For what it's worth, I avoid left foot braking on a stick because my humble
grey matter can't consistently differentiate between telling the left foot
"time to declutch, all the way to the floor this time" and "time to brake,
expect to stop half way before you hit the floor".
When I get those confused it can get nasty on the street, even if not on an
autox (where "point and squirt" could make that pay anyway, I'm surmising).
My car (86 Mustang SVO 2.3TII presently configured for ESP) is set up from
the factory for so-called "heel and toe" (actually the respective edges of
the right foot on both brake and gas pedals). For some reason my grey
matter has no trouble at all with this. I've been doing it for so long, I
guess, on the street with a variety of cars that were either set up for it,
or I set up myself for it.
Richard Nichols
rnichol1@san.rr.com
San Diego, California, USA
1972 Ford Pinto Sedan 3J - Original Owner/Restored
On display at the San Diego Automotive Museum
12 June 1999 through 31 January 2000
-----Original Message-----
From: Engstrom <engstrom@onramp.net>
To: 'AutoCross Mailing List' <autox@autox.team.net>
Date: Friday, June 04, 1999 10:51 AM
Subject: Left foot braking
>Wow! After a really talented driver drove my car (99 Corvette - manual
>transmission) a couple of events ago she said it was really easy to left
>foot brake and it helped keep the car settled transitioning from brakes
>to gas in a turn. Another talented driver rode with me at an event this
>past weekend and said my transitions from brake to gas were too
>abrupt. He advised me to try left foot braking.
>
>My first experience with left foot braking was back in '84 or so with my
>mom's '78 Mercury Cougar XR7 - a big mushy tank with extreme power
>brake assist. I just couldn't get that boat to smoothly transition to
braking
>with my left foot. I gave it up after a couple tries. I guess I let that
bad
>experience cloud my judgement. Even after driving the cars at Speed Zone
>(Malibu Gran Prix-like place) where you have to left foot brake and doing
>it very well I was still hesitant to try left foot braking in a street car.
>
>OK, so I'm driving home from work earlier this week thinking about
>autocross and I decide heck, why not try left foot braking. So as I
>approach the exit ramp and need to brake I did it with my left foot -
>leaving plenty of room around me in case I over/under brake. Wow,
>I never realized just how cramped my footwells are. Now I know why
>people like thin race shoes. Anyway, after adjusting my feet position
>(which I also think was hurting me a little on the autocross course - I
>would keep my feet kind of cocked to the side instead of straight over
>the pedals) I found I was able to left foot brake easily. Cool! Now I
come
>up to a 90 degree left hand turn and brake moderately heavy, start feeding
>in a little gas much earlier, and transition off brake and into gas
simultaneously.
>The car just says "OK, that's what you want to do, it doesn't bother me
>in the least!". There's no abrupt compression / decompression of the
>suspension. It's smooth as silk. Not only that. I find I'm able to feed
in
>full gas much earlier in the turn and use brake modulation to control
>staying on the edge (of course, I'm on the street so I keep it at 7/10th).
>When I didn't left foot brake I had a real hard time modulating around a
>turn with the gas because I have sooooo much torque - there's an awful
>lot of engine braking even when you only lift a tad and there's a lot of
>accelerating when you ease into the throttle a tad.
>
>So, my questions are:
>
>1) How many of you that have a choice left foot brake (AM, CM, FM - I
>guess you HAVE to) ?
>2) What kind of cars do you drive?
>3) For those of you who left foot brake, is it common to use a little
braking
>with the left foot to control speed in the middle and end of a turn?
>4) For those of you who left foot brake, is it common to use both brake and
>throttle modulation in a slalom?
>
>Thanks,
>John "No, not that one" Engstrom
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