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Thread: Driving an automatic car - do you use one foot or both?

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by HenryDorsetCase View Post
    So, I learnt to drive in my Dad's HQ Holden (trimatic) but I learnt to DRIVE in Post Office cars. all manual. If you lock up by panic braking on a wet road, what happens is you tend to feel as if you are speeding up (you arent, just not slowing down) and go in the same direction you are travelling - you can thank Mr Newton and his Lors of Motion for that. You would be really unlucky to roll a car. Cars are quite difficult to roll over in my experience. Closest I have come was sliding sideways off the road (thankfully on a cut grass country road verge, and feeling the inside wheels come off the ground... then bump down again. That was 3 of us in on of our Mum's cars. And we had to work out how to get the grass out from between the wheel rim and tyre (both tyres on the passenger side). You just tend to slide off the road. If you are unlucky you will hit something solid. like a parked car, or a lamp post or a fence or something.

    Anyway, driving like a lunatic is fun - it feels so safe, doncha think? Lend us your car? I need to practice my handbrake turns.

    As for OP I used to be really sniffy about manual cars - till I realised that cars are appliances and what really matters is how good the stereo, heater, and warranty are. I have tried the left foot braking thing especially if I want to keep the revs up so the thing will pick up more quickly (car is glacially slow)... but hardly ever.
    I remember hooning around in my Mums purple Holden Premier V8 Trimatic. At the time lots of fun but they were pretty awful handling. Used to do the left foot on the brake at lights for quick take off.

    Had a ball driving Post Office cars too, only good Brit ones were the Mini and the Chevette. Can't say I liked the manual Falcons with column change and a truck clutch.

    Had an Auto Legacy for a while.....Auto = boring.


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  2. #17
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  3. #18
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    The main problem I have in cars is with my knees. Left handers wreak havoc with my latte in the cup holder when I go to lean into the bend...

    An even bigger distraction is how I can't get the same voice on my car and bike GPS. Or maybe the problem is that I like stern instructions

    The feet topic raised by OP is no worries to me, right foot only in auto. Maybe a bit of heel and toe in a manual car, oh and remembering not to use the cup holder nearest me

  4. #19
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    Always left foot brake in autos, myself. Learned in manuals, rode bikes for years before that, in the era when you found the foot controls could be either side for the brake.
    If you ever get an auto onto the track, left foot braking is the only way to preload the driveline for good drive off corners....

  5. #20
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    Right foot only...

    Modern 5+ speed autos with tipronic are so damn good I don't feel the need to a manual anymore (although Vickis car is a manual) and manuals are a pia in town..

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by PeterNZ View Post
    Driving manual - right foot is for accelerating and braking.
    For the average steering-wheel-turner on NZ's roads that works fine.

    Get serious in a manual and the right foot is glued to the noise pedal and the left foot works clutch and brake.


    With the skills demonstrated by NZ's s-w-t's (certainly can't call them "drivers" at all) getting more into autos would be good. Getting them into slot-cars or dodgem ride cars would be even better.
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  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul in NZ View Post
    Right foot only...

    Modern 5+ speed autos with tipronic are so damn good I don't feel the need to a manual anymore (although Vickis car is a manual) and manuals are a pia in town..
    True. Also modern "manual" cars are so user friendly it kinda defeats the purpose of having a stick. I test drove a brand new Ford Focus RS couple of weeks ago and I find that transmission hardly a manual. It auto blips on downshifts, raises revs when you engage the clutch, auto-start in case you stall it... Too easy.


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  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by PeterNZ View Post
    Driving manual - right foot is for accelerating and braking. Why would you change this when driving automatic?
    well, yeah. unless of course: nah.
    left foot braking is way easier than heel-toe, and if you can't clutchless shift it you're a pussy.

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul in NZ View Post
    manuals are a pia in town..
    i see your problem.

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by EJK View Post
    Now I drive with one foot only (right). Few weeks ago I tried left foot breaking and I nearly hit my head on the steering wheel.
    like many things, it's a perishable skill, and if you don't practice while you don't need it, you'll be fucked when you do...

  10. #25
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    Left foot braking is different to left foot breaking. Just saying.

    I do tend to use my left for brake control and right foot for throttle control offroad in tricky situations.

    And I have never needed to use left foot braking to avoid any dogs.

  11. #26
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    I'm a left foot braker, in a manual as well, go karts did it.

    Cheers

  12. #27
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    There was a time when a certain three topics would be consigned to 'unseen land' ...Golf/Coro Street and Cars

    But anyway, I use to drive to Golf while using both feet eagerly awaiting to watch the previous nights Coro street episode later in the day.

  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by WNJ View Post
    Never driven a auto i since I got my licence 30 years ago,
    54 years ago. Always drove manuals. Then my daughter got pony fever and I found that much easier with an auto (towing fucking horse floats etc etc etc...) SO have used them for maybe the last 20 years.

    Oh and I use only one foot.
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  14. #29
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    In the olden days of Police Driver training we use to threaten to tie their left leg to the ancient old radio bolted up under the dash.

    But in a case of do as I say and not as I do. I have always used both feet,depending on what I was doing.
    It is a bit of an art and should be practiced.

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  15. #30
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    The only guy I know who regularly used left foot braking in a manual was a stock car driver and probably in private, a frustrated rally driver..
    My current horseless carriage is auto and although there are other options for control freaks I just let the auto do its thing.
    There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop

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