Bryan Watts

Reminds me of one of the first times I drove a SMG equipped BMW. Went up through the revs and as I was approaching 8000 RPM, I reached down to slick the gear lever while at the same time going for the clutch out of instinct...my left foot caught the edge of the brake pedal instead.

When I was learning to drive single seaters, the hardest part wasn't teaching myself to LFB, but rather breaking the instinct to go for the clutch on an upshift.

mooty

wow, heel toe heel sounds painful.

LFB is hard to TEACH. i think you just have to experiement at very low speed and get used to it. first time i did it, i came to a fulls top haaha.... i now only use it if i wanted as much speed as i can before a turn but i need to nose to bite, so i would just bruch the brk lightly but never let off the throttle.

however, 996 and later cars will not let you do it. if you are on gas first then brake, you get fuel cut off after a few nano seconds. but if you are really really really fast with your foot.... let off gas, brake first, hold the brk and back on gas. as long as brake is engaged first, you can LFB all you want...

i know what you mean about bad ankles, my will go one day too. but hopefully by then, clutchless shifting ala F1 cars will be perfected and cheap enough for us to use on normal cars.

srf506

I guess because of my flying background or maybe because I'm left handed, Left foot braking came pretty naturally. I find it most useful to keep my revs up when I'm trying to time a pass or in the draft at a track like Daytona and I need to match speed to the car in front of me to bump draft or space out enough to start a slingshot.

I agree, I can't wait to get paddle shifters with "semi-auto" boxes on all cars. Then we'll all be left braking ;-)

sbelles

I assume that's only on cars with PSM. I can LFB my 986. I'm glad students cars come with PSM but I'm equally glad mine didn't.

sechsgang

^^^Im pretty sure its limited to 996s and 997s (maybe the new boxters and caymans as well). Its really god damn annoying...even the GT3/rs has it!

wanna911

This is not true, there are several vehicles that are next to impossible to heel toe, at least without slouching down in the seat and turning your whole leg, thereby making it a hazzard rather than a help. And this is coming from someone who ALWAYS uses heel toe, not roll ankle. Roll ankle is hard in many factory cars.

As for Porsches, I havent been in one that's all that difficult to H/T

amaist

I don't know which DE you have been to but with most organizations I have driven with the lowest lap time did not necessarily correlate with group promotion. Good technique, smoothness, awareness, knowledge of the flags and procedures are the usual criteria.

wanna911

Yes, but we all know, faster guys tend to get promoted quicker. If you can be fast without being sloppy you get promoted REAL fast. True more with some groups than others, but still true.

Larry Herman

Corrected^^^

The problem is that it is hard to disassociate the car from the driver, especially when they have a really potent car. Our region is pretty good about recognizing good drivers yet I know of a recent instance where a driver was quickly promoted because of the speed of his car. IMHO he is at least 3 seconds off the pace of his car, based upon what other drivers have done in similar cars.

TraqGear

Good points Brian...I'm learning with the Hummer! Now it's become more "second nature".

Bob Rouleau

Left foot braking has been a problem since the 2000 model year when Porsche went to E-gas. Note that 1999 C4s also had E-gas but in 2000 it was in all models of Boxster and 911. E-Gas means that the gas pedal is an input to the engine computer and has no direct connection to the engine.

If you apply the brake while your foot is on the gas, the computer assumes you have a runaway throttle. Remember the gas pedal is connected to a computer and not the engine directly. Suspecting a runaway, the engine computer cuts the gas to the engine.

This can make left foot braking in a corner quite exciting! The only way to LFB is to take your foot off the gas, then brake then reapply throttle (Mooty described it above). Not easy to do in time.

On the subject of Heel and Toe - I wrote the promotion criteria used by National (it was developed for the Rennsport region and then adopted by National). I consider H&T to be an important driving skill and we require it for promotion to higher run groups. There are exceptions made for handicapped people and folks with tiptronics. DE is not racing, but advanced driving and the ability to enter a corner with the car in proper balance is important.

Best,

mdrums

I always braked with my left foot from the time I started driving on the street. I am a drummer by trade and very ambidextrous so braking with my left foot came natural and seemed safer due to a quicker reaction time. I got docked on my driving test at 16 years old for braking with my left foot.

I really miss my left foot though.

wanna911

3 Seconds is negligible though, Tires could be different, combined with DE environment, alignment setup etc. If someone is within 3 seconds of the fastest time for a car, that's doing pretty good. I mean we arent talking pro racers here where 3 seconds seperates a whole field.

But I do agree that a faster car will likely get promoted faster. I think a more powerful car takes more to maximize in terms of the potential of the car. But a less powerful car requires more skill about knowing ones surroundings.

Mike S.

Mooty,

While the pedal feel is much different, doing some a couple sessions in a kart will provide a general feel for LFB.

So to will living in Buffalo with a FWD car where you'd like to have a little fun going around corners on snowpacked roads. A little LFB, albiet with still some throttle input, can make you feel like your favorite Scandinavian rally driver.......at least until you run into your first curb.

Mike

mooty

not so. 996GT3 and 997GT3 do not have PSM, but if you are on throttle first and then try to LFB, you will lose power after a few nanoseconds.

yes, and on cayman as well.