Steering wheel users: Left or Right foot braking?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Devedander
  • 195 comments
  • 22,385 views

Left or Right foot braking?

  • Left

    Votes: 58 69.0%

  • Right

    Votes: 26 31.0%
  • Total voters
    84
  • Poll closed .
I use the right foot 90% of the time... And I can't think of one situation where left foot breaking is necessary except for doing a twin drift-battle and being the chaser or something like that
 
Real life- I use right foot always.

In-game- I would use both feet mainly because there wouldn't be a "fake" pedal to push your left foot against, so I would change my habits for that.

While driving in MY life- I will always use right foot.
 
I can't do it in my car in reality, the ECU disables the throttle when the brake pedal is depressed. For quickness in game i use left foot braking, but for realism i would use right foot, but it involves taking an alen key to the gaming seat footrest to adjust the pedals which is so annoying. Due to the EVO playseat design i cant left foot or right foot brake on one setting which is stupid, bad design from playseat, there shouldn't be column right between your legs! (unless your a man but that's a different matter)
 
On a gaming setup with two pedals, it feels totally natural. However, I tried left foot braking once in my real car and instead of applying what I thought was light pressure, the car almost came to an emergency stop! :lol:
 
I do it all the time in racing games, I tend not to on the roads. I can do it in my car, but it takes that bit more concentration and is a bit less natural than right foot braking for me. So on public roads I don't push my luck.
 
It should be pointed out that if you don't do this in RL and you want to try it, for god's sake do it at low speed the first time. 90% of people will push the pedal too hard with their left foot the first time. If you're doing 60mph that's a recipe for an accident. Get in a parking lot, practise for half and hour and then take it out on the open road.
 
I wouldn't even point blank recomend it even then. If it limits you in any way then don't do it on the road. Different people wll pick it up easier, but if it's not instinctive, don't do it near traffic.
 
Imari
It should be pointed out that if you don't do this in RL and you want to try it, for god's sake do it at low speed the first time. 90% of people will push the pedal too hard with their left foot the first time. If you're doing 60mph that's a recipe for an accident. Get in a parking lot, practise for half and hour and then take it out on the open road.
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I was only going 25mph on an empty road when I did it, and as per my previous post, like you said I pressed it way to hard! Thing is though, for normal driving in a normal car on a normal road, left foot braking is completely unnecessary, for anybody. I just tried it for the hell of it, and if I practiced I'd get used to it I'm sure, for what benefit? On a race track for maintaining revs through gears and balancing the car through corners, sure, but if you are driving on a normal road with that requirement, you shouldn't be behind the wheel of car on public roads!
 
I always use left foot braking in a game as it just feels easier, I don't have to deal with my right foot moving from the gas pedal to the brake, even if it's just a slight pause. But I wouldn't in real life. I'm often braking and shifting down at the same time (lots of small roads and tight corners here), so my left is needed on the clutch.
 
In real life, I always use the right foot to brake/accelerate, but with the pedals of my DFP it comes naturally to use the left foot to brake and the right to accelerate.
Perhaps if I had a G25, I would naturally use the left foot for the clutch and the right for brake/accelerator. Who knows... :P
 
When using H manual shifting I use right foot for braking.

When using manual with flappy pedals I use left foot for braking.
 
Hang on, when you say left foot braking, do you just mean using the left foot to brake, or do you mean using the left foot to brake and thus downshifting without using the clutch?

If you mean the former (left foot braking in a car that doesn't have a foot operated clutch) then yeah, I do it both in game and occasionally in real life. It you mean the latter (downshifting without clutching) I rarely do it in game and NEVER do it in real life, I care far too much about my car's gearbox to attempt to go slamming it into gear without the clutch. I'm not even sure if my car would let me or if it has some safety to stop you trying it... I really dont have a desire to find out, last thing I want to do is destroy my car's synchros.
 
I use left foot braking very often in GT (both in manual with clutch and while using paddles), and IRL too (95% in a manual). Obviously having to deal with a clutch aswell causes a lot of pedal dancing

As for shifting without the clutch while left footbraking (in manual, as WolfRacer543 mentioned) I have done that a few times, with good rev matching it works quite well without 'slamming' it, but I don't make it a habit.



Imari
It should be pointed out that if you don't do this in RL and you want to try it, for god's sake do it at low speed the first time. 90% of people will push the pedal too hard with their left foot the first time. If you're doing 60mph that's a recipe for an accident. Get in a parking lot, practise for half and hour and then take it out on the open road.
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Indeed, I urged a couple of my friends to give it a shot in a isolated spot warning them they will press it too hard, they laughed it off and got a shock when their insensitive left normally clutch foot hammered on the brakes.
 
haubi
And I can't think of one situation where left foot breaking is necessary except for doing a twin drift-battle and being the chaser or something like that
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I try to counter lift off oversteer by left foot braking, depending on the car and track works like a charm. Also if a quick succession of corners is done in the same gear, it's the left foot I use. Besides, if you don't want the engine revs to drop too much (turbo charged engine) there's a slight advantage.

In real life, I usually drive with adequate speeds and pay more attention to smooth and comfortable driving thus using my dominant foot - and that's the right one.

Left foot braking, as has been stated, can be really dangerous in traffic. But there's quite a number of people whose dominant foot is the left one, so they are in fact more sensitive with that one.
 
I'm a right foot braker. I drive street, not racecars. Left foot braking just feels wrong, it's a big character flaw. :D
 
WolfRacer543
Hang on, when you say left foot braking, do you just mean using the left foot to brake, or do you mean using the left foot to brake and thus downshifting without using the clutch?

If you mean the former (left foot braking in a car that doesn't have a foot operated clutch) then yeah, I do it both in game and occasionally in real life. It you mean the latter (downshifting without clutching) I rarely do it in game and NEVER do it in real life, I care far too much about my car's gearbox to attempt to go slamming it into gear without the clutch. I'm not even sure if my car would let me or if it has some safety to stop you trying it... I really dont have a desire to find out, last thing I want to do is destroy my car's synchros.
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You will find that its very hard to shift a road car without using the clutch as they have helical gears. Racing cars designed to flat shift have straight cut gears and are much easier to shift without the clutch. They usually have an engine cut built into the gear lever as well so you dont need to lift off the gas pedal when changing up.
 
In GT I use both,mostly right as I use the clutch,but left when a certain corner doesn't need a gear change or when balancing a car through a corner
 
kayman
You will find that its very hard to shift a road car without using the clutch as they have helical gears. Racing cars designed to flat shift have straight cut gears and are much easier to shift without the clutch. They usually have an engine cut built into the gear lever as well so you dont need to lift off the gas pedal when changing up.
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Actually road cars are quite easy to shift without a clutch and Helical gearsets have nothing to do with it, they are permanently meshed and never move out of position with other gears, as are also with straight cut gear sets, the difference (besides the type of tooth cuts) are mainly the Synchromesh which road cars have and straight cut transmissions don't. The various gear selector collars slide selecting different meshed gearsets and in a regular road trasmission that includes synchro cones for smoother and more user friendly shifts.

It all comes down to rev matching, as you said most of these racing straight cut transmissions have a ignition cut as they switch up (to drop the revs rapidly as the slam the next gear) but if you watch they mostly use the clutch for downshifts as just relying in blipping the throttle will cause too many mis shifts and potential damage.
 
When driving a real car I always right foot break (except sometimes when I switch to an auto after a long stint in manual my left foot things it has to do SOMETHING and stomps the brake the first time :) ) but in games I always left foot brake... I can't right foot brake for whatever reason. I think it might have to do with the fact when I left foot brake I get on the brakes HARD, in real life this isn't very good but in racing it's usually desireable. Also it's a cary over from driving iwth controller triggers where my left hand is brake and right is gas. I am just so used to being on both pedals at once and rapidly tapping both that I just have to have a left foot in the action.
 
I also use both when driving it GT. The left foot becomes a problem when you use a clutch whilst changing gear and trying to hold a fast line and speed throughj a corner. I race Go-karts in real life and I am forced to use my left foot through every corner because the kart has no gears. When driving in GT I still use the controller (for now) but occasionally used my mates G25 when I lived near him. If I used the G25 and if driving quickly in the real world (In a safe location of course :) ) I use the heel-to-toe maneuver as seen here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJNjDaZw5Xs Notice how he only uses the clutch on downchanges, this can work for a conventional H-pattern gearbox also.

Sorry but the footwork only becomes apparent around 1.27
 
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Jay
Actually road cars are quite easy to shift without a clutch and Helical gearsets have nothing to do with it, they are permanently meshed and never move out of position with other gears, as are also with straight cut gear sets, the difference (besides the type of tooth cuts) are mainly the Synchromesh which road cars have and straight cut transmissions don't. The various gear selector collars slide selecting different meshed gearsets and in a regular road trasmission that includes synchro cones for smoother and more user friendly shifts.

It all comes down to rev matching, as you said most of these racing straight cut transmissions have a ignition cut as they switch up (to drop the revs rapidly as the slam the next gear) but if you watch they mostly use the clutch for downshifts as just relying in blipping the throttle will cause too many mis shifts and potential damage.
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Whats grinding when you shift without the clutch? The syncros or the gears themselves? (Standard car gearbox, Serious question).
 
kayman
Whats grinding when you shift without the clutch? The syncros or the gears themselves? (Standard car gearbox, Serious question).
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It's the collar sliding into the dog teeth (the teeth on the side of the gearset) to engage the already meshed gearset.

Reverse is usualy the only gear that actually slides a straight cut gear (cog) into mesh with two other gears (three cogs/gears reverse output direction), which is why reverse which obviously has no synchro commonly crunches and is notchy even with clutch use.

Heres a little simplified diagram to show better I found quickly on google images

transmission-simple-2.gif


That purple collar slides across into the dog teeth to engage the gearsets (picture not incuding synchromesh).

The difference with straight cut gears is those blue, green and red gears in the pic are cut straight rather than helical, but they're always in mesh.

Synchromesh rings work as a interface between the collar and the dog teeth, they're are a friction ring that pushes against the gearset (in a cone shape) in a attempt to make the gearset speed match the shaft speed for smooth grindless shifts without the need for double clutching or revmatching. Often you will hear them spin up if you attmept to select 1st gear as you're moving (eg 30km/h) while the engine is at idle, this does wear synchro rings/cones but that takes years of driving in this fashion to cause serious damage.

example

synchromesh.jpg


Although there often is another set of dog teeth directly on the side of the gear set to lock the gear directly to the collar (sleeve in this diagram) and not just through the synchro cone (various designs).
 
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Remember that if you have never used your left foot for braking before in real life, that it is used to stomping on a clutch pedal - so it is desensitized, so like others have said you will usually lock up the brakes (like I did when I first started).

For a while now I have been driving an auto every day, so I have been training my left foot to be able to actuate the brake with the same sensitivity as I can with my right foot. For starters once I got used to it, I still had to actually think as I was doing it, but now I can just switch to my left foot, and its fully automatic.

The reason I did this was purely just to learn another skill behind the wheel. Unlike heel-toeing (which I use in manual cars all the time), I haven't used it in a performance application in real life yet (no real opportunity, crappy car and road rules prevail) but I figure one day I might use it if I can get to a track day again.

In GT while driving a manual with my G25 I heel toe, so obviously use my right foot, and mid corner if I need to modulate power and braking to correct the car I use my left foot, or coming into a corner where no downshift is needed I will generally use my left foot.

Whilst driving using the sequential mode I always left foot brake.

It's funny, even though there is absolutely no reason to in GT5, I have started giving the brake pedal a safety tap at the start of a long straight , to simulate checking for brake pressure feel, as it is a widely used technique in motor sport, and I do it just to build the simulation and atmosphere.
 
In all seriousness: DO NOT TRY THIS ON PUBLIC ROADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It will almost always lcok your wheels or worse and remember, the public road is NOT a racetrack, it is NOT a game and accidents DO happen and they can be very severe! again DO NOT TRY THIS without proper training!
 
Take the tunned 111R out on Suzuka east timetrail and you will see how left foot braking helps to balance the car, I use it on bends where I can in the lotus but I can't at ever turn because of the clutch, if i'm driving with padels I will all the time
 

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