Help with a Driving Sim Choices - learn left foot braking

[RacerMike]

sassthathoopie said:

The desire to learn left foot braking is partially down to a relatively recent car purchase. My 1978 Alpine A310 is running triple Webers, and was built to Gr4 specs by Kevin Jones of GTO Engineering - he sold it to me after owning it ~25yrs.

It has needed some working up so I haven’t yet driven it pedal to the metal (GRP ;-)

But it’s a rear engined V6, weighs less than a tonne, and even when not running on song is v rapid. Add in left hand drive, slightly eccentric driving position and highly adjustable suspension, I feel like I want to be able to bring my A game if push comes to shove at some point in the future: Left foot braking should be a way to better control weight transfer, which might be handy when ~65% of the car’s weight wants to overtake the front wheels!

Not at all telling you you’re wrong, but left foot braking won’t help the weight balance any more than right foot braking will! Learning to trail brake definitely will, but the only reason you might left foot brake in a manual is if a corner is perhaps not quite flat, but a brush of the brakes means it is. In a turbo car this may help slightly on lap time given the fact it’s remaining fully on boost, although if it’s a modern car it probably won’t since their boost control is so much better than it used to be, so a small lift won’t dump all the pressure.

All the things you’ve listed (particularly the offset pedal box) make it very much not the kind of car to be trying to left foot brake in. You’ll just end up pressing the wrong pedal or pressing two at once!

Either way, lovely car and it’ll be a hoot to drive. Sim racing may help improve your driving techniques, but I guess all I’m saying is, definitely don’t focus on the left foot braking thing as virtually nobody does it unless they absolutely have to in reality! Unless you’re a Russian YouTuber who likes to pretend his the king of a long German race track of course…

Edited by RacerMike on Wednesday 8th May 00:07

[shirt]

Ok I’m interested again. Pics of the A310 please!

[sassthathoopie]

shirt said:

Ok I’m interested again. Pics of the A310 please!

The car is completely original aside from the engine build. I have some genuine 70 profile classic Michelin 13" tyres to go on, and I've reset the suspension a little lower since the pics were taken

[sassthathoopie]

So today I have bought:

Fanatec CSL Elite+ (PS4)
Fanatec CSL Elite V2 Pedals
Fanatec CSL P1 V2 wheel
Playseat Challenge.

£619 spent so far.

Of course the friendly chap I bought the Playseat Challenge from has a 15nm Clubsport DD+, multiple wheels, an 8020 ally rig running AC nice and smoothly through a really wide curved screen monitor... I can see why this hobby ends up getting expensive!

We had a chat about my proposed GT7 & PSVR2 plan, and he thinks I'd be better going for a PC running AC, possibly without VR so I can afford to run a milder spec PC.

He has offered me his retired gaming PC that he built with a sensible budget in mind 2 years ago, but has since upgraded. Here's the spec:

Ryzen 7 2700 3.2Ghz 8 core CPU
RX590 GPU
AMD Motherboard
PC Case with Cooling fans
16GB RAM

He said it ran AC pretty well on a monitor. Will it run VR via a Quest 2 or Quest 3? or via my 6yo LG 37" Tv that says 50/60Hz on the back. The GPU looks a bit under specced to my 'know nothing' eye.

Many thanks for your continuing assistance.

The Fanatec kit isn't here yet, but I'm sat in the Playseat Challenge and can report that it feels more stable, solid and proper than I was expecting - great recommendation

Edited by sassthathoopie on Wednesday 8th May 19:44

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

I play Assetto Corsa a lot, the advantage of the PC version is the sheer number of mods you can apply.

I admit I only have a Logitech G920 but I left foot brake in all the games I play, hundreds and hundreds of hours of experience of left foot breaking.

Would I do this in a road car? No way, even now when I try it it just feels weird, unnatural and I have little feel of the brake pedal and apply way too much pressure.

I am sure I saw a video of Raikkonen once who said that although he left foot brakes in an F1 car he never does this on the road.

sassthathoopie said:

He has offered me his retired gaming PC that he built with a sensible budget in mind 2 years ago, but has since upgraded. Here's the spec:

Ryzen 7 2700 3.2Ghz 8 core CPU
RX590 GPU
AMD Motherboard
PC Case with Cooling fans
16GB RAM

He said it ran AC pretty well on a monitor. Will it run VR via a Quest 2 or Quest 3? or via my 6yo LG 37" Tv that says 50/60Hz on the back. The GPU looks a bit under specced to my 'know nothing' eye.

How much does he want for the PC? I have tried running my PC through my 3 year old Samsung 43 inch TV and it is unplayable as it seemed to default to 30 frames per second for some reason. Also it looked absolutely rubbish compared to the 165HZ screen on my gaming laptop.

Edited by ThingsBehindTheSun on Thursday 9th May 12:00

[Gary C]

RacerMike said:

Not at all telling you you’re wrong, but left foot braking won’t help the weight balance any more than right foot braking will! Learning to trail brake definitely will, but the only reason you might left foot brake in a manual is if a corner is perhaps not quite flat, but a brush of the brakes means it is. In a turbo car this may help slightly on lap time given the fact it’s remaining fully on boost, although if it’s a modern car it probably won’t since their boost control is so much better than it used to be, so a small lift won’t dump all the pressure.

All the things you’ve listed (particularly the offset pedal box) make it very much not the kind of car to be trying to left foot brake in. You’ll just end up pressing the wrong pedal or pressing two at once!

Either way, lovely car and it’ll be a hoot to drive. Sim racing may help improve your driving techniques, but I guess all I’m saying is, definitely don’t focus on the left foot braking thing as virtually nobody does it unless they absolutely have to in reality! Unless you’re a Russian YouTuber who likes to pretend his the king of a long German race track of course…

Edited by RacerMike on Wednesday 8th May 00:07

LFB on gravel, especially with a more rearward brake bias and can be used to unsettle the car to help rotation.

[RacerMike]

Gary C said:

RacerMike said:

Not at all telling you you’re wrong, but left foot braking won’t help the weight balance any more than right foot braking will! Learning to trail brake definitely will, but the only reason you might left foot brake in a manual is if a corner is perhaps not quite flat, but a brush of the brakes means it is. In a turbo car this may help slightly on lap time given the fact it’s remaining fully on boost, although if it’s a modern car it probably won’t since their boost control is so much better than it used to be, so a small lift won’t dump all the pressure.

All the things you’ve listed (particularly the offset pedal box) make it very much not the kind of car to be trying to left foot brake in. You’ll just end up pressing the wrong pedal or pressing two at once!

Either way, lovely car and it’ll be a hoot to drive. Sim racing may help improve your driving techniques, but I guess all I’m saying is, definitely don’t focus on the left foot braking thing as virtually nobody does it unless they absolutely have to in reality! Unless you’re a Russian YouTuber who likes to pretend his the king of a long German race track of course…

Edited by RacerMike on Wednesday 8th May 00:07

LFB on gravel, especially with a more rearward brake bias and can be used to unsettle the car to help rotation.

Not on the road or track though which was my point. Rallying it can make plenty of sense.

[Gary C]

RacerMike said:

Gary C said:

RacerMike said:

Not at all telling you you’re wrong, but left foot braking won’t help the weight balance any more than right foot braking will! Learning to trail brake definitely will, but the only reason you might left foot brake in a manual is if a corner is perhaps not quite flat, but a brush of the brakes means it is. In a turbo car this may help slightly on lap time given the fact it’s remaining fully on boost, although if it’s a modern car it probably won’t since their boost control is so much better than it used to be, so a small lift won’t dump all the pressure.

All the things you’ve listed (particularly the offset pedal box) make it very much not the kind of car to be trying to left foot brake in. You’ll just end up pressing the wrong pedal or pressing two at once!

Either way, lovely car and it’ll be a hoot to drive. Sim racing may help improve your driving techniques, but I guess all I’m saying is, definitely don’t focus on the left foot braking thing as virtually nobody does it unless they absolutely have to in reality! Unless you’re a Russian YouTuber who likes to pretend his the king of a long German race track of course…

Edited by RacerMike on Wednesday 8th May 00:07

LFB on gravel, especially with a more rearward brake bias and can be used to unsettle the car to help rotation.

Not on the road or track though which was my point. Rallying it can make plenty of sense.

Oh, yes though the OP did mention Gravel.

Well actually 'loose surfaces' was the term

[sassthathoopie]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

How much does he want for the PC? I have tried running my PC through my 3 year old Samsung 43 inch TV and it is unplayable as it seemed to default to 30 frames per second for some reason. Also it looked absolutely rubbish compared to the 165HZ screen on my gaming laptop.

Edited by ThingsBehindTheSun on Thursday 9th May 12:00

Thanks for the heads up on the TV. He wants £480. Seems a bit steep to me.

[sassthathoopie]

Gary C said:

RacerMike said:

Gary C said:

RacerMike said:

Not at all telling you you’re wrong, but left foot braking won’t help the weight balance any more than right foot braking will! Learning to trail brake definitely will, but the only reason you might left foot brake in a manual is if a corner is perhaps not quite flat, but a brush of the brakes means it is. In a turbo car this may help slightly on lap time given the fact it’s remaining fully on boost, although if it’s a modern car it probably won’t since their boost control is so much better than it used to be, so a small lift won’t dump all the pressure.

All the things you’ve listed (particularly the offset pedal box) make it very much not the kind of car to be trying to left foot brake in. You’ll just end up pressing the wrong pedal or pressing two at once!

Either way, lovely car and it’ll be a hoot to drive. Sim racing may help improve your driving techniques, but I guess all I’m saying is, definitely don’t focus on the left foot braking thing as virtually nobody does it unless they absolutely have to in reality! Unless you’re a Russian YouTuber who likes to pretend his the king of a long German race track of course…

Edited by RacerMike on Wednesday 8th May 00:07

LFB on gravel, especially with a more rearward brake bias and can be used to unsettle the car to help rotation.

Not on the road or track though which was my point. Rallying it can make plenty of sense.

Oh, yes though the OP did mention Gravel.

Well actually 'loose surfaces' was the term

Loose surfaces was my first thought, yes

Richard Tuthill in lightweight a rear engined machine


Jimmy Broadbent in a lightweight mid/rear engined machine


Although I seem to remember reading a thread (through google translate) on a French Alpine forum about it being a handy technique in the wet on tarmac...