fatbillybob

Are track drivers on this forum "routinely" using left foot brake right foot gas to rotate their cars on corner entry?

For those responding are you running C5 or C6 with or w/o suspension mods?

Thanks!!

2000BSME

Not even when I race my formula car on Playstation 2.

TommyBoy72

Yes I do for corners that don't require a shift.

Forgot to add, I have a C5Z and I do have Koni 3013 shocks, and have had different sway bars from stock to T1. Stock brakes with different pads.

emf

Yes, usually when I need to settle the car.
Tons at buttonwillow, some at Spring Mountain, and some on the back section of Cal Speedway.

AUTO_X_AL

Yes. As stated above as long as the turn won't require a down shift I'll left foot brake. Works great to keep the car balanced or to scrub a few mph and settle the car. Works like a dream for autocross. I started doing it on road courses and found it very helpful in more than a couple situations.

AUTO_X_AL

Sorry, it's a C4 with 84' Z51 springs and Koni sport SA shocks.

rasrboy

Yes I do my friend, I like to play with weight transfer and I do believe you can be quicker when you master it. I learned in Karts at a young age and I just stuck with it.

My car is a 2003 Z06 that I run in SCCA class T1. I also do it in the old 66 autocrosser/roadracer and my 87 racer as well.

Aaron Quine

steve40th

Been driving like that for 26 years. Dad taught me that in my first 1967 Camaro. Damn I am old!!!!
I drive an automatic C4, and will get a six speed if I do HPDE type stuff. Currently have suspension mods, sway bars, and QA1 shocks. Not much but its fun in autocross.

AU N EGL

Left foot brake on a long fast straight, Just tap the brake peddle with my left foot to make sure there ARE brakes, while the right foot is flat on the floor. Then hard right foot brake, left foot clutch, blip throttle with right, down shift.

also tap brake with left foot to 'set' the front end just as entering a corner.

C5 & T1 suspension

Bill Hetzel

What these guys said.
But remember that unless you have left foot braked on the street for a long time, your left foot won't have the acquired senseitivity that your right foot has. It will take some practice.

Try some karting, it's good practice and a lot of fun.

Find the Ron Fellows, NASCAR video from Sears Point and watch his feet dance on the pedals.

I have a formula car that has 2 brake pedals.

RedLS6

All the time.......stock C5 Z06 on race rubber. Left foot braking allows for very, very smooth corner transitions if done right. Instead of the brake and gas pedal acting like on/off switches, left foot braking allows for much smoother modulation of corner transitions, and allows for less engine braking torque on the rear wheels.

My daily driver is an automatic. I left foot brake on the street 100% of the time.....good way to develop a feel for it.

xsiveone

That's what I do. I try and left foot brake every time I drive an auto on the street to get my muscle memory on my left foot used to modulating the brake.

The Spark

I've left foot braked in an auto for almost 30 years.
The first HPDE I did was in a C5 A4 and I was left-foot-braking. The instructor asked me about it after a while. He'd never seen anyone do that. Worked great because there is no lag between letting off gas and getting on brakes (and vice versa).

I haven't had any problems using my right foot. Still working on heel-toe though.

I can see how using a little left-foot can help set up for turns if you don't have to downshift. Great idea. I'll have to try that next time.

If you want to practice on brake sensitivity, try driving a Prius. When you first put on the "brakes" it uses the generator to charge the battery and the resistance to slow you down. Once you get slowed down the brake pads come on. My wife has one and it takes me a little while to get used to the brakes ever time I drive it. After a few hard stops I finally get the feel. (and before I get flamed for driving my wife's hybrid, it gets 50+ mpg in town as opposed to 10 mpg in my truck. I try not to drive the Vettes around the lunatics in town).

AUTO_X_AL

I'm not sure how a C5 is but when I tapped the brakes prior to the brake zone @ Waterford entering T6 the Booster bled enough vacuum to make the pedal hard and off into pea gravel I went.

The way I look at it is that if I'm not sure the brakes will be there I've done something wrong. Brakes won't just go away all together. The few times I've seen the tell tale signs of brake loss, I just back it down for a few laps and float it into and through the corners until I think I've allowed enough cooling.

I know I've seen the guys on TV pumping up the brakes or even just checking them but I have to think that the purpose built race cars have improved brake systems. Our setup is a stock GS brake setup. Again I'm not sure how a C5 acts but I know I won't "Check" for brakes unless I don't want them...

fatbillybob

Well my reason for asking this question is that I race a midengine car (different weight transfer properties) and when I left foot brake I can get the car to rotate at corner entry better than just steering alone. This does stabilize inputs but really it is to rotate the car.

I am new to tracking a stock front engine nose heavy understeering C5Z06 and I wonder if you guys who use left foot brake are able to rotate the car. Perhaps a nose heavy car just does not respond to left foor brake or I need someone to tell me how I can get the car to respond to it. Perhaps I need to turn the wheel harder and stab the brake a bit more to bring the rear around but that is just so not smooth. Perhaps my stock Z06 needs to be set-up to neutral to mild oversteer in order to use left foot brake. So maybe you guys who understand front engine car set-up with Z06's can point me in the right direction. I'm just puzzled by the lack of responsiveness with the front end of my car and I am trying to force it into my driving style.

xsiveone

I naturally right foot brake because I was taught to do so in drivers ed back in high school. Why did they teach us to drive that way? So you have a foot for the clutch if you drive a stick?

AU N EGL

Left foot braking does take skill and feel. that light tap with the left foot does take a lot of experience to know how much to tap and not stomp on the brake peddle.


One time I was flying down the front straight of VIR at over 140 chasing a Cup car. I tapped the brakes just past the timing tower about pit out, just prior to the brake zone and

The brake peddle did not move. So I let off the throttle and used the right foot to brake, by this time I had slowed to just over 130 at the 5 marker. Still no brake peddle movement.

I drove straight off at about 110 mph, into the grass and finally got brake peddle as I eased into the tire wall. Minor scuff.

Boiled Super Blue brake fluid, glazed over PFC 01 pads and vaper lock. Should have known better to chase a cup car But hey, I wasn't going to let a Porsche get away from me. BIG LEARNING EXPERIENCE there. ( damn I have video of that some place)

If I would not have left foot tapped the brake peddle I would have gone into that brake zone at 140+ mph then braked at the 5 1/4 marker.

The long straights and the braking zone was the only real place I could make up time on that cup car.

Now every time my wife sees a Porsche when we are out driving even in the pick-up she says, "Porsche, Get IT."

Bill Hetzel

[QUOTE=fatbillybob;1563018886]Well my reason for asking this question is that I race a midengine car (different weight transfer properties) and when I left foot brake I can get the car to rotate at corner entry better than just steering alone. This does stabilize inputs but really it is to rotate the car.

That's interesting. What kind of car is the midengine? It seems to me that tapping the brake would basically drop the nose and put a little more weight on the front wheels.
Is this in corners where you don't brake before the corner and don't trailbrake after turnin ?
If this is in a purpose built car, yes the weight transfer properties and quite different. The cars I drive only drop the nose about 10 mm or so under heavy braking. Even a stiff sprung Z06 will have more movement under braking or a tap on the brakes. So, if you tap the brakes and turn the wheel, is the nose on the way back up before the chassis takes a set? If it is, then some weight is coming off the front tires, understeering. So, the way you let off the brakes can affect the way the car handles.
There's a big difference a midengine car and a production built car on the track. Different driving styles required. Just like the difference between a rear wheel drive production built race car and a front wheel drive car.

Jackie Stewart once said " one of the reasons i was so fast in a F1 car was the way I let off the brakes", interesting quote.

dmiz0420

I wouldn't say left foot braking is to rotate the car (though I guess it could be used for this), it is to set the car up for rotation. It transfers the weight fwd (one force) so when you turn (second force) the tires aren't overloaded by experiencing both at the same time and break loose. It's not always that digital (on/off) but more of an analogue function that overlaps at the end of the left foot brake and beginning of the turn. I might lift on the throttle a little to help rotate the car, and I might trail brake a little or gass it a little. Hell I might even turn the wheel a little to rotate the car.

I hadn't thought of tapping the brakes before the end of the straights, but I havn't boiled my brake fluid either...yet....I'm going to start giving a little tappity tap tap before blasting into turn one and trying them for the first time at 150ish Thanks AU

BTW I mised the 5.25 marker.... only see the 654321. Where should I be looking for this?

AU N EGL

The 5 1/4 marker is the point or the distance you travel at 140 mph or the time between you take your right foot off the throttle at marker 6 and apply the brakes, that is 5.25 marker

Now I use Castrol SRF and Wilwood H pads, brake at 3 1/2 and enter T1 about 62-65 and come out or T2 ( 180* T1-T2 combo) 78-82 or something like that. Need to get a traqemate