Wheel Driver's Only: Left foot braking?

  • Thread starter ALB123
  • 61 comments
  • 6,040 views

For those of you who drive with a steering wheel and foot pedals, do you brake with your left foot?

  • Left-Foot Brake / Right-Foot Accelerator

    Votes: 152 78.8%

  • Right-Foot Brake / Right-Foot Accelerator

    Votes: 41 21.2%
  • Total voters
    193
Left foot. Specially when using the paddle shifters... started using the left foot before GT even existed, in weekend go-kart meetings... so it was natural ;)

rod_kart.jpg
 
My case is a bit weird.

I normally drive manual cars so I use my left foot for the clutch pedal. I've tried braking with my left foot sometimes but I always end up braking harder than I intend to because I'm using a foot that's used to push a pedal all the way down most of the time, call it muscle memory or whatever. However, it's a different thing when driving with my G27. Since I got it back in the GT5:P days I got used to braking with my left foot because the clutch in GT games is totally useless, although lately I've driven dozens of laps around Sahara de la Sierra braking with my right foot as it feels more realistic to me while driving on the closest thing we've got in GT to a real-life mountain road, I also feel I can gauge better the amount of braking I use. On other sims I still use my left foot for braking because I still have a hardtime controlling the car and want to have one burden less in my head.

To each their own, but it's certainly an interesting discussion!
 
GT5 Level 41
DFGT pedals too crappy for real-feel use. Gotta go with the left foot brake as unnatural as it feels.
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I modified my DFGT with a piece of sponge ball and/or a piece of 1/2" copper pipe insulation, along with a bungee cord to get a better brake feel out of the DFGT. The copper pipe insulation is a closed cell foam and pretty tough, and cheap as dirt.
 
For serious racing, left-foot braking + paddle shift

Cruising and mucking about, right-foot braking + full manual.
 
I want to do left-foot braking in GT6, but my crappy set-up doesn't allow for it. I can't fit my left foot in front of the pedal properly. My wheel is mounted to a tiny TV tray/table and the legs of it are so narrow. Once I can finally get a proper set-up I will do my best to switch to left-foot braking full time.
 
Saidur_Ali
I also do this. ;)

What I find interesting is some people used to right-foot braking struggle to do this and brake too heavily.

Anyway I hope one day to learn the following technique where you brake with either feet depending on if you are going to heel-and-toe on downshifts or left-foot braking if no downshift needed like shown in video below:



Main problem I have is with my current setup, if I use clutch pedal it can jump up off the floor. Also after a few gear changes, the shifter comes off the table which is not ideal. :lol:
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This is exactly how I do it when using the clutch.
 
I generally use left foot for the brake. In GT I always use the paddles so I always left foot brake. In other games I will sometimes use the clutch and of course when using the clutch I right foot brake.

In my real cars I left foot brake in the ones that have an automatic trans and right foot when driving one with a stick. Right now I own two cars both are auto and one truck which is a stick.

I have driven like this since I first started driving going back and forth between right and left foot depending on the need to use the clutch. The one exception is when I drive an older auto at night in the mountains I will sometimes use the right foot for the brake to leave my left foot free for the dimmer switch.
 
It is a bit hard for me to brake with my left foot in any game because of driving in real life. It is just habit of having the right foot to the acelerator and brake and the left foot for the clutch.
 
I always LFB in games. RFB never feels natural for me (also the main reason why I rarely drive using H-shifter and clutch).

In real life I always RFB (auto or manual). Though I never tried karting, I suspect I will LFB by instinct if I do drive one.

Oddly I first started driving in real life when 12, and I only got my G25 wheel when 15, but the switch from RFB to LFB was instant. Weird eh?
 
I use a G25 with clutch (when GT allows...) and use the 'dance between the two' method. If it's a big braking zone coming up where I'll need to downshift then naturally I have to use my right foot to heel/toe and left foot for the clutch.

If the clutch isn't needed then I use my left foot to brake. If using paddles then I use my left foot exclusively on the brake pedal.

My first wheel was a DFP so just the 2 pedals, so one foot on each felt natural from the start, and that was years before I could drive a real car.

In a real car I only occasionally use my left foot on the brake pedal, only really when doing burnouts / donuts etc. to be honest, or to give the brakes a bit of a scrub if they've got a coating of rust on the disc face when first setting off.

I don't tend to use my left foot as I'm rarely in a position whereby I need to left foot brake, it just doesn't come up, even when 'pushing on a bit', and if I was to suddenly come across something unexpected then there wouldn't be any unnecessary foot shuffling.

The strangest thing for me was that I got the G25 after I had started driving in real life. I had been playing GT with a wheel for years, but suddenly having to use the clutch as well (even though I was used to it in real life) completely threw me off and took a day or two to get used to!
 
Skython
Depends on the car's transmission. If it's a car with paddles, left foot braking. H shift, I'll mostly use right foot braking, but occasionally left foot brake if no downshifts are needed.
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same for me
 
With some cars you need to brake sometimes with left foot and when down shift use right foot heel and toe..
Example: this is how I drive the 90' Toyota mr2 at Nurburgring..
 
Even with a clutch I will left foot brake, start braking with left, then switch while keeping pressure on the pedal to my right foot for heel-toe. Best compromise between using a clutch, and getting on the brake as soon as possible.
 
I almost never use the H-shifter, and I brake with my left foot. I drive a manual irl though, so I brake and accelerate with the same foot there. I have no problems switching over when playing.
 
I'm older than dirt, and I've been braking with my right foot since 1974. Left foot braking is unnatural to me, and is usually slower. But with some car/track combinations, I find that some contemporaneous brake/throttle input is necessary to maintain some control and carry speed through a turn. So, i'm predominantly a right braker, with some left braking exceptions.

I'm no alien, but I'm usually in the top 500 in time trial seasonals. Perhaps I'd do better with more left foot practice.
 
Left foot braking makes car control a lot easier, so I use it whenever possible. Right foot braking can be just as fast if you're very deliberate, can transition between pedals in an instant, and are a fast driver to begin with. Rubens Barrichello did it in an F1 car when they were at their fastest, so it's not impossible or unheard of.
 
Ettick
Right foot braking can be just as fast if you're very deliberate, can transition between pedals in an instant, and are a fast driver to begin with. Rubens Barrichello did it in an F1 car when they were at their fastest, so it's not impossible or unheard of.
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Really? Now that's impressive! How did he managed it? There is literally no space for your feet to do right foot braking. He must have some kind of chinese woman feet :D
 
Always learnt with left foot braking, but have recently experimented with right foot braking. It's much slower though because there is a time difference between shifting pedals. :lol:
 
In the short time I've used my wheels (from the Thrustmaster Ferrari Wheel I had to the Logitech G27 I now have), its only been Left Foot Braking and Right Foot Accelerator. It feels the most natural to me.

Also due to not having a stable table that'll fit in my cubicle I refer to as a room, its only Paddle Shift. I tried using the stick and it feels great, but it makes the table I use feel like I'm creating earthquakes and I don't think that's supposed to happen.
 
Ettick
Left foot braking makes car control a lot easier, so I use it whenever possible. Right foot braking can be just as fast if you're very deliberate, can transition between pedals in an instant, and are a fast driver to begin with. Rubens Barrichello did it in an F1 car when they were at their fastest, so it's not impossible or unheard of.
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True, he did that. He was also clearly outperformed by Michael Schumacher, who used left foot braking. There's a telemetry comparison on how both tackled Silverstone's Copse corner (which I have trouble to find back), and Rubens was losing 0.3 seconds on that single corner. Basically, he could keep up on tight slow corners, with sometimes better exits, but he couldn't carry as much speed as Micheal in faster corners.
 
If you don't have a clutch.. left foot only braking-

If you have a clutch and are using an H shifter left foot for clutch brake, and right foot for gas brake. It really depends on each situation.

If you only need the clutch from start or if you spin, then left foot brake most of the time as well.

You need more selections to choose from.
 
GTCam
Left foot braking... kind of by default as I needed to stabilise the pedal base; however, it was natural to me as that's how I used to race go karts. The next question though, should you use brake and accelerator at the same time.

Cheers
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Answer, 99/100 no if you're driving kart(small crossover always), yes if something else :)
 
Left foot braking is faster so I use it whenever I'm using the paddle shifters. When I want to use the clutch again there are a few punishing laps of retraining my foot, which has led to not using the clutch near as much as I thought I would!
 
GT_Alex74
True, he did that. He was also clearly outperformed by Michael Schumacher, who used left foot braking. There's a telemetry comparison on how both tackled Silverstone's Copse corner (which I have trouble to find back), and Rubens was losing 0.3 seconds on that single corner. Basically, he could keep up on tight slow corners, with sometimes better exits, but he couldn't carry as much speed as Micheal in faster corners.
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/36634684/Schumacher-vs-Barrichello
 
Skilled racing drivers normally use both left and right foot braking techniques depending on the characteristics of the car and circuit. I had a neighbour who raced regularly at Brands Hatch and he once took me verbally through a lap explaining which corners he used RFB and which he used LFB and at which points he used both throttle and brake etc.

I am not a skilled racing driver and I follow the advice I was given by a rally driver friend of my Dad many years ago - I remember asking him about LFB around the time that it was just being introduced to rallying by the Scandanavian drivers - he said don't ever use it on the road (with a manual gearbox) unless you want to wrap your car around a tree!

I believe the LFB technique was developed originally to enable drivers to maintain speed when rallying the Saab three cylinder two stokes which had very little torque at low revs, so drivers used to keep the throttle on while braking, then similar techniques were applied to the Mini with great success.

In the game I always use LFB for online racing. If I am using the H pattern shifter for offline I sometimes try to combine LFB and RFB, but normally end up confused unless I know exactly what gear to use and where. I remember practising using both while doing the 9 hours of Tsukuba in the Mazda MX5 on GT5 - it brought some extra challenge to the race - LFB was used on the big corner.
 

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