"Professional driver on a closed course"

What really changed things for me was when the kid arrived and my priorities in life changed. Now it's all about surviving the roads and getting back home to play with my boy. I do yearn for a run up the country roads on the weekend, and may do so but in a less spirited manner.

Hi carguru:

I like your story about the "older" enthusiast. When Mb invited us to a race track, one of the treat was to have 3 hot laps in an AMG CLK car with Bernhard Schneider. He is the world champion in that class.

During the first round he just talked to me about Canada and his impression, during the second round, only one hand on the steering wheel, we talked about the upcoming race in Monaco, then he turned all tech aids off, both hands on the steering wheel and drove the fastest hot lap. My head snapped side to side, because the mandatory helmet was so heavy that my neck muscles still hurt days after the event.

After these hot laps I had a much better understanding of what these cars are capable off. On a scale from 1-100, compared to his hot lap, most of us are driving between 15-20 most of the time. After having experienced that you are an enthusiast for live.

Jorg

I think it doesnt control understeer on slow speeds because it had happen to me and the ESP didnt even blink but then I turned left on an intersection atleast 40MPH because I was trying to catch the light, approaching the the light heavy breaking entering the turn at 35 I felt the ESP kicked in even though I know I didnt loose foot and I saw the triangle blinking.

It's called left-foot braking because that's exactly what it is. The point is that the right foot continues to apply the throttle (vehicle weight is biased towards the rear when on throttle). As you approach a turn, you need to quickly shift the weight up to front tires for more grip to help rotate the car. So you use your left foot to tap the brakes quickly to shift some of the weight up front, this allows an increased contact patch to front tires, helps the car turn in (decreases understeer), whilst the entire time you are still on throttle with the right foot. When done properly, it is very effective at maintaining car's momentum through a turn and can shave a good amount off laptime. This is not applicable nor effective in every corner, however. If anyone is familiar with Willow Springs Raceway, Turn #4 is a left-foot braking turn. This practice is used in racing to minimize the time to take your right foot off the throttle and apply the brakes with the same foot. In most cases (ie, straightaway braking zones), it's fine to do this, but in some corners, left-foot braking technique is more effective. Requires practice to get used as left foot needs some training. Simple to try but can be dangerous. Next time you're driving your automatic and approaching a stop light or stop sign, make sure there's nobody behind you and use your left foot to try to come to a complete and smooth stop...may take a few tries!

PS- we can do withouth the "lightbulb" comments.

First of all the situation I had was far too technical for me to sit here and waste anymore bandwidth explaining, hence why I provided the link should there be any confusion, no need to have to explain it again as you so kindly have pointed out. And yes we do sometimes need those comments, if "Your Boy" is going to throw it he should expect to see it coming back Cheers have a good Turkey day.

-Ryan

My response had nothing to do with your "situation". You made a pretty cut dry comment ('Why it's called left foot braking is beyond me.") and I replied to that comment. That simple. I was not attacking you, so I'm not sure why the need to put on the gloves or the attitude. My response was as much for your benefit as to anyone else's who doesn't understand left-foot braking.

Fair enough, but he's nobody's "boy". However, you are certainly then no better then the other person for adding fuel to the fire. I'm in no way defending the comments made, just making the observation and stating that it usually takes far less effort to avoid a confronation than to try to mitigate it after-the-fact. And yes, the comments I am making are targetted to both parties.

Gobble gobble! Have a safe weekend.

I thought when you get stuck in snow, you are supposed to turn off the ESP, so the car DOES send power to slipping wheel and get the car moving.

I'm coming from driving 2 AWD for the past 8 years, so I have to re-learn to drive RWD on snow again.

Drive safty @ Winter