Do you brake with your left foot?

Left foot braking is a common technique in performance driving. It lets you transfer the forces from acceleration to braking in a smoother less jarring way. It also slightly cuts reaction time.

However, on the street, drivers have a tendency to rest their left foot on the brake pedal. Not only will this hurt your fuel efficiency, but if it keeps the brake lights on all the time (and I'm sure you've followed drivers like that) the driver following you never knows if you are braking or not, increasing the risk of being rear ended. Keep that in mind if you start left foot braking on the street.

 

Ford did a study many years ago and found that left foot braking didn't have much effect in terms of safety in emergencies.

Before I got my Prius I used to left foot brake to reduce the transition time between braking and accelerating out of a turn and because it was harder to brake smoothly (I liked the challenge).

 

The Xebra has a cut-out switch on the brake pedal that prevents juice going to the motor if your foot is on the brake. The slightest pressure on the brake pedal will activate it. Thus your system wouldn't work well. You'd have to hold your foot over the pedal without touching it.

I've never used my left foot on the brake since I was maybe ten years old and drove a bump car at an amusement park. I know someone who brakes with his left foot, but like you he has a problem with his feet, making them a bit less responsive. I can see that being an issue.

 

I think my habits are too ingrained to change now, though switching to left foot braking for the occasional go cart race seems pretty easy. If it works for you, TJ, that's great. It kinda makes sense, being 'left-footed' anyway, and with an injury to your right foot. I've tried paddles for shifting (but only on a racing game/simulator) and liked them very much. I certainy wouldn't label you 'handicapped' for missing a pinky toe, but there are various types of hand controls developed for people who need them.

 

I have done, I don't now but I do recall left foot braking in my past.
Race drivers left foot brake at the end of a long straight to pump the calipers out and warm the brake linings.

 

That's because the brake discs on racing cars are partly carbon fibre, and utterly useless unless they're hot. At night races, you can see them glowing when in use.

 

An F1 race car driver tries to keep his carbon fiber brake pads at about 1600 degrees Fahrenheit for maximum performance. On some tracks they're completely worn out after 90 minutes of use. A single carbon fiber brake disc can cost $5,000. Multiply that by four wheels and then add in the cost of the carbon fiber brake pads (two per wheel) and the braking "consumables" used by an F1 racer cost more than a new, fully equipped Prius!

 

That boggles the mind!

 

It's taken (taking?) me a very long time to rid myself of a childhood fascination with racing. The insane amounts of money spent on literally going around in circles is obscene and immoral.

 

Obscene? - no doubt, immoral - perhaps. The average budget of an F1 team is about $250,000,000 to send two cars to 18 races (plus R & D and testing). Toyota's F1 budget is said to be between $400 M and $750 M. I've heard they treat all their employees well so I'm not ready to call them immoral. They exist to provide a return for the shareholders, not mankind in general. Oh and Toyota has been in F1 for about seven years and haven't won a race yet.

The only sport I follow is F1, mostly because the technology is so amazing and I admire the excellence in engineering.

TJ - sorry for hijacking your thread :sorry:

 

It's show business. Just like movies or wrestling or football or golf. People are willing to pay money to watch, that generates big prizes, so people spend a lot of money to compete.

Racing doesn't interest me because I don't like loud noise. That's actually one of the reasons I like EVs: gas engines make noise. Obscene to me is when people converting gas cars to electric offer to throw in a CD of engine noise that you can put on the car stereo so that people in nearby cars will think your EV has a gasoline engine! How sick is that?

 

I can understand making a gas car sound like a different kind of gas car. I cannot understand making an EV sound like a gas car. Why convert a car to electric at all if you want people to think it burns gas? With the present cost of batteries, the lifetime cost per mile is greater with an EV, and the EV has the limitations of range. You convert a car to electric because you want to quit burning gas. So why would you then want to hide that fact?

 

i have had a few cars like TJ where the gas had to be feathered all the time to stay running, if on a hill that meant gas and brake AND clutch....

also had a car with no clutch. drove it around 14-15 months. just had to turn it off everytime i stopped. you think people get PO'ed at you now for coasting and timing lights to save gas, just think of what it was like 20 years ago when gas was 70 cents a gallon!!

 

idea
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get one of those popular prius mods like the any time camera mod, or the ev mode mod, and modify it for foot use, so you can have something to use your left foot for.

im thinking one of those push buttons, the ones that click would be the same thing as a regular switch

 

Does anyone else remember when the high beam switch was on the floor?
I've noticed the 'dead pedal' on the left can be quite useful for cornering.

 

Yes