Trail Braking: How Braking More Can Make You Faster

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Braking more can actually make you a faster driver. Sounds like a juxtaposition right? Well, not quite. This is trail braking. In this video, Im going to be telling you what trail braking is, when it should be used and how you learn, practice and utilise it in your own driving. So, make sure you stay tuned until the very end if you want to become a faster driver.
When we’re first learning to drive in a performance manner, we’re taught that we need to brake, turn and accelerate 3 separate stages . This is intended to help newer drivers drive cleaner, smoother and to keep the car balanced through corners overall. With this line of thinking, it’s easy for newer drivers to see braking purely as a means of slowing a car down. However, the brakes actually have a few uses that advanced drivers use regularly.
If you’ve watched any of my videos in my how to touge series previously, you’ll know that we can actually use the brakes to change the pitch of the car, or in other words, push the weight of the car onto the front wheels. Basically, this alters the balance of grip from rear to front. There are two main effects that come of this. Firstly, the front tyres have way more grip than usual as they are compressed into the tarmac. This gives them greater turn in potential. And secondly, the rears are lifted off of the tarmac slightly, meaning they have less grip. This allows us to rotate the rear of the car much easier than usual. In a nutshell, trail braking allows us to use all of our grip to it’s maximum potential. When entering a corner, we don’t need as much grip on the rear tyres than the fronts, simply because they are putting in less work. So, loading up the fronts by trail braking allows us more grip to actually turn into the corner. We can see this effect visualised when we slam on the brakes whilst turning. The car will buck forward, the rear will lose grip and will almost pivot around the front end.

So with that in mind, let’s get back to the topic of the video. Trail braking is the term used to describe the technique of blending both braking and turning at the same time. If we go back to the diagram from earlier, we can see how it modifies the 3 stage cornering into just two. Trial braking allows a driver to brake slightly later, but more importantly, keep the weight of the car on the front axles, which aids corner entry. It also allows them to rotate the rear of the car around. This means the car is lined up with the exit of the corner sooner, meaning they can step on the throttle earlier.
But, I should say that it’s not necessary to trail the brakes into all corners. Trail braking is best performed on slow corners, in which we’d want to rotate the car before the apex, allowing us to open up the exit.

So now you know what trail braking is, and when to use it, so all that remains is telling you how to learn, practice and utilise the trailbraking technique in your own driving. But before that, let me take up to 10 seconds of this video to remind you to like the video, let me know what you think in the comments and subscribe if you want to see more videos like this one.
Trail braking is a tough technique to get down consistently. It requires good brake feel to ensure you’re getting the most out of your tyres at the entrance of a corner. But, when you get it right, you’ll be blasting through corners like it’s nobody's business.
So, here’s how we trail brake.
When trail braking, we will actually be able to brake a little later than usual, but we still need to ensure the majority of our deceleration is done in a straight line. Maximum braking can only occur in a straight line.
As we approach the turn in point, we need to begin easing off the brakes. It’s important that you ease off the brakes as smoothly as possible. If you come off them too quick, you’ll unbalance the car.
Once you reach your turn in point, start to turn your car towards the apex. This is the point in which trail braking starts, as you’re trailing the brakes past the turn in point.
As you increase the steering angle, you’ll need to continually release brake pressure.

Hit the like, and maybe even subscribe button if you enjoyed the video!

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