How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

It's one of the trickiest skills to master, and one of the most overlooked driving techniques, but trail braking will make you a smoother and faster driver. Here's how it's done
How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

What is trail braking?

How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

To produce fast and consistent lap times on track you must implement three very important techniques: heel and toe downshifting, left foot braking and trail braking. The first two techniques are well documented, but the art of trail braking is often overlooked.

Before learning this technique, it’s important to recognise that your brakes serve multiple purposes. Not only do they provide deceleration, they also give you control over the pitch and angle of your car as you enter a corner, allowing you to use the maximum grip provided by your tyres.

Manipulating your car’s balance is done by maintaining brake pressure (trailing) while turning into the corner. Here’s how it works…

It’s all about weight transfer

How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

When you hit the brakes before a corner, the weight of the car is shifted forwards, causing the front of the vehicle to squat. This drives the front tyres into the tarmac giving you more front-end grip. When you turn into the corner and release the brakes, the front unloads, reducing grip. This can cause the car to understeer, pushing you off line and costing you vital time.

Trail braking reduces this loss of grip by ensuring that the front tyres are generating the maximum amount of grip on the way into the corner. Instead of peeling off the brakes when entering the bend, you should keep light pressure on the brake pedal. This keeps weight over the front end and stops the car from pushing on.

How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

By trail braking you also stop the car from coasting. Ultimately, when you’re driving a performance car quickly you should always be accelerating or decelerating; when coasting you have very little control of the vehicle. By keeping the car under load, you’re getting the most out of your tyres at all times, and if you combine trail braking with left foot braking you can ensure that the car is always in balance.

How do I trail brake?

How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

There is a fine balance when learning how to trail the brakes into a corner. If you turn in with too much brake pressure, the rear tyres will unload, leading to time-sapping oversteer. If you use too little brake, the car will push on. Thankfully it’s fairly straightforward to rectify these problems.

If the car is oversteering on entry use less brake pressure and peel off the pedal in a more gentle fashion. This will keep more weight over the rear and will allow you to get on the throttle quicker at the exit. If the car is suffering from understeer, use more brake on the way in and apply pressure all the way to the apex. It will take time to improve your consistency so the key is to just keep practicing. We don’t recommend trying this on the road so our advice would be to book a track day with plenty of run-off. You can find more information on track day preparation here.

Can I combine it with left foot braking?

How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

As we stated in an earlier article about things you should never do in FWD cars , learning how to manipulate the brake with your left foot is a skill that will help make you a smoother, quicker, and, more importantly, safer driver on the road. So you’ll be pleased to know that the two can be used together.

On entry, you can use your left foot to trail brake into the corner (explained above). Then, at the apex, if the car starts to understeer, you can use your left foot, which is already hovering over the middle-pedal, to apply some light braking force. This will bring the car back into line, and if you’re in a front-wheel drive machine, this also has the effect of slowing the front wheels down which will in turn stop the car from pushing on; a form of manual traction control.

How To Trail Brake And Why It'll Make You A Faster Driver

At the exit, if you’re in a FWD car, the front tyres can easily become overwhelmed, scrabbling for grip. By applying some brake with your left foot - especially in cars with a front differential - you can distribute the torque through the front wheels (the added retardation will cause the diff to lock, spreading the power across the front axle). Once grip is regained and you’re in a straight line, come off the brake and drive out of the corner.

Ultimately, the most important thing is to be smooth. Being progressive with the brake pedal is key. So with that, it’s now time to go out and practice!

Sponsored Posts

Comments

Anonymous

So easy to grasp in theory, so so difficult to achieve in real life. Although I think my choice of vehicle might have had something to do with it…

Really though, on a couple of the corners, I actually could feel my line tightening slightly, so it really was quite useful… And if any of you guys are gonna be practicing this, especially at a trackday, I highly recommend setting up your GoPro as a pedal cam just like I did:

https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.lim.54390/videos/1013332542071778/?l=5862680899953306564

04/07/2016 - 14:47 |
2 | 0
CatchMyDrift

Reading this makes me feel like they should teach you more about using your brakes at driving school. Of course I don’t expect to be taught drifting but I think they should at least teach you the ins and outs of working with your brakes to be a safer driver.

04/07/2016 - 14:49 |
2 | 0
DanMak

Gonna try this with my expensive racing car…

a Fanatec Clubsport V3 Pedals…

04/07/2016 - 15:33 |
0 | 0
Yo Bitch!

“ especially in cars with a front differential”
I think there is something missing… did you mean “cars with an open front differential”?

04/07/2016 - 16:50 |
0 | 0
Régis

precise Torsen Type différential please !!!

So Torsen, Quaife and other geared type diff.
Not necessary to apply this particular advice (light brake with power corner exit) with clutch type LSD :) (Kaaz, Cusco, TranX etc…)

04/07/2016 - 17:57 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Lol after I read this article I noticed that I was always trail braking without even knowing what trail braking is 😂

04/07/2016 - 18:22 |
0 | 0
CarEnthusiast 2

Thanks

04/07/2016 - 18:22 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

“Especially in cars with a front differential”
Nice job guys, gotta weld all those diffs right?

04/07/2016 - 19:44 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

If anyone needs a video to explain, see my video from a very wet track day with my FXGT corolla. http://youtu.be/H9xP7WvElUE

04/07/2016 - 19:59 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Why so many deleted comments & 1 account? For what seems to be a straight forward & well written article.

04/07/2016 - 20:27 |
0 | 0