Left foot braking anyone?

Hey ya'll I've been lurking for a while now. I was reading up on drafting be cause I love to draft. I'm one of those *******s who draft >6 Feet away.

I only do this because I practice left foot braking, that is braking with my left. I find that I brake at the very least .75 seconds faster than with just my right. This is primarily a automatic driving technique. Anyone else here use it?

[Jay2TheRescue]

I used to teach people how to drive emergency vehicles, and was in charge of approving people to drive for my squad. If I caught someone left foot braking they were immediately suspended from driving. The drivers that were doing that were overheating the brakes and cracking rotors. Not only that but it was also unsafe because the brake lights stayed on and nobody knew if the vehicle was stopping or not.

Its not safe, and you can do some serious damage to your vehicle and/or increase your chance of being rear-ended because your brake lights keep coming on when you're not stopping.

-jay

[Kohote]

Whenever I have to drive an autotragic I always left foot brake. I have never experienced any of those issues and it has not increased my chances of getting rear ended. Just put your left foot on the foot rest when you are not braking and you won't experience any of those problems.

I would say that if done properly, left foot braking is much safer than right foot braking (for automatics of course) due to a quicker reaction time. Instead of lifting off the gas and then moving your right foot over, all you have to do is quickly slam on the brake with the left foot. Getting on the brakes sooner means you come to a stop sooner.

I remember reading an article where a highly respected source tested race car drivers on a track and found the lap times of those who left foot braked to be much better than those who used right foot braking.

Left foot braking will make you a much better driver and the new sensitivity and feel you develop with your left foot will result with much better clutch feel and modulation when you drive a manual.

Definitely keep up with your left foot braking and I highly suggest that everyone at least try and experiment with it.

Two feet for two pedals, makes sense to me. Why have the right foot do everything and do nothing with the left?

[imzjustplayin]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

I used to teach people how to drive emergency vehicles, and was in charge of approving people to drive for my squad. If I caught someone left foot braking they were immediately suspended from driving. The drivers that were doing that were overheating the brakes and cracking rotors. Not only that but it was also unsafe because the brake lights stayed on and nobody knew if the vehicle was stopping or not.

Its not safe, and you can do some serious damage to your vehicle and/or increase your chance of being rear-ended because your brake lights keep coming on when you're not stopping.

-jay

woah, what? What does left foot braking have to do with riding the brakes???

[almightybmw]

Jay, left foot braking and riding the brake with your left foot are two very different things. One is race inspired the other is lazy inspired. I use left foot braking to maintain a throttle position entering a turn at high speed while slowing down, without the on-off jerk of moving the right foot from one pedal to the next. I also use it gently to turn off the cruise on uphills, again to maintain a constant throttle position, but for FE not speed.

Easy with the knee jerk reaction to misused terms.

[BBsGarage]

I too always left foot brake, specially when driving an automagic trans.
What I do not do is leave my left foot on the pedal.

I find it more comfortable to use my left foot, plus having owned only manual transmissions (until now ) I need my left foot to do something other then fall asleep.

[GasSavers_landon]

I use LFB, but only to counter understeer. I do it much less since I've been hypermiling.

[GasSavers_SD26]

No heel/toe people here?

[GasSavers_landon]

Originally Posted by SD26

No heel/toe people here?

My leg is not flexible enough for "proper" heel/toe, but I can brake & rev match if the need arises. Again, hypermiling cuts down on the need for that kind of thing. Some days I slip back into my old habits just for fun.

[Jay2TheRescue]

When I drove my granmother's old 81 AMC Spirit with a 4 speed manual I'd heel/toe to prevent the car from rolling backwards when I started from a hill. I'd operate the clutch with my left foot, right heel on the brake, right toe on the accelerator. As I brought the clutch up I would slowly give it more gas, as I was releasing the brake. I never rolled back.

The problem with left foot braking is that the drivers that did it would have the left foot hover by the brake. This invariably ended up with them bumping the brake when they didn't intend to, and probably don't realize as well.

I was responsible for the vehicle maintenance and driver training for a fleet of 2 Ford E 350 ambulances, 1 Ford E 450 Super Duty Ambulance, 1 International DT 4700 ambulance, 1 Chevy K 3500 ambulance, and 1 Chevy S-10 Blazer. I didn't like spending my maintenance budget on buying brakes. Sometimes a brake job would only last 2 or 3 months before someone cracked the rotors again.

Also consider that left foot braking gives the patient a better ride instead of a constant gas-brake jerky ride.

-Jay