[kpbhatt]

Originally Posted by Firebird

Is that typo since your mind was occupied by left

Sorry that was a typo -- am a left handed person -- so there my mind is always occupied by left

[mura]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

What happens is out left foot adjusts itself to use the clutch which is fully press it.
While the right foot is used for accelerator and brakes, (MOSTLY) partially pressed

So when you brake with the left foot, until you have full control of the left foot, it will automatically go to pull press mode.

Perfect explanation.

Unless you have practice you cannot modulate the Brake with your left foot.

MT or AT use only right foot.

[vineetmanghani]

Originally Posted by mura

Perfect explanation.

Unless you have practice you cannot modulate the Brake with your left foot.

MT or AT use only right foot.

Absolutely! I once saw my dad do some left foot braking. We had given our Santro for servicing and asked them to tighten up the brakes a bit. So on our way back, I saw my dad using his left foot to test the brakes, keeping the right on the accelerator! When I tried it on my NHC a few years later, the car almost came to a dead stop from a considerable speed. I just couldn't press the brake pedal "lightly" with my left foot!

A little Off Topic: Has anyone tried driving without shoes/footwear? I tried it once in the summer, since the AC on my M800 had conked off, and I was getting very hot in my shoes and socks. Must say it takes some getting used to, especially depressing the clutch fully. Although I see a lot of cab drivers here in Delhi/Gurgaon driving barefoot.

[GTO]

A little Off Topic: Has anyone tried driving without shoes/footwear?

On long drives, I always drive barefeet, or wearing shoes that have an extremely thin sole. Makes me *connect* to the car a lot more. Related Thread.

[gtonsing]

I thought this was a no-brainer for manual transmissions. I cant imagine using your left foot for braking. How would you handle the clutch? Right foot? That would be dangerous. I did however try on the highway where I had to only 'tap' the brake and not stop. It felt strange!

[designersf]

Nice thread actually. Normal driving, the left always goes to full-press mode as abhinav.gupta88 has already mentioned. Same for me.

However, in motorsports, when Michael and Rubens were in Ferrari, they showed a comparison graph (Telemetry) of the usage of pedals by the two and this is what was evident - MS uses left foot for braking while RB uses right foot. So there is a time lag before you can take your foot off the acc and apply the brakes. Hence MS was faster through the circuit because of this reason by a tiny margin (Obviously, there were other reasons too but this was evident from the Telemetry clearly). Makes very little difference but even that is important in the highly competitive world of F1

[msdivy]

Having driven both MT & AT, LHD & RHD, for me its always right foot.

[dre@ms]

I am the 100th to post my vote. Invariably, while your left leg is on the clutch, the only one left is the right leg which will be on the brakes/accelerator.

[r_devakumar]

In MT it is 100% breaking with right foot. But in AT, when climbing in a steep road from a stop, i used left foot also for breaking occasionally (to avoid the car to go back).

[good.car-ma]

I find it more comfortable to use my left foot for braking. And yes, I drive a manual.

So when I need to use the clutch, i shift feet --> left from brake to clutch and right from accelerator to brake.

It sounds complicated but I have always driven like this and find it very comfortable. A lot of people say its wrong but I recently found out that its how some rally drivers drive.

And natural left foot braking is an asset on the track (and racing games on simulators )

[vkumars]

Always the right foot. Even in Autos, there shouldn't be any reason to press accelerator and brake together.

@vineetmanghani: Has anyone tried driving without shoes/footwear?

Yes. That was the way I learned to drive and in fact drove for more than 10 years afterwards. In the driving school, we were told to drive without footwear, since driving barefoot gave us some more feel about how much pressure to apply on brake or accelerator (more important then). The habit was difficult to get rid of and I continued driving barefoot till the end of my Alto days (thought the toes used to ache sometimes after a long time in B2B traffic). Consciously changed the habit when I bought the i10.

[r_devakumar]

Originally Posted by vineetmanghani

A little Off Topic: Has anyone tried driving without shoes/footwear? I tried it once in the summer, since the AC on my M800 had conked off, and I was getting very hot in my shoes and socks. Must say it takes some getting used to, especially depressing the clutch fully. Although I see a lot of cab drivers here in Delhi/Gurgaon driving barefoot.

I have started with barefoot when learning to drive but changed that within a week of driving. Now driving with bare foot is kind of discomfort to me.

I found quite a few people drives by bare foot all the time in my office. Started using bare foot when they learnt and not able to change ever after years. It is strange to see them to remove shoes before driving ever for a short distance drive

[Saanil]

Driving bare foot is great but I was told at driving school that if I developed this habit of driving bar efoot I will never drive comfortably wearing footwear. So for the past 8 years I have never driven bare foot. I tried it once and did not like it.

[racer_m]

Just happened to read this thread today. 2 months back I was thinking on the same lines. In a manual car what would it feel like to brake with the left foot.
So took the car out to an unused stretch and tried to bring it to a gentle stop from 20km/hr.
The left leg touching the brake pedal felt very strange yet I was determined to try stopping with it, and to my horror ended up locking up the wheels, and in turn stalling the car(no leg on the clutch you see). since it was a slow speed nothing untoward happened , but lesson learnt. The left leg will nowhere be as smooth and controlled as the right one.

The other time I tried driving barefoot and even that was a topsy turvy experience with no refinement and control on the clutch release or the brake pedal. It felt very wierd, and that was the last time I would try such antics on any car.

[rajushank84]

I was always taught that ONLY the right foot should do the braking, regardless of manual or automatic. The left foot should come nowhere near the brake. Is that wrong?