Tiptronic Left Foot Breaking

Anyone do this? Found myself in really heavy traffic and absolutely didn't miss the 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2 1 mile in 30 minutes!!!! But found myself experimenting with the left foot breaking and am convinced that it's a faster and safer way to drive. Anyone on here made the transition? I'd imagine the emergency stop gets a bit interesting.

I do it all the time, have done on all my automatic cars. You need to be VERY careful to start with until it becomes natural as you tend to use the left foot rather more aggresively on the clutch pedal than you will when braking. Try getting the hang of it on some fairly quiet open roads rather than in traffic. :thumb: 1 mile in 30mins....welcome to the M25 morning traffic TB

[pedant mode] left foot breaking sounds very painful [/pedant mode] In all seriousness though I would have thought it can be quite easy to overcook the brakes and/or the clutch if you're not careful with the right foot?!

Tiptronic is an automatic box[no clutch], when I was talking about using the left foot it was referring to the way the majority of people have learned to drive ie using the left foot solely to operate the clutch. You may find that you end up with both feet on the brake as it has become a reflex action to use your right foot to brake suddenly. It's all a matter of careful practice. In the 996 it' not a particularly comfortable left leg position as there is not a lot of room by the centre console. :drive: TB

I was bored in traffic once, years ago. Had only been driving for a couple months. Thought I would experiment with left foot accelerating Nearly planted myself in the car in front. :frustrated: Never tried that again.

I have now learnt after a bit of time on Google and the Wikipedia that you are completely correct! For whatever reason I thought it was like the Audi DSG box with the dual clutch, and according to Wiki I'm not alone in that misunderstanding. You learn something new everyday... :thumb:

:floor: Taran :lol:

Left Foot Breaking Hi GD, The Maserati (I know I am sorry but I don't choose what I race) I drove this year was a paddle shift with an auto clutch (you held the shift paddle in on the start to hold the clutch and let go to start) so therefore no clutch pedal. The advantage of left foot braking in this situation is that you can blend the braking into the throttle. With a slight overlap the balance of the car is greatly improved due to lower weight transfer front to back. You do have to be careful though that you don't overlap to much as brakes, even race ones, don't like being applied when accelerating :angel: (It was nothing to do with me, they were rubbish pads and anyway the white Maserati looks better with a bit of Porsche blue scraped down the side uh: ) As mentioned above you do have to get used to variable pressure with the left foot as most people are used to just pushing the clutch down. Very satisfying when you get it right!! Rob

I used to rally front wheel drive cars and learned to left foot brake by reading Stig Blomqvists articles in Rally Sport magazine. Took me about 9 months and a few very scary moments (and one write-off), but I mastered it in the end In a front wheel drive car it is awesome as it massively reduces torque-steer and wheel-spin coming out of the corner, due to the weight transfer onto the front wheels. It also allows you to approach the corner much too fast, flick the car sideways and scrub off speed in a four-wheel drift, then be lined up to accelerate out of the corner (Scares the living daylights out of passengers as well - as, once mastered, you can leave your braking much, much later than if you were relying on brakes alone to scrub off speed - the write-off happened discovering just how late you can leave it ) In a rear-wheel drive car it is not so beneficial, except that it enables you to use the torque of the engine better (especially with a turbo) by keeping it 'on the cam' during braking, so that when you come off the brakes, you are accelerating from peak torque straight away. Kills the brakes though, and can wreck the differential (they don't like cornering, accelerating, and braking forces all being applied at the same time - I know this as I still have the scars from where bits of the diff came through the floor ) As hedlro says, you do need to develop great sensitivity in your left foot, especially if you regularly drive manual cars as well...

Left foot braking in motorsports is very useful however doesn't work really with porsches at all - this come from my experience and also Sean tends to agree. Left foot auto road drivers sh!t me more than anything out there - sorry guys. I'll tell you why. Any normal driver can't be bothered taking their foot off the accelerator to brake every split second when needing to slow a little, so they just take their foot off the accel and slow with engine braking. Left foot auto brakers though, sit there with their foot hovering over the brake and just use it all the time to slow instead of just taking their foot off the gas and coasting a little. When you're the car following you're constantly getting brake light when you just don't need them. Why does that matter? Well when it then comes to a sudden stop you've spent the entire time watching the brake lights coming on unnecessarily you become blase and aren't as prepared.... Another thing I find is that they tend to eventually rest their foot on the brake with the brake light on constantly or flickering on off - even worse than the above! To be honest, call me a little mad but it's my biggest p-off of all driving... But that's me.....

Absolutely... The greatest asset of a 911 is all that weight over the back wheels for acceleration - why would you want to shift some of it onto the front??? With you on that as well - Ran into the back of one at a roundabout once as I realised too late he really WAS braking They must get through brake pads like nobody's business :?: Left-foot BRAKING (correct spelling btw) is for extreme driving only! i.e. on the track or very high-speed road use (when, if you are doing it right, there ain't gonna be me or Jiff on your back bumper anyway )

Yes in a tip, auto or paddle shift car LFB is the fastest way. Obviously it's only possible in Manual cars when not downshifting for the corner, like a high speed kink that requires a bit of weight transfer to the front of the car. I use LFB when I can, as you take away the time it takes to transfer your foot from the accelerator to brake and back again, gaining fractions of time. You can also carry the throttle a bit if needed when LFB. Worked very well in the 4WD Turbo Audi's in the 80's, as they would carry the brake through the corner and accelerate at the same time, building boost pressure and when releasing the brake at the apex launching off like a rocket!

I don't think that's strictly true. The problem with auto boxes is that they don't engine brake as much as manuals, so a manual slows quicker off the gas then a tip (at least, that is generally my impression when driving autos). This means that you end up applying the brake more, so I don't believe it's systematic of LFB, more just auto boxes in general. This is quite a normal occurrence on the motorway and the simple solution is don't drive so close the car in front and watch the traffic, rather than the car in fronts' brake lights. Atleast that's what I do and I find that I rarely apply my brake and also takes out the snaking affect that the variable speed limits on the M25/42 are supposed to help (although, in reality, I don't believe they do).

I presume you read that in a book, or saw a video once? :wink: You weren't even a twinkling in your Mum's eye when I was out in Kielder forest in the middle of the night watching the 'original' Stig, Hannu and Bjorn pioneering that technique :floor:

I was speaking to Frank Biela the other day about it actually, after seeing a you tube video of the Audi and him dominating everything!