehe. its kinda weird, i always push the lower part of the pedals, i mean only with my toes gotta get rid of it illepall

I left index finger brake

IRL, I've always RFB, even at a young age with automatic tranny hand-me-down vehicles. That is the way you are suppose to do it as taught. I of course have had a clutch ever since I purchased my own vehicle just out of high school.

I bought my first PC wheel controller in 1996 and it was just perfectly natural to LFB, even though I had never done it in a real vehicle. I guess it is just from the spacing of the pedals as I haven't seen an inexpensive pedal set that had spacing to allow RFB.

If I LFB in a real car, I can quite possibly hurt myself with the stuff in the back seat flying up front into me, LOL. If I RFB on the PC, then I have no control and lock them up. It's weird.

Quote from MorroW :

I use left-foot braking in LFS (haven't never brake with right foot I think) and
also in real life, if I just need to brake a bit, not change gear.





I'm not 100% sure, but there should be drivers who don't do LFB.
I think it was in this season ITV live where they talked about this...

damon hill was a RFB, and barrichello was til he tried LFB.

for the record, i RFB IRL in my manual car (lfb feels so weird and unsafe) but in LFS LFB feels so right with my momo pedals.

It is amazing the number of people who've never driven a manual 'box before, especially in the US. I learned on a manual gearbox and double de-clutching because my dad used to drive army trucks without a syncromesh. As a contrast I've only driven maybe 2 auto-gearbox cars so far and more than once have I gone for the clutch with my left foot and locked the wheels up by jabbing the brake pedal insted :P SCREeeech!!

Back to LFS, and as for 3 pedals on your controller, does this allow you to heel & toe effctively? If so, which set would be recommended?

Dave

i use left foot braking when playing LFS. Its just faster

I've always been able to use either foot, when on the roads I just use whichever foot requires the least effort, which is usually the right as gear changes are involved, but sometimes I proper heal & toe.

When racing, well most of my racing has been karts so left foot braking is the only option, but when I have driven bigger race cars I just use whichever foot feels right for the corner, it depends what other pedals I want to press.

Give me lots of pedals and you'll get me dancing far more energetically than in a night club...

erm - sorry for being a noob, but what IS Left Foot Braking? just using the left foot?

Quote from sgt.flippy :

I use left foot braking, but when I get in a real car, I don't even think of doing it. It just comes naturally to right foot brake in a real car

same here.

LFB with my Momo pedals right now, I tried RFB once, but couldn't do it, but that's gonna change when my G25 finally comes.... (who knows when Dabs get their stock??).

I have a G25 and use right foot braking for corners that require a downshift. I use left foot braking for corners that dont require a downshift but need some speed scrubbed off. I also use heel toe braking as I have none of the aids swicthed on (throttle blip etc...).

For some corners I start with right foot braking and switch to left foot braking once the gearing is sorted out.

IRL when braking hard, I start with the right foot then change to the left foot for trail braking.
In LFS I just LFB as the momo pedals are easy to use with the left foot and they have no clutch

Thanks to Becky and subsequent posts, I now have this bizarre mental image of LFS Riverdance, with a line of racers moving their feet between pedals really quickly

Edit: Maybe that should be Revverdance

RWD don't need left foot braking, but with FWD and AWD cars I occasionally use left foot braking too. When I drive my own RWD car it is quite rare when I don't use heel and toe, when I lift throttle rpm drop quite fast, it has also quite strong engine braking so can't use full engine braking at winter when on lower gears, very important to match rpm when downshifting.

When I drive sims I have only 2 pedals, so not really a point to use right foot for braking, maybe some day I get rich so I can get more pedals for my computer too

I always LFB in LFS, its just natural. As for the real road id never LFB in an automatic as this is a stupid move as you've always got your right foot resting on the accelerator. When driving manual i will use LFB most of the time, once you learn it on a track and you can control its pretty straight forward. I got into the habbit of heal/toe but i soon gave that up as it was pointless when doing 25mph!

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I mostly RFB because I prefer to race with a clutch pedal. It just feels better. I used to think I was slower because of braking with my right foot, but I'm so used to it now that I don't think LFB would be any faster.

Trust me, in cars where you can brake fast you WILL be faster with paddles. It's impossible to downchange as smoothly and quickly with manual clutch. When using paddles you can knock it down three gears in less than a second. Can't be done when you've got to get on and off the clutch between gears.

Ofcourse you can knock it down two gears without releasing the clutch but I find it really hard not to end up 'shift-locking'.

Quote from Jakg :

erm - sorry for being a noob, but what IS Left Foot Braking? just using the left foot?

Yeh exactly. It is quite complex and requires some time to master, especially on the road/track.

Quote from JTbo :

RWD don't need left foot braking

I completely disagree. I've driven many many miles in a Caterham Superlight on 5 different tracks and left foot braking can help immensely in ANY car in order to bring the front end in slightly while keeping the power on. It requires a great deal of finesse but it can be done and is effective.


Dave

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Sure, but it only really matters in cars with slicks and downforce because they're the only ones that can use enough braking force to make downshifting so quickly an invaluable thing to do. In my experience this means the single seaters, and I do LFB in those.

In the road cars (which is what I drive 99% of the time anyway) the only real problem I have right-foot braking is if I find myself having to come off the brake abruptly - if I've left it too late or braked too deep into a corner. With LFB I could still come off the brake gently while applying throttle but I can't do that with one foot, so that does tend to upset the car a bit mid-corner and give me a slower exit. I'm getting better at avoiding this though.

Oh, and the occasional messy missed shift. I Managed to go from 4th to neutral and then to 2nd (in a panic, should've been 3rd, and the revs had dropped a lot before I engaged a gear) the other night and sent my car fishtailing all over the place right before a tricky corner with Al Heeley right behind me. He must've thought I was a right nutter!

Totally agree mate - not so important in cars that don't knock of speed that fast. And yeah - the other problem's you mentioned (off brake smoothly) I also came up against. When I left foot brake I'm always coming off the throttle whilst beginning to brake and vice versa. When right foot braking I'm off the brake completely and have still not got any throttle on for a fraction of a second.

Quote from JTbo :

RWD don't need left foot braking,

I completely disagree - sorry mate.

The advantage comes from the seemless switch between braking and throttling. Doesn't matter whether it's RWD, FWD, 4WD or one wheel drive.

Quote from Gentlefoot :

I completely disagree - sorry mate.

The advantage comes from the seemless switch between braking and throttling. Doesn't matter whether it's RWD, FWD, 4WD or one wheel drive.

Maybe some cars then gain some advantage from that, but I have not needed that in RWD, in FWD and AWD I use LFB to get them turn better, in RWD I do that with throttle completely. Maybe depends also from driving style.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I don't think that's quite right: I think the advantage comes from always having a foot over each pedal. Subtle difference. With right-foot braking you can make up for that "seamless switch" by timing your braking so that the time spent coasting is done in a way that doesn't lose you time. Of course you'll still lose a tiny fraction coming off the throttle to hit the brake, but in LFS you can make up for that with fractionally faster (manual clutch) shifts on the straights, as biggie demonstrated by analysing one of my laps against one of his.

But yeah, having a foot available for each pedal is a bonus over the course of a race because you can react faster.

But the more seamless the transistion from throttle to brake and brake to throttle the more smoothly you are changing the weight (mass) distribution of the car. Smooth is fast.

I use LFB in LFS and RFB on the road. I learned to drive on manual gearbox and since then I never owned a car with an automatic gearbox. But each time I've driven one, I've used the right foot too. I prefer to keep a very clear distinction between my driving style when racing and when driving on open roads/streets.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

True, but again, it's possible to be just as smooth (as is practically necessary) using one foot, it's just a bit harder to do it. Well actually, having said that, once you're used to right-foot braking it's harder to come off the brake smoothly with the left foot.

I can only take your word for that mate as I never managed to get quite so smooth with manual. But then I only used it for about a month.