If you are driving a car with an automatic, do you use your left leg used to press the brake pedal, and your right leg presses the accelerator pedal?
I always have, but suddenly I'm getting flamed on other websites. Yes, I know school is out, but dang.
There is no "right"answer ...
I am a right foot braker, probably because 90% of my driving has been with manual transmissions. I have tried left foot braking now that I have autos but I have little sensitivity and no particular desire to acquire it.
Right foot unless I'm at a drag strip.
Right foot for gas, right foot for brake. Your left foot sits on the "dead pedal" if you're lucky enough to have one, and comes along for the ride.
Classic two-foot auto drivers (usually over-cautious elderly folk) will simultaneously apply gas and brake. Ever been behind a car that's accelerating but still has brake lights on? Probably a two-footer who's taking "cover the brake" a little too far.
I right foot brake because my left foot has no grace.
But that's not to say left foot braking is wrong. Just that I suck at it.
Need to add that I do use the left foot but only if I've been driving exclusively manual for a while and only at the first stop.
Im seeing "there is no right answer" but actually there is. Right foot, gas and brake. The reason its "right" is because if you left foot brake then you have the potential to have one foot on the brake and one on the gas and in an emergency situation you could depress both, limiting or canceling the effectiveness of the braking. You use one foot only because it ensures you have the active foot only where it needs to be during a situation.
My old man uses both feet driving auto. He is also death on anyone riding their brakes. I once tried left foot braking at autocross. Learned I have a lot to learn.
I left foot brake my manuals so I'm no use to you. Gotta blip every downshift.
I left foot brake in autos every time. My left foot gets bored otherwise. It's how I learned sensitivity for LFBing in manuals for track driving. Unless I need to downshift, I left foot brake. On the street I right foot brake in manuals.
Left foot braking is a requirement in some circle track cars. You cannot right foot brake a go cart. Therefore anyone who learns how to drive the correct way, and early enough (age 8 or less) knows how to left foot brake instinctively. It is a lot harder to learn later in life, but the idea that you should never ever brake and accelerate at the same time is hogwash. How the hell are you supposed to rotate a front wheel drive car? In order to always have my left foot "tuned" to brake usage I frequently left foot brake my stick shift cars if I know I won't need a shift during the brake, and I always left foot the automatic shop truck.
Exactly, left foot breaking is how you kept an 80s/90s slushbox from being too terribly stupid, you could keep the torque converter spooled up! :)
Now I'm lazy and right foot everything, but in the Oldsmobile....
JThw8 said:Im seeing "there is no right answer" but actually there is. Right foot, gas and brake. The reason its "right" is because if you left foot brake then you have the potential to have one foot on the brake and one on the gas and in an emergency situation you could depress both, limiting or canceling the effectiveness of the braking. You use one foot only because it ensures you have the active foot only where it needs to be during a situation.
This is lowest common denominator thinking in action. People have to be taught this, because many people are not coordinated enough to do this. Often when people say "you" can't do this they really mean they are not able to, so you must not be either.
If I'm driving, uh, exuberantly I LFB. Otherwise it's right-foot only.
Javelin said:I left foot brake my manuals so I'm no use to you. Gotta blip every downshift.
Is that not more easily done with right foot on both gas and brake?
I never left foot brake for the reasons Mr Thwaite outlined above.
I tried autocrossing the V60, which it didn't particularly enjoy. Until I tried left-foot braking - then it downright hated it.
Always left foot brake. Right foot braking feels unnatural.
When asked how long it took to learn left foot braking, Timo Makinen said "It takes at least 2 years and many, many cars."
Javelin said:I left foot brake my manuals so I'm no use to you. Gotta blip every downshift.
Do you use your left heel on the clutch?
Yeah, same question as j-tso. The bite point on the clutch in most of my cars is lower than full lock on the brake pedal. How do you balance the two? I have no problem right foot blipping throttle with the little toe side and modulating brake pedal with the big toe, but there's way too big a range between clutch fully disengaged at the floor and brakes at their balance point...
I have never u derstood why anybody would left foot brake. None of the reasons make sense to me.
I CAN do it. I have had to do it roadracing because the engine wouldn't stay running without some throttle input in the corners.
Can somebody explain how left foot braking is a benefit? I really don't see overlap as working well for anything except throttle blips (which can be done by heel and toe).
My only is with left foot braking is those folks tend to rest their foot on the brake pedal waiting for the need; in the mean time the brake lights NEVER TURN OFF.
Wait, you guys use the clutch on downshifts? I go back and forth in my Ranger, but that's partly because I am somewhat trying to kill some component in the drivetrain so I can go ahead and do the Duratec swap. "I've got to replace the engine, honey, I may as well go to this one. It will get better gas mileage!"*
As mentioned by others, I will LFB in autos if I'm bored. I do it in manuals as well, again, if I'm bored.
As to the "Why LFB?", at our level of driving, it isn't going to net much time. At the professional level, the transition from trail braking onto the throttle is going to be minimized. I had the hardest time in college (oval racing based program) when we were talking about driving. Why would you brake, then hold maximum cornering, and then hit the throttle? My brain said to minimize the off-throttle time, which is what you aim for, but you have to assume that you are going to have some time of just pure cornering.
*She will see right through it, don't worry.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
Left foot braking is faster, and smoother, because you never have a time delay between throttle and brake. You can blend inputs seamlessly, like Indian Jones with the golden idol.
wvumtnbkr said:Can somebody explain how left foot braking is a benefit? I really don't see overlap as working well for anything except throttle blips (which can be done by heel and toe).
Mainly for rallying but this can apply to road racing, using the brakes while the throttle is applied can shift the balance of the car forwards to help it rotate in a corner. Left foot braking also helped keep the turbo spooled up through the corner when boost lag was a problem.
Michael Schumacher was a left foot braker. A carry over from his upbringing at his father's go-kart track.
As for the flamers. Its really none of their business how you prefer to apply your brakes so don't worry about what they think.
I frequently LFB automatics on an autocross course. It allows me to keep some throttle on to keep the drivetrain and torque converter loaded. It seems to come off the corners a little quicker.
Daily driving is RFB. My LF is apparently lazy.
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