Archive for October 3rd, 2007

Drifting has been glamourised in movies such as Tokyo Drift and Initial D

However not many people will tell you to wake up and concentrate on proper vehicle handling and that Drifting is actually a visual appetizer but the meat & potatoes is your handling.

That’s where the Left Foot Brake (LFB) comes in.

When driven under acceleration with no brakes applied, a front wheel drive (FWD) car will understeer when the front wheels are turned. To overcome the understeer, left foot braking is used to change brake (balance) to the rear.

By using a combination of throttle and brake you can change from understeer to neutral steer to oversteer.

Left foot braking is useful in many cases: If the road surface changes, you can change the brake balance by either adding power (accelerator) or brake pressure (braking).

What happens is this: The tire has 100% of it’s possible traction when it is rolling straight with no braking or acceleration. When you change any of these factors the tires affected will have less available traction and control slips from your grasp.

By applying brake against the throttle in a front wheel drive car, two things happen. One: The front wheels keep turning. And two: The rear wheels try to lock up. If you are in a turn, the back of the car will start to slide toward the outside of the turn.

To control or stop the slide, apply less brake and more power (this changes the oversteer toward understeer and stops the rear wheels from sliding toward the outside of the turn).

What i did with my VW Caddy Turbo was this:

I drove to a secluded area in the evening (Not to watch couples making out!) I placed some ’soccer cones’ to make a T-junction on the ground.

I got in my Caddy and practiced driving the turn trying a normal brake with my left foot.

“So basic?”

XIAO EH! (Fukienese for ’friend’) You can’t learn to LFB until you train your left leg to brake! If you have never tried using your left leg, you will find it’s like trying to write with your left hand if you are right handed.

Tough huh. Until you can drive doing the braking with your left leg, you can’t do LFB. Once you can brake with your left leg, go on to ‘lesson 2′.

Work next on the practice turn. After turning, apply the brake against the throttle (accelerator). If you did it correctly you should feel the rear of the car start to slide to the outside of the turn.

When you are pointing in the direction you want to go, let pressure off the brakes and increase the throttle. Again, if you did it correctly you will feel the car pivoting on the front wheels.

Practice makes perfect, so you need to do it again and again.

P.S: The Autospeed Guy, Julian Edgar has a post on this too. Check it out here. 

P.P.S: A word of caution -Do not try this on the road unless you have practiced for 2-3 months. I am not responsible for your severed leg on the road.