- When you're on the racetrack, you're going to see the same corner 10,000 times but
when you're rallying you see 10,000 corners one time.
That requires a specialist skillset in order to be able to quickly and easily adjust the car
on the fly.
Now I am no rally specialist, I've never ever driven a rally car so we're here with
Texas Dave from the Rally Ready driving school in Austin, Texas to learn some
of those core techniques.
Now Dave is no stranger to fast cars, he is a three times Pikes Peak class winner
even and he's also the current Baja 500 champion in his class.
So Dave, what techniques are we talking about for rally and why are they so
important?
- You know most forms of racing are very scientific, you have a really key approach
that says this tyre, this track, this driver's going to produce this lap time.
In rallying it's more like an art school so we can teach you how to mix paint, how to
hold a brush, how to stretch a canvas but ultimately everybody's going to sort of
make their own art.
And if you watch rally driving like you said, you're adapting the car to a variety
of different terrain, corners, with a bunch of different skillsets but most of that comes down
to one thing and that's left foot braking.
- OK so left foot braking, probably pretty self explanatory, you're using your left foot
on the brake.
So first of all, why are we doing that?
What does it actually achieve?
- Right so when you're moving your right foot from throttle to brake and back to
throttle and back to brake.
You're making weight transfers every time you do that so the larger the movement off
the throttle and the larger the movement on the brake, the more you're moving that weight
around so when you're on a loose surface, you already have a very limited amount of
grip and when you make those big weight transfers, that upsets the car a lot.
So using our left foot on the brakes allow us to make smaller weight transfers,
smaller adjustments mid corner with the car which allows you to turn into a
corner that you haven't seen before and go, you know what, it's a little narrower,
a little wider, a little slower a little faster, and make those changes on the fly.
So allowing you to adjust the car's attitude and your line through the corner
while you're already committed and mid corner?
- That's it.
- OK so the next question is, this technique of left foot braking, I know some circuit drivers
use it but it's definitely not a common technique, why is it going to be hard for the
average driver who's maybe only driven their daily driver car out on public roads,
why is it difficult to pick up that skill and perfect it?
- So your left foot generally is used to using the clutch right, so you have a very binary
operation, push it down and then you're dynamic on the way up.
Left foot braking requires a dynamic foot on the way down so the first thing that
we like to do is get you comfortable using your left foot on the brake and then from there
we can take the new left foot braking skill you've learned and apply it towards
cornering, braking and linking corners together.
- Alright so we're going to break these lessons down for these videos into four
basic parts, each separated into one lesson so can you tell us what those are going to
entail?
- Yeah so the first one is just straight line braking, that's getting you comfortable
using your left foot on the brakes and understanding how to find the limit of
traction with the left foot braking.
From there we'll move into our skid pad which is essentially a never ending corner.
That's where we'll isolate just the left foot braking away from the steering
and the throttle and you'll use the left foot braking to move the car through a corner.
Once you get comfortable using your left foot on the brakes and left foot braking
in the corner then we'll link two corners together with a figure eight, low speed
and then once you're comfortable on the figure eight, we'll move to the slalom
which is linking two corners high speed.
- OK sounds good, now this technique of left foot braking, applicable to front
wheel drive, four wheel drive, rear wheel drive cars?
- Everything, it's going to be a little bit different depending on the platform you're
in so we'll change vehicles for each exercise to show you different ways to apply it
in different drive trains.
- Perfect, alright so let's talk about this first lesson, you've already given us a bit
of a rundown on what it's going to entail, straight line braking so can you talk me through
what I'm going to need to learn, what I'm going to need to be doing in the car?
- Yeah absolutely, it's pretty straightforward, at face value you're going to drive in a
straight line, first gear, shift to second, once you get enough speed in second gear,
you'll put your left foot on the clutch, car in neutral, hands back on the wheel,
transition your foot off the clutch and over to the brake.
So there's two things that we're trying to do while we do this, one is getting you
comfortable using your left foot on the brakes, the other is getting you
comfortable understanding the distance between the clutch pedal and the brake pedal
and also sort of carving a new narrow pathway instead of just reprogramming
your existing one, using the clutch and the brake back to back will allow you to say
this is how you clutch, this is how you brake.
- So getting your brain reprogrammed for those two different pedal efforts and the
modulation required?
- That's it.
- Alright and what would you say are the common mistakes that novices make when
they jump in the car beside you for the first time and they try this particular
exercise?
- Yeah one of them, the most common is normally you'd clutch with your left foot
and you brake with your right.
So when we move that left foot to the brake, you'll go man this is it, I got it,
and then your right foot goes on the throttle and then you sit on the limiter
which is part of why we put the car in neutral before we do this.
So again, clutch in, brake normally, now you're going to brake and your brain's
going to want to go right foot on the throttle so that's the most common,
happens to 95% of people that get in the car.
The other one is people go, nailed it, and you go, that was fantastic, let's try
that now with your left foot on the brake instead of your right.
So those are the two most common and there's plenty of other ones but that's what
you'll most likely find.
- I like that your most common problem is with this left foot braking, people not using
their left foot.
- Yeah that's the one.
- Let's go hit it and see what I manage to stuff up.
- OK which one you wanna take this one or shall we just start right off in...
- I reckon this one's looking a little bit more exciting to me.
- It's a bit more flash.
- Give it a jam?
- Let's give it a go.
Alright so we have three control services as drivers and as a coach that we're able
to use, eyes, hands and feet right.
So for each exercise I'm going to have a different place that I want you to place
your eyes, different things to focus on for your hands and obviously different things
for your feet.
The primary objective again is left foot braking but one of the key things to think
about when you're driving a racecar, especially a rally car, you have two hands
and two feet.
Since we're left foot braking, we're always using two hands and two feet.
When you have one foot on the dead pedal, you have one hand off the steering wheel,
that's a significant portion of the control of the car that you've just reduced.
So we always want to focus on being sure that we have two hands on the wheel which
means we start with two hands on the wheel, reach down to shift, two hands back
on the wheel.
Same thing with your feet, you want to start, clutch in an accelerate in first,
shift to second and your left foot, if it's not using the clutch, is always covering
the brake.
And your eyes are basically your primary data collection mechanism so just the same as in
road courses or anywhere else, you want to look where you want to go.
As far ahead on the track as you can.
In rallying obviously that's especially critical because you're on what is
essentially a new track every time you go out so your co driver will be there as well
to supplement some of that information but especially as a new driver it's always
all about drive what you see.
So the first thing we're going to do is we'll clutch in, first gear, we're going to accelerate
down the straightaway here and then when I tell you, we'll go clutch in, neutral, hands
back on the wheel and left foot brake.
- OK.
- Alright whenever you're ready.
Alright so accelerating in first, eyes down the runway, shifting to second.
And you're just going to go straight ahead here, straight ahead, keep going, keep going,
keep going.
OK clutch in, neutral, hands on the wheel and left foot brake.
Good so you did the most important part which is you used your left foot on the
brakes, that's always a good start.
- That's a good start yeah.
- So clutch in, first gear.
Either dust or smoke, nobody knows.
It might be power steering but either way.
So as we come through this corner, you're going to turn right back down this
teardrop.
What you're going to notice is that normally in a road course car you want to go like that,
in a rally car you're going to need more steering so what happens is now your
hands are twisted up so that's where we start focusing on shuffling the wheel.
So just think about that in the next round, go ahead, same thing, second gear,
carrying some speed.
Little bit more, OK clutch in, neutral, left foot brake.
Good and each time you do that, think more and more about sort of modulating that
pressure, again in a rally car because we don't have ABS brakes and we also don't
have power assisted brakes, you have become the ABS pump.
So it's a good chance for you to find that threshold, we always say press with
your leg and then adjust by lifting your big toe.
So you can make small modulations on that pedal just by lifting your big toe.
So the faster you're going, obviously the more time you'll have to practice that.
Same thing, whenever you're ready, clutch in, first gear.
Good so this time, think about your steering, as you're turning the corner, knowing you're
going to need a little bit more than you have, start to practice a little bit of a steering
shuffle there, eyes up through the corner.
So we're looking back down the runway, on the throttle, unwind the wheel.
- So come and do right.
- Yeah that's fine stay to the right here.
Good, carry some more speed this time, little quicker, little quicker.
OK clutch in, neutral, left foot on the brakes.
Good so as we, your braking's great, so as we focus a little bit on that steering
coming through the teardrops down here, think of your steering split into a left
hemisphere and a right hemisphere.
So the stripe on the top of the wheel will sort of mark that left and right hemisphere.
Right here's where we have optimal control of the car.
The further we get from that the less control we have.
So again in a road racing car, on a road course, you can usually get most of your
steering done within your hemisphere.
In a rally car, especially the Subarus have a lot more turn in required to get the
desired steering.
You know going into a tight corner you're going to need more steering so what I'll
do is I'll push the wheel to here, grab it with my left hand and I'm usually hovering
one hand or the other, passing it through if that makes sense.
Again, everybody's got a slightly different style but.
- But try and keep the hands essentially here for control.
- Yeah there's really, you want to avoid two things, you want to avoid
getting super crossed up.
If your forearms touch, these tendons are in so much tension, you're not getting
anything done.
Or the opposite which is the t rex hands where you want to shuffle the wheel like this.
So people want to do these tiny micro adjustments.
So somewhere in between stretch armstrong and t rex hands.
- Alright.
- Whenever you're ready, first gear.
Same thing, we'll do a couple more passes of this.
So eyes up through the corner, hands focused on that shuffle coming in,
looking for the exit.
Nice and easy, left foot covering the brakes, off the brakes, accelerating in second gear,
looking for your exit.
Good eyes way ahead.
Clutch in, neutral, left foot brake.
Great, so if you're watching at home, again the three things you want to take away
from this exercise are your hands, nine and three is where we have that
optimal control, when you take your hands away from nine and three you
just need to be really mindful of how much steering you're going to need and focus
on practicing how much shuffle you're going to require.
That's something that's really easy to do in a road car just when you're driving in
traffic to the supermarket at road speeds.
Your eyes, same thing, keeping your eyes up as far as you can all the time,
looking where you want to go.
In traffic that means being two to three cars ahead minimum.
And just making sure that you're not fixating on the things you don't want to hit
and then your feet again you can practice left foot braking even in and automatic car.
Just very gently, first time you try it, put your left foot on the brakes and
squeeze sort of as slowly as you can, getting comfortable with that and the more
comfortable you get with it, obviously the more speed you can pick up and practice
that when you're on the racetrack.
- Definitely takes a little bit to develop that feel for the modulation of the pressure
compared to using a clutch pedal.
- Yeah and again especially in the rally cars because since we're using the left
foot brake and the throttle simultaneously, we've eliminated that vacuum assist because
the vacuum assist on a power brake system is obviously going to change your brake
feel based on the RPM.
So if your RPM changes, your pedal pressure and your pedal feel will change and that's
a nightmare.
- So here we've got a much firmer pedal but it's always going to be consistent.
- Yeah and part of the reason we want it to be much firmer is when you're going over
bumps and you're trying to carry consistent braking, if you're in a factory equipped vehicle
with that brake booster, those bumps are going to cause your foot to move a little bit
and so you'll be accidentally modulating the brakes when you don't want to.
- Alright so we've finished that straight line test, how did I do?
- I mean you're here right, car's in one piece, you're in one piece, I'm in one piece,
most importantly.
You did great man, I think that's it, you're a rally driver, that's really all there
is to it at least for lesson one.
- So I should hit up M-Sport for a drive next season?
- You're good, M-Sport, Prodrive you name it.
- So I think I'm probably a little bit fortunate because I have done a little bit of left foot
braking already, given that I use that technique for tuning so I'm a little bit
more familiar with that modulation required but even so, trying to brake at maximum
effort here on a loose surface is a struggle just to get your head around the fact
that you're using a different foot on that pedal, it's just not natural but obviously
practice makes perfect.
- Yeah and I mean you noticed that like we said, even with experience you get in the
car and you're like oh there's still this muscle memory that, it happens for
everyone so working through that, obviously getting a little bit of seat time
and having somebody sit next to you, helping you kind of understand what's
going on and sort of like we said, sort of carving that new narrow pathway.
That's really the key foundation and like we mentioned before, the idea with
this stuff is as fundamental and as basic as it is, it's super important to have
really really really solid fundamentals that you can build all of your driving
career on top of and that right there, that was the, that's step one.
- Now it's important to also mention that while we're here at the Rally Ranch,
and we're testing this in a closed circuit on a loose surface, this is a technique
that those watching at home can actually start building up in their daily driven car.
Obviously with a little bit of care being taken but you can practice and start getting
that familiarity with the modulation and the feel required?
- Yeah so obviously on a loose surface, there's several things that we want to be,
want to notice and want to pay mind of which is the loose surface, we want to have
a very stiff pedal, we want to have non power assisted brakes.
So we want to eliminate that vacuum assisted booster.
One because it's easier to learn when you have a stiffer pedal, you're getting
used to that binary clutch foot, moving that over and making it a dynamic brake foot,
requires a higher pedal effort.
In addition to that obviously the stiffer the pedal, the easier it is when you're going
over bumps.
When you have a really sensitive vacuum assisted pedal, going over bumps on loose
surfaces you're going to accidentally modulate that pedal so that makes a big
difference but even in a factory car, vacuum assisted, you can go into a
parking lot and at five, 10 miles per hour, as slow as you want, you can still
accelerate and then transition over and just gently apply your left foot on the brakes.
The things to be mindful of the first time you try it is again your left foot
is used to just pressing a clutch pedal down so the first thing that generally
happens is your face makes it halfway to the windscreen and so obviously be
very mindful of that and be really really careful the first time you try applying
that left foot on the brakes and be as gently and as sensitive as possible.
And just slow repetition, you can kind of build that confidence and when you
have access to a facility like this and you're on a closed circuit, you obviously can increase
the speeds.
- Alright well I think I'm pretty confident with the straight line braking so let's move on
and we'll see how we can adapt that with some other aspects of those four lessons.
And if you're watching at home and you've liked what you've seen here, keep an eye
out for the remaining three lessons in this series.
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