Post your opinions about left foot braking, mainly on road cars, is it really necessary to be competitive?

Thx...

Oh, and pls, if you really dont know that much about racing and stuff, let other more experienced people answer.

I do it on LFS because it allows me to keep the revs up, or to keep my foot on the throttle if need be.

Its definatly quicker than right foot braking.

Yes, if only because it takes half a second or so to move your foot over from the accelerator over to the brake.

When I had a front wheel drive car, I would left foot brake so the car would rotate midway in a corner. I would let up the throttle halfway, dab the brakes, and the car would settle in the position I wanted to exit a corner.

If I did that in the AWD car I now drive, I would probably spin.

if i use the left foot to brake in a road car i dont know why but i brake at full, and im used to use one foot to accelerate and to brake in road cars, in lfs two

If you want to be competitive you need to master either left foot braking or heal and toe, prefferably both. I mix and match when I race, but if you cant do either then how do you blip the throttle as you go down the gears? If you cant blip the throttle you cant brake as fast without the differential locking.

n00by question, but what IS left foot braking? i'm guessing that it isn't as simple as using the left foot to brake!

It aint no Flintstones Jakg... its a general question

And yes im looking for minor details and reasons, maybe a new point of view/definition, not the obvious "its faster cuz u dont have to switch duh"

lol

Quote from Jakg :

n00by question, but what IS left foot braking? i'm guessing that it isn't as simple as using the left foot to brake!

You guessed wrong... It's as simple as that... Only the execution isn't that simple, as your left foot isn't used to be gentle with the pedals (as it's used for dis-/engaging the clutch)...

I'm in the process of learning it (where it is safe to do so), but it takes much time to overcome the habits you trained yourself over years...

I (personally) can safely left foot brake after having a Momo for so long and only needing 2 pedals. With my G25, I am mostly a 3 pedal guy, and haven't quite started to learn heel-toe, but I seem to be able to do decent without it (might be my reason for XRT woes?). In the open-wheel cars, I can left foot brake, but still only use about 80% of the pedal.

Quote from bbman :

You guessed wrong... It's as simple as that... Only the execution isn't that simple, as your left foot isn't used to be gentle with the pedals (as it's used for dis-/engaging the clutch)...

that happens to me, my left foot its not gentle with the brake...

I personally right foot brake, even with my two pedal DFP, I just throttle blip like I do in my real car. LFB feels so weird and unnatural to me, I honestly can't do it. I could probably teach myself, but I really don't notice that much of a performance difference right foot braking.

When I'm doing rallyx or something though, I will occasionally tap the brakes with my left foot to rotate the car in the corner, not often though, as most of the time, a quick throttle lift does the same thing.

I have stuck to right-foot braking since i got my wheel. If i even try to left-foot brake, i just hope there is no one beside me or behind me, because 99% of the time, I lock up the brakes.

You have to left foot brake to trail brake so of course its better.

Quote from chanoman315 :

if i use the left foot to brake in a road car i dont know why but i brake at full, and im used to use one foot to accelerate and to brake in road cars, in lfs two

press the clutch with your right foot just once and youll understand

The real reasons for left foot braking are many and its advantages obvious to those who are good at it.

Besides the faster reactions mentioned, there is also the reason of finesse. It allows you greater control of driving forces than any other technique. In rallying that uses active diffs it actually allows one to choose between different differential settings in real time. It also allows real time manipulation of effective brake bias, provides better control for trail braking by superior control of throttle/brake overlap, etc.

For top level SSs such as F-1, left foot braking is an absolute must on the skills mastery list to have any real chance of competitive racing. This is actually why people like Micheal Schumacher and Aryton Senna were such amazing F-1 drivers, their left foot braking skills allowing for unmatched finesse. And no, heal and toe is NOT equivalent to left foot braking. A single foot contorted to manipulate pedals a once will never be a match for 1 foot per pedal. In fact, many people simply fail to master F-1 and rallycars simply because they just can't get around the idea of left foot braking. If anything it makes heal and toe look relatively easy.

With heal and toe, you just need to get used to multitasking and pressing 2 pedals with only your right foot. This is actually very impractical or virtually impossible to do with a lot of cars, especially with vehicles that have TINY brake and throttle pedals that are spaced a mile away. Can be done in many circumstances, but not without tendon and ligament torturing contortions that will cause permanent damage if practice over a significant length of time, especially for people with feet that requires smaller than size 10 shoes. The good news is that these days there are plenty of replacement pedals/pedal surfaces that improve pedal size and surface area and allow extended heal and toeing without the associated RTS (repetitive task strain).

With left foot braking the learning curve is actually much steeper as it requires a level of pedal finesse most can never master. It SEEMS simple in theory but is actually VERY difficult, especially for beginners. The required mastery of left foot braking is one reason why F-1 cars should remain pedal shifted, since it allows those who master this difficult skill to shine. How one has to stomp on the brake with the left foot in these VERY HIGH downforce cars and then relieve pressure on the brake pedal as speed and downforce decline whilst adding throttle to move effective brake bias to the front. If it sounds even harder than heal and toe, that's because it is.

@Jamexing
That's a very nice explanation , thank you for it !

Both techniques have their uses.

Left foot braking for trailing braking an FF car, heal and toe for FR, and a mixture for AWD

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I (personally) can safely left foot brake after having a Momo for so long and only needing 2 pedals.

There is no comparison to be made between left footing a real car and doing the same with your Momo.

I use my left foot all the time in simulations, but am a total menace on the road if I try it in my Peugeot. I can heel and toe a real car with ease, but have never practiced the left foot thing. Hence, if I try, what happens is that I jam on the brakes as if a toddler had just jumped into the road.

Computer controllers and real brake pedals are very different, and your left foot, used to finding the bite point on the clutch, needs a lot of recalibrating to operate the brake pedal safely, let alone trail it through a turn.

Quote from nihil :

There is no comparison to be made between left footing a real car and doing the same with your Momo.

I use my left foot all the time in simulations, but am a total menace on the road if I try it in my Peugeot. I can heel and toe a real car with ease, but have never practiced the left foot thing. Hence, if I try, what happens is that I jam on the brakes as if a toddler had just jumped into the road.

Computer controllers and real brake pedals are very different, and your left foot, used to finding the bite point on the clutch, needs a lot of recalibrating to operate the brake pedal safely, let alone trail it through a turn.

Very true, don't assume because you can LFB in LFS that you can do it in a real car. Try trail braking in a non-ABS car with your left foot for the first time, you'll find a tree before you find the corner exit!

As for doing it in a simulator, I think its a must to be competitive and it helps now and then just to have your foot resting above the brake pedal. Never know when that lag kicks in and you need to avoid a 20 car pile up

I left foot brake in LFS all the time, and I was shocked to find out that Rubens Barrichello is a right foot braker.. I don't really see how braking with the left foot can be all that difficult, I brake in a real car with my right foot, so I can operate the clutch obviously.

I do, however find heel / toe braking very difficult to get right consistantly.

Quote from Rooble :

Try trail braking in a non-ABS car with your left foot for the first time, you'll find a tree before you find the corner exit!

Only if you're one of those ABS-spoiled persons. Most of the cars I ever drove didn't have ABS, and I personally never needed it.
I tried LFB in real life too, but it's quite useless, because you still have to shift sometimes - which is preferrably done with the clutch. Heel-Toe works quite fine and I regularly use it on road cars, most likely because I like the revs to match the new gear
In LFS however I was LFBing quite some time too, but I almost completely stopped it when I started using a clutch pedal, for the same reasons as above

Quote from nihil :

I use my left foot all the time in simulations, but am a total menace on the road if I try it in my Peugeot. I can heel and toe a real car with ease, but have never practiced the left foot thing. Hence, if I try, what happens is that I jam on the brakes as if a toddler had just jumped into the road.

That is because the pedal in RL is different. PC wheels have a position sensitive pedal and real brake pedal is pressure sensitive, the pedal itself doesn't move much. So in real life you need much more finesse, which makes it harder to do.

I left foot brake all the time in sims as TBH my clutch pedal is fairly hopeless because it tends to move about so I use autoclutch. IRL I sometimes use left foot braking between shifts to balance the car, much like sim racing, just two pedals does take a few tries with no one behind you to not end up accidentally locking up though

there no discussion about it , your right foot is always over the accl and you use your left for clutch/brake , if you don't use this style then your most likely the slower racer on the circuit