Brake while cornering yes/no

TCJBOLDIE

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I was learning to drive it was drummed into me that if the brakes were applied when turning at speed that I could end up in all sorts of trouble and only brake in a straight line.

Well you can have the brakes on while cornering BUT ideally they should already slowing the car down in a straight line and the weight /load transfer from rear to front settled BEFORE you enter the corner and ease the pedal pressure gradually off before powering out. This is called "trail braking"

WARNING if you have entered a corner way too fast and then brake hard the sudden weight transfer to the front will unload the rear end and are in danger of losing control and spinning off the road into a solid object or rolling if you hit a kerb or ditch.

It is important that you do not brake hard and then off them then back on the gas while turning in then jump on the brake mid corner when you realize that you are going way too fast as that will seriously unsettle any car due to the weight transfer going from front ( under brakes) then back to the rear (under power) then back to the front(under brakes again) a bit like a sea saw and in many cases leads to the car spinning out of control or having a fishtailing tank slapper.

NOTE if you inexperienced and are fishtailing and unable to regain control BRAKE so if you crash it will be at a slower speed.

Does anyone have first hand knowledge if learners are still instructed to brake only in a straight line today?
 
I too learned to drive a long time ago and it was drummed into me NEVER to touch the brakes on a bend.

With ABS it doesn't matter as much but you'll still stop faster by straight line braking into a bend as long as possible.
 
What all motorists need to be taught and understand is that tyres can only give 100% grip when traveling in a straight line so for instance if you are braking @ 50% you are using 1/2 of the available grip slowing down then there is still 50% of the tyres grip that is left if you have to steer around the corner.

We used to demonstrate this as part of the 'Defensive Driving Courses" on the 'FRICTION CIRCLE" that was with cones around it I (or another instructor) would drive around it at a steady speed with my steering in a steady fixed position and then increase speed and the car would start turning /drifting out wider and wider as I increased speed and then return to the original diameter circle when I reduced the speed all with my steering hands still in the same fixed position.

Hope that makes things a little clearer in case you arrive at a corner a little faster than expected as at sometime in our past most or us me included have misread the road.and arrived a little too fast at a corner that has tightened up a bit.

For the inexperienced or average motorist braking in a straight line is recommended.

Brian "brake once" is exactly what Jackie Stewart taught "Captain Slow" on Top Gear when he was getting him to set a faster lap time. |B
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Thinking more about this, any change of speed on a bend is undesirable, so any hard accelerating or braking is to be avoided imo. (Unless you want to get the back out that is!)
 
Obi if you brake really hard and suddenly in a corner the front end can/will push out away from the apex.

When I was auocrossing on dirt in my RWD and the front bumper looked like hitting a hat and incurring a 5 second penalty I would stab the brake pedal hard for a moment and back on the gas and the front end would slide sideways and clear the cone. I got this driving tip from reading Mario Andretti's book as he used this technique in his roadster type Indy car to avoid debris on the track.
 
Thinking more about this, any change of speed on a bend is undesirable, so any hard accelerating or braking is to be avoided imo. (Unless you want to get the back out that is!)

Unless you are experienced and fully aware of what you are doing and what the end result would be then my best advise is be smooth with all of your controls so that's good advise OBI |B
 
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Brake once, on the straight, was drummed into me at my track day last week.
Lunchy was your track day just the chance to drive and experience the different types of cars and not actually coaching you to reduce your lap times ?
 

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