3 reasons why you'll be faster with left-foot braking

I always thought this lefty braking benefit was a given. After all, that is what we first learned in our karting days, and then it seems we needed to unlearn with our cars, because of the dreaded feared bugaboo about grandpa style of dragging the brakes.

With old Mopars my background, I early fell in love of their double wide brake pedal. I'm currently converting over an early A Mopar with auto to a 4 speed, and plan on keeping the wide brake pedal, which the factory never did offer in a manual car as best as  I can tell. The big brake pedal also saves time in foot placement and boosts confidence, no matter which foot is doing the braking.

Andrew Polasek said:

Great article, the algorithm found me as I have been thinking about this for some time. To train my brain, should I start practicing LFB on the street, or just on track? 

Don't try anything new anyplace you aren't comfortable and especially don't try anything you might be uncomfortable with in a place you can put others at risk. 

Autocross is a great controlled situation to experiment with a new skill like this and see if it's something you want to add to your bag of tricks.

gwjr said:

If I try this, what is the game plan for a left foot brake induced spin? The advice is usually "in a spin, two feet in".  Not sure not would work smoothly enough in the moment. 

Gotta go three feet in at that point. 

Actually same rules still apply apply—two feet in. It can take some practice, but think how clumsy your feet wrestle when you were first learning to heel-and-toe. Work on getting reps in a safe, controlled environment, just like learning any new skill.

I've played a lot of basketball and soccer over the years, and have turned my ankles more than I can remember, especially my right one.  I feel LFB would help me, but most cars I rent a seat in for crapcan racing are setup for slightly smaller drivers than me, making learning it a bit harder, along with not being in the same car at different races.

When I ran with one team that ran an automatic 350Z for several races, I could brake so much more consistently with my right foot, since my 'wobbly' ankle didn't have to do the heel-toe.  I was able to keep a constant pressure throughout the braking zone.  When using heel-toe,  I've found that I have a tendency to lift my heel off the floor in the blip, which releases a little bit of brake pressure when driving cars with less than ideal seating positions for me.

I'm new to racing four wheeled vehicles. I ran a partial season of RallyX in 2023, and then a full season in 2024 - 12 events total to date. I'm still figuring things out. I started left foot braking mid-season last year and there are places on course where it obviously helps. I am also 100% certain that there were a few events where I was over-using it enough that it was slowing me down overall. I'm slowly getting better at it. 

I've been left foot braking since day one. I got yelled at in Driver's Ed for doing it, so I drove one foot to please them. Then went right back to left foot braking the second I got my license. It just feels natural to me.

Appleseed said:

I've been left foot braking since day one. I got yelled at in Driver's Ed for doing it, so I drove one foot to please them. Then went right back to left foot braking the second I got my license. It just feels natural to me.

I had some real E36 M3boxes back in the 80s that required left foot braking to keep them running. I hadn't used the skill much since until last year, but it seems to be like riding a bike... 

Appleseed said:

I've been left foot braking since day one. I got yelled at in Driver's Ed for doing it, so I drove one foot to please them. Then went right back to left foot braking the second I got my license. It just feels natural to me.

Same for my daughter, whom I had taught.  LFB and shuffle steering.  Plus the full suite of Evo schools.

Got yelled at in Driver's Ed.

I sent her to the next class with studies from AAA showing the benefits of those techniques.  Still got yelled at until she did it their way. 

Today I tried left foot braking today at an autocross because of this article. My Cayman has a PDK and the brakes aren't overboosted, so it's relatively easy. I also raced a shifter kart years ago, so it isn't a completely new thing for me. The problem I found was that in right-handers I was moving my leg against the door to brace myself (I guess I brace my right leg against the center console in left-hand turns). I'm used to having my foot planted on the dead pedal to keep me centered in the seat, so when I didn't have my left leg planted, I ended up sliding around in the seat and I unconsciously moved my leg against the door, making it difficult to get my foot back in position to left foot brake. For me, it was way too distracting to get my leg back into position quickly, so after several runs I just gave up and used my right foot for braking. I instantly gained about .4 of a second in time.

My car has 18-way seats (I've yet to figure out all the 18-ways it adjusts), but they aren't sports seats. If I was using a race seat that kept me in place, I think this technique would work great. I race in a stock class which means that I can't use a race seat, but I could buy some used Porsche Sport seats which go for about $6k for a pair. No way I'm going to do that!

In reply to Andy Hollis :

My experience was 30 years ago. Nice to see things haven't changed .

I've been pondering this question for a while. My current autocross car is an 8th generation civic with the 1.8/five speed manual and an open differential. Wheel spin is a problem on tighter courses.

I've been wondering if the slightest bit of brake drag as I accelerate out of the turn might help control the "one wheel peel" that sometimes persists after going straight again 

In reply to RacerBoy75 :

Have you tried moving your power seat backwards a few inches and yanking on your seatbelt to lock it. Then move your seat forward until your squished tightly by the seatbelt.

Not quite as good as a race seat and 5/6 point harness, but better than splaying the knees to hold yourself in. 

In reply to dstn2bdoa :

Seatbelts don't hold your legs in place.  I have to brace my legs even when wearing a harness tight enough that breathing seems optional.

In reply to dstn2bdoa :

My seat is as far back as it can go, both the seat bottom and seat back. The "firewall" is behind the seat of a Cayman because it's mid-engined, but I'll try what you mentioned. 

Sounds like a fun way to throw away half (all?) your season's runs  I do not doubt it's quicker but what a learning curve!

Andrew Polasek said:

Great article, the algorithm found me as I have been thinking about this for some time. To train my brain, should I start practicing LFB on the street, or just on track? 

I do it on my daily drive to get the left foot sensitized to what force is required.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to dstn2bdoa :

Seatbelts don't hold your legs in place.  I have to brace my legs even when wearing a harness tight enough that breathing seems optional.

Troof.  We put some padding on the cage on the left and on the trans tunnel on the right for exactly this reason.  It cut WAY down on fatigue in 2 hr stints.