SIM RACER DRIVING TECHNIQUES
LAST ISSUE, WE OFFERED SOME GENERAL RALLY DRIVING ADVICE WITH A BROAD OVERVIEW OF TECHNIQUES. THIS TIME, WE’RE CONCENTRATING ON THE DETAILS OF LEFT-FOOT BRAKING, AS IT CAN BE APPLIED IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS.
advanced rally
left–foot left– left –foot braking
IF THIS WERE a motoring magazine, even thinking about leftfoot braking would be a novel idea for most readers. But sim racers are a varied bunch, and many of you will have always used your left foot to brake, probably due to learning on a basic 2-pedal set or the triggers on a gamepad. So if you’ve always left-foot braked, you have a head start, but try to get comfortable with right-foot braking too for good measure! And read on, because you might not be making the most out of your LFB technique... Please note: success with these techniques will be much easier to achieve if you have a decent set of pedals. Sporadic LFB: Right-Foot Braking when necessary (if you need to downshift with a clutch), but always moving your left foot from the clutch to the brake if you know you’re going to negotiate a medium-speed turn with no gear change but need to get the nose hooked into the apex. A light application of brake with the left foot can help to tighten your trajectory slightly; this is particularly useful on front-wheel drive cars and four-wheel drive cars, but takes a lot of practice to be worthwhile. Full-time LFB: When your left foot is above the brake pedal at all times. In Issue #6, we described the importance of trail-braking for track driving, where brake pressure is slowly released during
the corner-entry phase. Naturally, this can be done with either foot, but using your left means faster reactions and faster application, with no transition time between pedals. With LFB there is a danger of leaving some throttle on while you begin to brake; be wary of that, as it affects your stopping power. Practice synchronising the dip of the nose caused by lifting off the throttle with the initial braking application. So while you trail-brake towards the apex, we might need to think about downshifting. We’ll be covering shifting techniques next time, but we’re assuming your rally car is equipped with a sequential shifter or dogbox that permits clutchless downshifts. Your right foot may need to blip the throttle on downshift, or you may want to give it some revs to keep the turbo spooled up for best acceleration out of the corner. But throttle blips and downshifting are secondary; your concentration should be on modulating the brake pedal, and right-foot brakers out there used to slamming a clutch pedal into the floor will need to develop some sensitivity in the left
foot for trail braking and threshold braking (to avoid lockups without ABS). In theory at least, full-time LFB is the faster technique, particularly for loosesurface rallying. Correct brake modulation combined with subtle throttle and steering inputs allows a car on a lowgrip surface to rotate or change direction with great precision. Generally you want to avoid applying brake and throttle at the same time, instead tip from one to the other as you try to carve a perfect slide (slight oversteer is the best state to be in). Having the correct brake balance is important, and should be one of the first setup changes you experiment with, but the beauty of good LFB technique is that you can overcome a less-than-optimal setup as you can influence the four tyres so efficiently with quick dabs of both pedals. Example scenario: Subaru Impreza WRC on gravel, high-speed left-turn. Compare the images below. A standard RFB technique first, followed by an LFB technique.. Approach speed is the same, 104mph. At the point of turn-in, a throttle lift in
No left foot braking
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29/10/2015 01:32