14 replies to this topic

[Alfisti]

Someone told me that left foot braking is a thing of the late 20th century... 1980ish. I have the sneaking suspicion it goes right back to the beginning of racing. Any idea on who the pioneer was??

Also, do you think left foot braking is a better method?? I have had limited driving experience but found that left foot braking was hard to get used to at first but now i am confident with it i find i can get on the throttle quicker.

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"Life will not break your heart, it'll crush it" - Henry Rollins.

[Keir]

Never liked it, myself, but in today's F1 cars, it seems to be the only way to go.
A friend of mine used it it the front-drive stock class of the SCCA in the seventies, but
he got it from the "Rally" guys from Sweden.
In racing conditions, you tend to use the brakes up a little faster, except in Karting, where like F1, it's the only way to go fast.

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"I Was Born Ready"

[This message has been edited by Keir (edited 05-30-2000).]

[Huw Jenjin]

I Found Left foot braking was essential for setting up and balancing cars going into corners, particularly if they were low powered, turbo or with very narrow power bands.With a sensetive left foot it is amazing what you can do with the back end whilst keeping full noise, or at least throttle control using the other foot. Wouldn't be without it.

[Ray Bell]

So how do you get on with a central accelerator pedal? I've heard of crossed arms, but crossed legs could get a little dicey!
That might indicate that it was not the norm in previous times... central accelerator pedals were common up to the fifties.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Don Capps]

The various preselector gearboxes would lend themselves to left-footed braking since you essentially just jabbed the clutch to engage the next gear.

However, the first major proponent of left-footed braking outside the rally world was Jim Hall and the Chaparral folks -- Hap Sharp, Roger Penske, and Ronnie Hissom. When the GM slushbox made its appearance, Hall & Penske figured this trcik out almost immediately...

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Darren]

It became popular in F1 in the early era of turbos, partly because of the huge lag involved in the early systems. Shutting off the throttle completely and then jumping on it again is about the worst situation you can get for lag, so to get around it people started left foot braking to keep the throttle open and boost in the system. And Alfisti might also be interested to know that left foot braking is the technique of choice for Alfa Suds in motorkhanas, since the handbrake is a merely decorative item. Need to go 180 degrees? Left foot on the stop pedal, right foot on the loud pedal, give the round thing in front of you a spin in the right direction, hola - the Sud equivalent of the handbrake turn.

[green-blood]

The turbine cars of Lotus at Indy were driven using Left foot braking. In todays cars there is no real advantrage to right foot braking the cars are basically grown up Karts anyway, Do IRL/Cart drivers today rioght or left foot brake.

[Dave Ware]

Many, if not most, of the CART drivers brake with the left foot.

I'm not sure how this all works...do you just not use the clutch and blip the throttle to match the revs so you can shift? Sounds neat, but I'm not sure I want to wreck a gearbox learning how to do it.

Dave

[bobdar]

Left foot braking is really quite easy and dosen't strain a dog-ring gearbox as you suggest. Remember that, even if you use the clutch, you still have to match the gearbox shaft speeds by blipping the gas. Using the clutch forces you to heel and toe (a lot less precise control of the engine RPM); in fact, when the clutch is disengaged, you've just decoupled the engine from the gearbox and lost your only means of matching RPM of the shafts. I've been left-foot braking and shifting without the clutch in my FF for nine years now, and have yet to replace the old dog rings that came in the car. The control in the corners is really a plus, and it takes less concentration. By the way, my first race car was a kart.

[Huw Jenjin]

it was interesting to see on TV the other night that mcLaren set up a hand clutch for Hakinen on both sides of the wheel,he felt that he had the control that he did in his karting days with that set up for purely left foot braking.

[ghinzani]

I thought there was astudy thatsaid left foot braking gave a slight time advantage on the tracks?

[Lee Nicolle]

Having ever only raced with [modified] synchro boxes I used both feet on the brake.Hard stop, down 2 or 3 gears I heel and toed with right foot, whereas long fast parts I used my left foot to settle the car with the brake and ofcourse keeping the pedal up for the next big stop. It was a bit of a dance but worked well. In speedway I always left foot, no choice in one car and the other I have driven it feels better, plus you can keep your foot hard in the gas and balance the car on brakes.

[f1steveuk]

I was brought up on karts, direct drive, two pedals, so you have to left foot brake. Got into cars, and everything is "standard" (for the time). Then I worked in a motor museum, and with no two cars the same regarding pedal layout, gate patterns, well, just about everything, even two cars from the same maker (two Bugattis type 35s, a Lyon car and a T35) with different layouts, it actually wasn't that hard to adapt, but it's when you push it problems arise!! Especially if going on reactions. Now some early racers had a left foot brake (I am sure we had one that had this) but as there was never any real logical reason as to pedal position, I don't think history plays a part. When racing modern cars, I occaisionally used left foot braking, but not often. I few squirts in rally cars, and I found you did whatever needed doing, with whatever was left doing nothing at the time, to go quick, so maybe it filtered down from that!

[JtP1]

Someone told me that left foot braking is a thing of the late 20th century... 1980ish. I have the sneaking suspicion it goes right back to the beginning of racing. Any idea on who the pioneer was??

Also, do you think left foot braking is a better method?? I have had limited driving experience but found that left foot braking was hard to get used to at first but now i am confident with it i find i can get on the throttle quicker.

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"Life will not break your heart, it'll crush it" - Henry Rollins.

I would have thought that left foot braking from the early days of motorsport would have involved putting both feet on the brake pedal.

[grunge]

Never liked it, myself, but in today's F1 cars, it seems to be the only way to go.
A friend of mine used it it the front-drive stock class of the SCCA in the seventies, but
he got it from the "Rally" guys from Sweden.
In racing conditions, you tend to use the brakes up a little faster, except in Karting, where like F1, it's the only way to go fast.

------------------
"I Was Born Ready"

[This message has been edited by Keir (edited 05-30-2000).]

this is essentially a rally technique.its been around in rallying even before the 70's...the need basically comes cuz u see the rally cars sliding and accelerating at the same time..the left foot is used to apply brakes in order to sort of semi-lock the rear tires,the rear loses traction and slides around .at the same time the throttle is modulated by the right foot which sort of stabilizes the car..
in f1,it has a variety of application..LFT braking makes the rear end ''sit'' or ''squat'' more as compared to a simple lift off the throttle..this adds stability in braking on cornering...
another imp application would be to reduce understeer in a car esp by a driver that prefers a little oversteer...kimi in the understeering MP4-20..suzuka 05?..anyone?..
kimi suzuka 05
watch from 2:00 onwards..sorry couldnt find a shorter clip..compare the throttle/brake modulation of kimi with fisi

Edited by grunge, 16 June 2009 - 11:37.