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Old 02-13-2012
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Left Foot Braking

Warning... Crushing Word Count ahead. There are no action shots as we were too busy steering and left foot braking.

Left Foot Braking.

Most associate left foot braking with perpetually blinkered, nondescript four door sedans piloted by pleasantly distracted senior citizens, brake lights aglow, meandering at 47mph down a 65mph interstate.

A small group of Skippy open wheel road racers (Sy Aryeh, Chris Wilcox, Lee Englebardt, David Knight, Michael Chapin and Pat Daly) recently learned a more interesting association for that term.

At Team O'Neil Rally School in Dalton New Hampshire they teach you to not only use the brake with your left foot to slow and stop a car, but also to steer it. Most have experienced terminal under steer in a front wheel drive car on snow, gravel or mud when you turn the wheel, at speed, and nothing happens. The only strategy to regain control is lifting off throttle until the car slows enough for the front wheels to regain grip. Who knew there was a better way? Turns out most rally drivers know that better way.

After learning the basics on a skid pad Team O’Neal used a cone slalom course to demonstrate steady throttle and nuanced left foot brake application to transfer weight forward and steer the car.

It’s a remarkable thing the first time you go at the cones at 35-40 mph in 2nd gear, leave your foot in the throttle, put in a steering correction that has virtually no effect as the front end plows straight ahead and apply brake pressure that shifts weight forward and turns the car. The more you brake the more the car turns but because you don’t back off the throttle the car maintains most of it’s forward momentum awaiting your next steering correction and brake release or application.

You next learn the importance of modulating the brake pressure smoothly, as stabbing at or jumping off the brakes makes weight transfer and direction change erratic and/or uncontrollable.

We also quickly learned that our left foot was the second dumbest part of our body. It had never operated a brake pedal before and while our right foot knew the nuanced touch of adding or subtracting a pound or two of pedal pressure, our left foot had lived it’s automotive life as a couch potato on the clutch or dead pedal with no experience or muscle memory to fall back on. On top of that the cars would run out of brake pedal boost about half way through the run meaning the amount of brake pedal pressure needed would suddenly double and our left foot had to also feel that and adjust on the fly.

The one piece exactly like road racing was the absolute necessity of keeping your “eyes up” at all times. It was easy to target fixate on the first cone as we initially struggled to get the car to rotate around it properly. Your focus had to be two or three cones ahead anticipating when to begin your next steering change and brake application. It was easy to be distracted from that. The more speed you carried the more critical looking ahead became. Start your turn/rotation too early and you’d wipe out the cones, too late and you’d be too far behind to make the next cone without spinning.

With practice, that “Everything you know is wrong…” feeling transformed into the pleasure of new skill acquisition as we rotated the cars around the cones with constant throttle, small steering corrections and modulated brake pressure. It was way more challenging and fun than this description.

Our vehicles for this exercise were European spec front drive Ford Fiesta’s that Ford brought over for a special promotion. They gave 100 cars to 100 winners of a web contest for a year in exchange for driving them around the country while reporting their adventures with the cars in various social media. Because they were Euro spec cars Ford had to either export or destroy them when the one-year permits expired. Ford had no plans to export them so rather than destroy them, they sent almost half to Team O’Neil after signing federal paperwork on each car promising they would never appear on public roads again. Here's a link to an over the top road test Jeremy Clarkson did on the new Fiesta for Top Gear. Clarkson tests Fiesta on Top Gear

The cars were perfectly suited to the task with standard transmissions, roll bars, good heaters, snow tires on all four wheels and double shoulder harnesses. Pulling the fuses for the traction control allowed us to perform our unnatural acts of simultaneous gas and brake unimpeded. They don’t have a lot of power but for these exercises and conditions you didn't need it.

Initially we ran an equally spaced cones course and after getting the basics down they staggered and stretched out the distance between them progressively, forcing us to vary our speed and timing as you would on rally roads. Raising the bar meant keeping our eyes up while making multiple adjustments far enough ahead to successfully negotiate the course. That was day one.

On day two we learned the famous Scandinavian flick where initial steering is in the opposite direction of the way you want the car to go. Counter intuitive you say? Well yes, but with a method of madness that uses properly timed brake application to put weight on the nose, steering back in the direction you want to go and brake/throttle release, to produce a weight transfer rotation that brings the back end of a front or all wheel drive car sliding around a sharp apex almost but not quite ahead of the nose without losing momentum. The sideways slide makes the proper speed adjustment needed to change directions while leaving a margin for error in low grip situations that classic track-in, apex, track-out lines do not… Patience is a virtue here and when you get the timing right with eyes up it feels easy and brings a smile to your face. The perfect, “So that’s how they do it!” moment.

After lunch on day two we were introduced to all wheel drive Subaru’s and Audi’s. Though longer in the tooth than the Fiesta’s they were mechanically sound and again well suited to the task with roll cages, shoulder harnesses and studless snow tires. We practiced the slalom cones course again with a different sequence of left foot braking. Instead of holding the throttle on while adding brake, we lifted off the throttle while approaching the cones, made our steering correction first, then left foot braked to get the weight transfer rotation started before going back to throttle. It sounds complex on paper but it was easy with practice and worked like a charm.

After spending the previous day and a half learning left foot braking with throttle for front drive cars, this new sequence of lift, turn, then brake brought the “everything you know is wrong” feeling back with a vengeance. The joy was having your aging brains processor bouncing off its rev limiter trying to select and execute the proper pedal sequence for the proper drive train. That joy only increased as we moved to the final stage of our two-day training.

The final exercise put all of our newly acquired skills together on one continuous rally course. We used the now familiar cones slalom with connecting dirt roads around the rally school complex. Starting with cones we completed the first cones sequence over a steep rise that fell away fast enough to get airborne. Like the uphill at Lime Rock Park it was key to have the steering wheel straight so you took off and landed in a straight line in preparation for hard braking before the hard right u-turn that followed. After running the slalom in the opposite direction we had a Scandinavian flick right turn and then a diabolical sequence of short straights and constantly changing radius turns with a variety of camber and elevation changes. The grip changed every run and every corner as the temperature dropped from the mid 30’s with mushy conditions to the mid 20’s with ice. Parts of the course were already frozen with turns in the sun just beginning to freeze.

It was all we could have asked for in terms of variety and challenge. With our instructors riding shotgun we gained their wisdom in assessing the changing conditions and properly driving the course. None of us would say we mastered rally technique in two days but all came away with a new understanding and appreciation for rally driving and the advanced skills of the instructors who generously shared them with us.

Haven’t been this humbled in a car since my 3-day. Learned a ton about weight balancing and steering with the left foot in constantly changing low grip conditions. While not directly applicable to road racing technique this experience will definitely pay car control dividends on track.

The part I've left out is how much fun it was to spend two days with Sy, Chris, Leland, David, Michael and all of Team O'Neil. Just the right balance of focused skill building and irreverent hilarious trash talking.

None of this would have happened without Skippy instructor Travis Washay. Travis is also a long time Team O’Neil instructor and put together this condensed training for road racers that packed most of O’Neil’s 3-day rally school into 2 days. Because we all had road racing experience we were expected to be somewhat more “teachable”. Guess we managed to fool most of them. They moved us through their curriculum based on how fast and competently we learned the techniques. They normally don't have students experience both front and all wheel drive techniques in 2 days. Having now done it I’m both grateful we did and see why it’s not the norm. The techniques are not inherently difficult to grasp or execute but managing both techniques in two days gave me the occasional brain cramp. While in the all wheel drive cars in the 2nd half of day two found myself falling back into front drive mode without realizing it. All that did was make me want to return for more seat time to better back brain the all wheel drive technique.

We were privileged to have Tim O’Neil and Chuck Long teach us in the classroom and then Travis Washay & Travis Hanson, Chris Duplessis, Alan Moody and Bill Louze impart their rally driving expertise in the cars. We all walked away with big smiles wanting more.

If you’re a Skippy racer (or a group of Skippy racers) and want to try this, contact Team O'Neil Rally School and tell them you’re interested in the Travis 2-day rally-cross course. They’ll talk to you about your experience and determine if you qualify for this accelerated 2-day.
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Last edited by dalyduo; 02-25-2012 at 02:02 AM.
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Old 02-14-2012
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Western Re: Left Foot Braking

That looks like a Funnnnnnnn school !!!!!!!!

Wow !!!!!!!!
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Old 02-14-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

Thanks Ken,

It was a parallel universe to Skippy in that the fun part was playing with instructors who were passionate, knew their stuff and shared it generously.
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Old 02-14-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

I was just up there on Sunday myself, using the skidpad with the New England Region SCCA RallyCross program. Cool place (really cool - the high temperature was 9 degrees Fahrenheit!) with some snow - a rare find in the Northeast this winter season. Wish your event was just a few days later, then I'd have met up with you all!
I'm definitely interested in learning about some of the physics behind those braking techniques, and eventually employing them!
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Old 02-15-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

A couple of years ago I was standing on the hill at Lagna Seca overlooking Turn 3 and watching Lionel Kent drive an MX-5 into and through the corner. He was on the brake a long time, and I asked him about it afterward. Turns out he was on the gas (right foot) for power and on the brake (left foot) to help plant the front of the car at turn-in and keep it stable through the corner.
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Old 02-15-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

Yeah, that's obviously a difference for the rear wheel drive cars. I'm still curious about the technique's use when throttle lifts, I would initially assume, could just be employed instead. However, in my limited low-traction experience, I have gotten wheelspin in a front-wheel-drive car under power and lifted in an attempt to regain traction, only to have the wheels keep spinning for a few more rotations rather than instantly gaining grip again - left foot braking (as well as grippier tires, a lighter flywheel/depressing the clutch, etc...) would help that. But in terms of using it to transfer weight with very little grip leaves me wondering if the same couldn't still be achieved through lifting alone...
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Old 02-15-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

With front drive, you don't want wheel spin as only the inside wheel spins and slips, parking the car. The trick is to feather brake pedal pressure just enough to shift some weight forward, re-establishling steering and traction for both front wheels before releasing the brakes. While the brakes are of some value in arresting wheels spin, you must also learn to feather the throttle depending on the car and conditions. The Fiesta's are so low powered that wheel spin was relatively easy to manage. As horsepower goes up, so does the need to manage it wisely.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Magical Trevor View Post
Yeah, that's obviously a difference for the rear wheel drive cars. I'm still curious about the technique's use when throttle lifts, I would initially assume, could just be employed instead. However, in my limited low-traction experience, I have gotten wheelspin in a front-wheel-drive car under power and lifted in an attempt to regain traction, only to have the wheels keep spinning for a few more rotations rather than instantly gaining grip again - left foot braking (as well as grippier tires, a lighter flywheel/depressing the clutch, etc...) would help that. But in terms of using it to transfer weight with very little grip leaves me wondering if the same couldn't still be achieved through lifting alone...
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Old 02-15-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
With front drive, you don't want wheel spin as only the inside wheel spins and slips, parking the car. The trick is to feather brake pedal pressure just enough to shift some weight forward, re-establishling steering and traction for both front wheels before releasing the brakes. While the brakes are of some value in arresting wheel spin, you must also learn to feather the throttle depending on the car and conditions. The Fiesta's are so low powered that wheel spin was relatively easy to manage. As horsepower goes up, so does the need to manage it wisely.
Gotcha Pat - I definitely can improve with regard to that middle sentence...
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Last edited by dalyduo; 02-15-2012 at 06:42 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 02-17-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

Pat,
Looks like a "fun time with good friends"... amazing how that always draws us in! Plenty of smiles sharing new adventures.
JP
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Old 02-26-2012
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Re: Left Foot Braking

I especially like the nice bump hats - its a good look!!!! It's good to see you all applying your skills at combining performance driving and the ability to have a good time together - well done!!
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