Then people went "Euro Trip" are left foot brakers.:icon17:

None of above... I use my right foot kick my gf out of the passenger side window to save her life in an emergency or collission...

Public notice: be aware of women flying around at the scene of an accident.

My brother got me left foot braking while playing Forza. It took a little practice, but it's not that difficult. I have even done it in my Nismo. The trick is to down shift early otherwise you are totally FUBAR. Yep and if I panic its not pretty. I think if I didn't have to pay for my car, tires and brakes....well I'd be a real race car driver and left foot brake all the time!

I don't see anything wrong with it it's no kind of like heal toeing in a MT. All three pedals being used at once. I'm thinking, if you can't left foot break don't try heal toeing!! Just saying!

:shakes head:
I believe you are mistaken. Toe and heel is nothing like left foot braking. Toe and heel is all right foot on both the brake and accelerator, left on the clutch. It's a method of double declutch shifting while using all three pedals at once.

Luckily, you have a Nismo that already accomplishes what toe and heel works to perform: 'blipping' the accelerator while decreasing speed to downshift and match the speed to your gear for coming our of a corner.

When my CSC went out in my Integra GS-R, I could actually get the RPMs low enough to get into first and skip back up to speed. The technique, while sounding crazy, would be to come to stop in neutral (else the car would stall) and rev it up to about 4K, and on the down-choke, I would dump the AC to high. I could get it down to about 400RPM and grind it into 1st with a open door and a kick of the leg. In traffic, I would just force it to stall in 1st and use the starter to get it rolling. :eekdance:

Amazingly, I got 254,800+ miles on it before it was sold. :icon14:

Only had to replace the CSC, throwout bearing, and starter once.

I not saying its totally the same, but the whole deal is about coordination and control. The design or placement of the pedal are done because most people are right handed and have little or no coordination with their left hand or foot. It all goes back to left handed equals sinister or wrong! However, if you grow up knowing only how to left foot brake you would not know that it was "wrong."

So if you can't dribble a basket ball with your left hand, switch hit or are otherwise ambidextrous it probably not a smart move. I played college baseball with a guy that pitched both games in double header, one right handed and the other left and won both of them to get his team to the 5A CIF championship So Cal. I doubt that he would have a problem left foot braking!

Driving auto with two feet?
Driving auto?
what are you a girl or something?

I've heard of people slamming their foot on the dead pedal in an auto trying to press the clutch pedal, but never driving an auto with 2 feet. I can see the benefits of it on the track. Like with a lot of things, I think it comes down to execution more than anything else. The better option is the one you feel more comfortable with. If you can do both effectively, then just do what you feel like doing.

Personally the only time I ever use both feet in my auto is when I'm launching at the drag strip. Other than that it's just the right foot for me.

Well, then left foot braking is like juggling and eating with chopsticks?

:icon14:

Guess my beef is with the "if you can't left-foot brake, don't try toe and heeling!!!" part really.
The usage is nothing the same. Toe and heel is completely slowing the car without any acceleration going on, only rev-matching the engine for a lower gear with the clutch disengaged. As long as the clutch pedal is on the floor, there is no chance of both the car trying to go forward and stop simultaneously where left foot braking can leave a person.

No argument from me. I'm just saying you gotta have skills for either. :eekdance:

:iagree:
I agree. It takes conditioning to drive, at all, with coordination and what not.

I can toe and heel as it's become second nature over the years of parking lot drifting and SCCA open track runs. And, I've driven the Z with a 1/4" of ice on the car and enough coming down to lock the windshield wipers with almost bald tires and in the snow on Potenza's. But, left foot braking, after seeing my brother use it and trying it myself, scares the living crapola (that's fancy Spanish) outta me.

1 foot pedal to the metal 24/7. :D

are you idiotta? (is that how you say it?) :icon17:

I did this once, well long story short, first car I ever drove (dad's tundra, I was 13). After I parked perfectly, my dad simply said "I better never see you driving with two feet again." Well all I thought to myself was, if its not a Manual! hahaha

If you're going to cite SCCA experience, left foot braking is totally an autocrosser technique, especially in a FWD car.
I have ProSolo medals to prove that it works.

I've won events in both a GS ITR and and a CP Miata braking with my left foot.

Yes, it is common for autocross in AT FWD cars.... on race tracks. I'm arguing that toe and heel and left-foot braking are nothing similar for many reasons: the desired result, the application, and the technique. The only thing they share is that both would require practice, just like driving at all.
The citation of SCCA and off-road drift experience was to explain where one would apply toe and heel appropriately. I also used that to explain that while I can perform the maneuver, and I would drive in ice storms and snow on bald tires in the Z, left foot braking in traffic still scares the crap out of me.

Side story:
I've never used an AT for solo courses, and the only FWD I used was at the drags and it was a MT as well. I'm not knocking left-foot braking as a racing technique. I'm knocking it as a technique for drivers just beginning and for some experienced road drivers who would panic in an emergency situation.

Congrats on your wins!:tup:

I've never heard of this either? wow that's interesting.

You can usually see those who do it when the person with the brake lights on accelerates with the brake lights still on.

(there is a very slim chance the pedal spring on the brake isn't clearing the light sensor, but I would speculate that's a 1 in every 50 or 75 situation)

Can't remember what video I was watching on Youtube, but I remember there was a race and the tv screen had a first person view and a view of the drivers feet on screen at the same time. The driver was doing really well as I remember it and was passing cars with using both feet. Fernando Alonso also does the two foot style

I'm pretty sure most F1 drivers left foot brake today since the clutch is behind the steering wheel and is only used to get the car moving. They have to trail brake to be fast. That said, I would be willing to bet they don't left foot brake in a road car. Most are from countries that automatics aren't common. I know even though Schumacher and Jean Alesi have modern Ferrari, they both drive original Fiat 500s that are certainly manual. Completely crazy concept to me to left foot brake a road car. Of course I haven't driven an automatic in years.

Never new people drove automatics with two feet. I have, however, noticed some cars on the freeway with the brake lights on driving faster than me. Now it all makes sense lol

I drive auto with both feet, I was told that I was going to struggle learning manual because of this. So far after 7 months I drive fine! I also drive my truck which is an automatic once in a while and Don't have any issues going back to it.

I guess I'm just a beast! :)

Yea... Definitely a natural.

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...ing-wrong.html

:icon18: :icon18: :icon18:

:iagree::icon18::icon18::icon18::bowrofl::bowrofl: :bowrofl:

I was hoping someone would bring this up :happydance: awesome memories in the 370z forums

We don't forget a lot of things that happen... And some of us, me included, LIVE here

I don't think the ITR came in auto.

The thing about any technique is that you put it into practice.
As I've said earlier, there's a whole lot of hypothetical situation conversation going on in this thread.
I'm comfortable with the techniques I use because I put them into practice whether on the race track or on the street. You can't just switch modes because you're in one environment or the other.
An analogy would be someone who doesn't practice proper handling of their firearm because it doesn't matter until they're in a crisis situation... but when that crisis situation arises, they can't "shift gears" and use skills that they haven't put into practice.
Or another example would be the person who says that spelling and grammar don't matter because this is just the internet, not a job resume and then finding themselves unable to put together an impressive resume because when it matters, they can't do it.

At the end of the day, do what YOU are comfortable with, what YOU put into practice on a daily basis. But stop telling people they are wrong because they do something that you're not comfortable with or skilled at.

I can dribble and shoot a basketball quite competently considering I am right handed and generally not ambidextrous. However, I got that way with lots of practice. I have not practiced left foot braking much at all, and in my experience I am awful at it. I'm sure there are people that are just naturally ambidextrous at most activities, but I'm not talking about them. Generally speaking, being good at one ambidextrous thing does not make one good at multiple ambidextrous things.

Take it back! :mad:

True, my point was just to show that you can drive really well and use two feet although it seems a lot of the time a good amount of people don't.

I am in complete agreement with LunaZ. All I was saying is that if you have the gift of dexterity, your learning curve maybe less. That said I didn't learn to dribble a basketball or hit left handed over night. I practices my a$$ off and I hit over .300 while I was at Cal Poly Pomona. This is no different than what the auto cross driver posted earlier. He became proficient and the result are he wins events.

I'm not arguing for or against left foot braking. I'm just saying it can be done proficiently by some and for most everyone else, heed the warning statement on commercials "do not try this at home...professional driver on board." :driving:

Same... :iagree: w/ LunaZ :tup: I guess my only point was your assumption that your switch pitcher friends could left foot brake competently simply because he could pitch ambidextrously. I don't think those two are related, though I will admit, as you mentioned, good dexterity can certainly shorten the learning curve. :tiphat:

No problem...the downfall of communicating in this manner is that many statements are taken literally or out of context. If I was a betting man, I would say most everyone here struggled with right foot breaking when they first learned to drive!!! :eekdance:

:confused: You didn't highlight the generally speaking part... I think there are probably more people who do not easily learn things with their off-hand or foot than people who do. I was speaking about that (what I assume to be) majority of people who require practice to be ambidextrous at certain activities. Unless you are naturally and completely ambidextrous or you have the gift of dexterity to learn left and right activities with equal ease, then being good at one activity with your non-primary hand or foot is not going to inherently lead to you being good at other activities with that same appendage. For example, I can feather a clutch quite well, but that set of muscles I have developed precise control of over the years is different than the set of muscles I would use to left foot brake. And being that I have never practiced left foot braking, it should make sense that my attempts at left foot driving are woeful at best right now - I don't easily learn activities with my off-hand or foot, so I have to exercise those muscles specifically to have precise control of them. And of course, everyone is different. I just wanted to clarify my comment :tiphat:

:iagree: In my case the learning curve with my right foot was substantially shorter than it has been with my left foot. I've tried it out recently a few times just to try it, but I don't see myself ever using it in daily or track driving.

I've never driven an auto one-footed - I learned to drive an auto two-footed. I don't think it was any more difficult to master than other methods, but, not having used other methods, I can't be sure.

About the only time my right foot touches the brake is during hard/panic stops; just there in case of booster failure or other malfunction. The left foot beats it there every time.

I'm the same way ... have driven auto's with two feet for 35 years ... built in trail braking when I need it ... just how I learned and how I have always done it.

Voted in poll (6mt of course :driving: ) and saw results ...