163 replies to this topic

[FTodaro]

Your camber and toe settings are just about what i run. There has been a tendency for people to keep running more and more camber. How much is to much? I am not sure i have the answer but when you can't brake enough to slow down, or if your failing your suspension components, or getting lots of wheel spin, then its to much.

 

I have started to back off the amount of RR camber because I cannot put the power down coming out of the corner on right hand turns.

[SaulSpeedwell]

Lots of good and not-so-good stuff here.  But a point I would like to make again is how much laptime (and position) can be gained with brakes (and, to Frank's point, getting the power down).  The car is never at its scaled % cross (or its alignment numbers) when you are hurtling through a Carousel or Kink or passing for a $4 trophy on turn 1, lap 1.  This ain't the Westminster Cat Show or the PCA or the BMWCCA ...  there is no trophy for 50.0000% cross weight, "Best Camber", or most expensive driving loafers displayed near an aircooled car with Hitler's mechanic's badge displayed in 8+ places on it.  ​If you have one brake locking up early, you need to fix it.  If you aren't getting the power down, you need to fix it.  Ignore what the experts say, and just fix it.  

 

We know for sure that "zero toe" isn't optimal for the front, in terms of "rolling resistance".  As negative camber and tire grip go higher, we know that more toe-out is better for straightline speed.  I haven't made straingauges for the tie rods to figure it out, but some of my smartass friends (high density in Michigan, where they have more time to think than they have time to drive, race, or pave their secondary roads) claim they have. 

[Johnny D]

[davew]

Obviously I am against trail braking in most instances. The majority of my time is spent looking at cars from various points on the track. When I see a mid pack guy, with brake lights on after turn in, I reccomend that he stop it. When he does, he almost always goes significantly faster. You can do physics and math and traction circles. I measure with a stop watch. Faster lap times wins in my book.

 

Set up guide; Always remember what I mentioned earlier, you are looking for balance. Using the front setup from shop A with the rear setup from shop B will not usually be fast. Set up is a reciepe, you can not use part of grammas brownies, with some ingrediants from Aunt Jemima and a few more from Betty Crocker. You will usually end up with a brown pile of... Also, every oven is a little different, so always go by what your oven wants.

 

First the car must be mechanically sound, no bad bushings, wheel bearings etc.

Second you must be accurate

Third you must be repeatable.

 

What Adavanced does:

 

Front camber +/- 3.5 neg

Front Caster even side to side, about 25% above minimum for the car. Varies by year of subframe

Front toe, out 1/16" out per wheel as measured with 24" toe plates. Measureing with a string box off the wheel lip will give different readings.

 

Rear camber equal to front

Rear toe IN 1/32 per wheel with toe plates.

 

within 10 pounds of 50/50 crossweight, I learned with pounds not %

level at pinch welds

 

front bar soft for 1.6 cars

rear bar middle middle 

 

33-36 pounds tire pressure hot depending upon driver feel

 

My primary adjustment is to the rear bar and rear ride height/rake at the track. Once the rear bar is set to driver preference, it usually stays put. Then I just do tire pressure and rear ride height for rake. Many drivers prefer the low hot pressures, but find the car too squishy on cold tires, so they compromise with the higher pressure for stability at the start.

 

Remember you can adjust one side of the rear bar at a time. Middle soft is a common setting.

 

Front toe: This is overly simplified. It does not take into account weight transfer, ackerman, caster curves. But it is easy to understand. Grab 2 pens and create your front tires.

 

Set you pens for zero toe. Now turn them 1/2" to the right. They both are the same angle into the corner. But the inside wheel should be turned more than the outside due to the radius of the turn being longer for the outside wheel.

 

Now put 1/2" toe into the pens. Again turn them 1/2" to the right. You have the inside pen at straight ahead and the outside at a drastic angle into the corner. This will create the opposite scenario of what you want. The outside wheel is pointed in when compared to the inside.

 

Now go 1/2" out on each pen. Turn them right 1/2" You now have the preferred angles. Outside will be straight ahead, while the inside will be turned in. The outside tire is turning at a larger radius than the inside tire. Just what we want.

 

This description is way overly exaggerated. But you can see the effect of front toe, on turn in. I personally like a hard turn in, so I go a little higher than normal. But that is MY preference. And I really don't care how fast I go. I race for fun only.

 

Rear toe needs to be slightly toed in for braking stability. The rear wheels will slightly toe out under braking, toe out in the rear is unstable. All you need is a little toe in to offset the toe out tendency. That slight rear toe in, will also help mid corner/on power stability. Especially the middle of a sweeper.

 

Figure out YOUR recipe, using your oven(tools) and always do it the same way.

 

Hope this helps

Dave

[steveracer]

"Front toe, out 1/16" out per wheel as measured with 24" toe plates. Measureing with a string box off the wheel lip will give different readings."

 

 

Would you share that wheel lip spec for us mathmatically challenged? 

 

 

[gerglmuff2]

Obviously I am against trail braking in most instances. The majority of my time is spent looking at cars from various points on the track. When I see a mid pack guy, with brake lights on after turn in, I reccomend that he stop it. When he does, he almost always goes significantly faster. You can do physics and math and traction circles. I measure with a stop watch. Faster lap times wins in my book.

 

Set up guide; Always remember what I mentioned earlier, you are looking for balance. Using the front setup from shop A with the rear setup from shop B will not usually be fast. Set up is a reciepe, you can not use part of grammas brownies, with some ingrediants from Aunt Jemima and a few more from Betty Crocker. You will usually end up with a brown pile of... Also, every oven is a little different, so always go by what your oven wants.

 

First the car must be mechanically sound, no bad bushings, wheel bearings etc.

Second you must be accurate

Third you must be repeatable.

 

What Adavanced does:

 

Front camber +/- 3.5 neg

Front Caster even side to side, about 25% above minimum for the car. Varies by year of subframe

Front toe, out 1/16" out per wheel as measured with 24" toe plates. Measureing with a string box off the wheel lip will give different readings.

 

Rear camber equal to front

Rear toe IN 1/32 per wheel with toe plates.

 

within 10 pounds of 50/50 crossweight, I learned with pounds not %

level at pinch welds

 

front bar soft for 1.6 cars

rear bar middle middle 

 

33-36 pounds tire pressure hot depending upon driver feel

 

My primary adjustment is to the rear bar and rear ride height/rake at the track. Once the rear bar is set to driver preference, it usually stays put. Then I just do tire pressure and rear ride height for rake. Many drivers prefer the low hot pressures, but find the car too squishy on cold tires, so they compromise with the higher pressure for stability at the start.

 

Remember you can adjust one side of the rear bar at a time. Middle soft is a common setting.

 

Front toe: This is overly simplified. It does not take into account weight transfer, ackerman, caster curves. But it is easy to understand. Grab 2 pens and create your front tires.

 

Set you pens for zero toe. Now turn them 1/2" to the right. They both are the same angle into the corner. But the inside wheel should be turned more than the outside due to the radius of the turn being longer for the outside wheel.

 

Now put 1/2" toe into the pens. Again turn them 1/2" to the right. You have the inside pen at straight ahead and the outside at a drastic angle into the corner. This will create the opposite scenario of what you want. The outside wheel is pointed in when compared to the inside.

 

Now go 1/2" out on each pen. Turn them right 1/2" You now have the preferred angles. Outside will be straight ahead, while the inside will be turned in. The outside tire is turning at a larger radius than the inside tire. Just what we want.

 

This description is way overly exaggerated. But you can see the effect of front toe, on turn in. I personally like a hard turn in, so I go a little higher than normal. But that is MY preference. And I really don't care how fast I go. I race for fun only.

 

Rear toe needs to be slightly toed in for braking stability. The rear wheels will slightly toe out under braking, toe out in the rear is unstable. All you need is a little toe in to offset the toe out tendency. That slight rear toe in, will also help mid corner/on power stability. Especially the middle of a sweeper.

 

Figure out YOUR recipe, using your oven(tools) and always do it the same way.

 

Hope this helps

Dave

Thank you for your comprehensive post. your details on car setup are excellent, thank you for sharing them. 

my only comment is that braking first, and then turning in, is certainly easier, more reliable, and more consistent. to nail a trail brake is faster, but much more tricky, and screwing it up, will make you go slower. in my post that's why i detail that under race conditions, i have yet to pull it off, but under less stressful conditions, can, sometimes.  

[davew]

 

"Front toe, out 1/16" out per wheel as measured with 24" toe plates. Measureing with a string box off the wheel lip will give different readings."

 

 

Would you share that wheel lip spec for us mathmatically challenged? 

 

 

 

 

24" toe plates versus a 15" wheel, +/- 66%. In our numbers it is not much. But if you use a string box at home and a set of toe plates at the track, you will get different reading and end up chasing your tail. Be consistant!

[Steve Scheifler]

24" toe plates versus a 15" wheel, +/- 66%. In our numbers it is not much. But if you use a string box at home and a set of toe plates at the track, you will get different reading and end up chasing your tail. Be consistant!

Or create custom 66% scale rulers for use with plates at the track.

Good setup summary Dave, hard to argue with any of it as a starting point. As you said, from there each car &driver will like something a little different but a reasonable baseline is important. I’m not sure everyone can manage that much negative camber all around in which case start with matched fronts and matched rears as a baseline then adjust by track etc. as needed. It also sounds like you use relatively little camber. I’m curious to know your reasoning on that.

[Martinracing98]

When I see a mid pack guy, with brake lights on after turn in, I reccomend that he stop it. When he does, he almost always goes significantly faster.

 

I absolutely agree. As an average driver that typically gets to race about 5 weekends a year I remind myself to get braking done early(before turn in) so I can have a consistent turn in and be back on the throttle early. As a result I find I get faster and more consistent laps. I think in some corners trail braking can help, but for most of us it doesn't   

[Cnj]

[quote "davew"] “Obviously I am against trail braking in most instances. The majority of my time is spent looking at cars from various points on the track. When I see a mid pack guy, with brake lights on after turn in, I reccomend that he stop it. When he does, he almost always goes significantly faster. You can do physics and math and traction circles. I measure with a stop watch. Faster lap times wins in my book.”

Dave,

You have been incredibly generous in sharing your setup advice. Really good stuff. Thank you (seriously).

Now my response to your slightly snarky post.

Thanks for settling me straight about trail braking. I’ll absolutely connect with Eric Foss and other coaches and make sure they understand that how they have been driving and what they have been coaching for years is totally wrong. I don’t know Michael Krum (Driving on the Edge) or Ross Bentley or Carl Lopex (Going Faster) or Randy Pobst (articles and web presentations), but I’ll try to reach out to them to make sure they know that what they have written in books or articles is just all wrong. And for sure gotta get Roger Caddell to change his data demos. The whole traction circle thing is dead wrong and I (and they) didn’t know it. Crap.

Yeah. Pretty snarky I know. But it’s late and I’m amusing myself

My concern with your posture on this is that you are an influential guy and some new drivers will read your stuff and decide that trail braking is wrong/slow in all circumstances and that’s simply bad advice. I agree with Steve that it’s totally situational where it’s needed/useful or not. Of course it’s not good everywhere. Of course sometimes simply getting off the brake is faster (I’ll wager that that’s why your advice to mid packers makes them faster). However I do defy any driver to prove to me that they are really fast around a multi-turn track, but do no trail braking at all. And never use trail braking to rotate the car. Or if I am more technical, that they don’t fill out the traction circle more when they are faster through (many but not all) corners. So for example “Pitch and catch” driving (which is what Todd Lamb teaches) definitely fills that circle (I’ve checked my data against Todd’s and he totally kicks my butt in this regard), although my experience is that he teaches far faster turn transitions (less trail brake) than say Eric.

I basically object to absolutist positions, or limited explanations. And I remain confident that while I have achieved a dismayingly high level of mediocrity in my driving, that it’s still ruled by (predictable) physics and reflected in traction circles.

CNJ

[callumhay]

What's better if you wake up early and can't get back to sleep than getting on Mazda racers to see what's going on ?....

The discussion on trail braking has been really interesting to me as an expert slow driver! It has been very difficult for me to learn how little to use the brakes and more importantly..when. I think what Dave is saying, is that if you follow his advise you will more than likely move up from the kids table of SM racing to the big boys one....what you do once you are there may or may not involve trail braking.

I took a look at Preston Pardus' videos of the Sebring majors in January, the first race is pretty good to look at trail braking as he is behind enough cars to take a look at what the brake lights are doing. Granted this is Sebring and not reflective of all tracks but the 2 slowest corners are the hair pin and the entry to the carousel. I would say any trail braking I saw was very momentary coming after braking at the last possible moment in a straight line. In the faster corners, any trail braking was still very early in the initial turn in on the corners. I'm not sure that what I saw would constitute trail braking but rather gentle brake release in the fast corners. Incidentally on the out lap, the outside car seemed to be braking a little more in to the corner as he was turning and spun. The other drivers on the inside were on a better line and their cars were clearly balanced better. If you are still learning like me, after you watch a few laps looking at the brake lights, start listening to the throttle application. For Preston, he for sure is feathering, nursing and giving a lot of love early in any corner to the pedal on the right. This has been pointed out that whoever gets on the throttle early will be fast

Of course getting everything right with the line, vision,hands, feet etc is what it takes to make it all work which is why one technique won't win all races. But I think it's fair to say that certain habits will always lose races and in low HP, momentum cars, over slowing the car will always keep you back. Inexperienced trail braking might make you think you should be winning the race, when instead all you did was be fastest for a portion of the corner, not the entire track. Also braking too early in a straight line will make you slow, even if you are on the throttle around the corner because you cannot make up the speed deficit. My current favorite is braking inconsistently, carrying too much speed, sliding the car a little and then getting in the throttle somewhere mid corner. It feels fast, but my lap times don't change much with that.

If anyone cares to point out what they think about the braking in those videos or any others, I'd like to hear their take on it.

Cal

[Richard Astacio]

I wish Justin Hille would chime in as he has me working on trail braking in certain corners to help stabilize the nose of the car and keep it planted on turn in especially high speed corners. 

 

Let's say for example Turn 1 at Nola, if we overlay Justin Hille or Chris Haldeman's data you can see on the graph where my speed trace between braking and acceleration the tranistion is very sharp at the bottom almost creating a "V shape" between braking and throttle while their data is more of a "U" shape. 

 

When I started trail breaking in turn 1, with the same turn in reference point I was not tracking out as far out as I was before. Trail breaking the car I was able to plant and settle the car therefore being able to carry a few MPH more thru the corner and not track out as far.

At the track out since I was not that far I was able to stay flat from turn in all the way to before I break for turn 3....

 

Lime Rock turn 1 is also an example where trail breaking is crucial and carrying the most amount of speed into the corner.

 

So I would say some corners trail braking will reward you and also keep the car stable and planted. 

[Danny Steyn]

Here is my take on five oversimplified types of braking applied to five different types of corners that I suspect many of us utilize in Spec Miata.  My preferred style of braking is as late as possible, full-on threshold brake on the verge of flat spotting all four tires. I feel I have pretty good pedal feel and can I pull this off quite well but every track has a multitude of corners and there is no way that one braking style works for all. So we work at developing multiple braking styles. PS, using an iRacing simulator barefoot will be a tremendous asset in learning feel and also teaching left-foot-braking. 

 

• "Typical Spec Miata Corners - Flat before Apex" - where we brake to get the car slowed enough to where we can commit to Wide Open Throttle before the apex, thus extending the straight. The hardest part of this is to not over-slow the entry, but still maintain enough entry and mid corner speed and still be able to get to WOT before the apex without modulating throttle as you go through the turn. This lengthens the straight and increases your terminal speed at the end of the straight. (Turn 7 at Road Atlanta). Tommy Kendall famously wrote ..... "its not the racer that gets to throttle first that wins, its the racer that gets to wide open throttle first that wins"...... and T7 at Road Atlanta exemplifies this theory.

• "Trail Brake Corners" - where we trail the brakes through the corner to set the nose and only get to the gas at or after the apex. This is done to assist rotation and to avoid front end push. Turn T10A at Road Atlanta, T6 hairpin at Barber, T7 hairpin at Sebring, T3 and T4 at NOLA

• "Careful Brake Release Corners" - where we come off the brakes very smoothly so as not to upset the chassis as we are in a situation where sudden brake release will cause the rear to step out (Turn 6 at Road America) or the front to push out - (Turn 11, 12, 13, 15 at COTA)

• "Left foot brake to set the nose corners" - this approach is used, for me, in corners where I do not need to downshift but there is a small amount of deceleration needed, but more importantly there is a need to get the front to set and bite and to get good corner entry with good mid corner speed. When you get to WOT in these corners is secondary to the entry and mid corner speed. Turn 11 at Watkins Glen,  Southbend at VIR

• "Threshold brake as late as possible for the compromise corners" here we do not care about getting to throttle - this is all about carrying as much corner entry speed as possible, and getting to WOT is secondary as there is normally another corner just after it. Turn 13 at NOLA

 

I am sure there you will all be able to point out to me several more braking styles and add several corners as references, and I am sure that several of you will probably contradict every thing I above. But as was written at the start of this "SETUP GUIDE" thread, we all drive differently and we all setup our cars to suit our driving styles very differently. So YMMV

[Cnj]

Danny, great breakdown of varying braking solutions to match the corner.  

 

CNJ

[FTodaro]

Here is my take on five oversimplified types of braking applied to five different types of corners that I suspect many of us utilize in Spec Miata.  My preferred style of braking is as late as possible, full-on threshold brake on the verge of flat spotting all four tires. I feel I have pretty good pedal feel and can I pull this off quite well but every track has a multitude of corners and there is no way that one braking style works for all. So we work at developing multiple braking styles. PS, using an iRacing simulator barefoot will be a tremendous asset in learning feel and also teaching left-foot-braking. 

 

• "Typical Spec Miata Corners - Flat before Apex" - where we brake to get the car slowed enough to where we can commit to Wide Open Throttle before the apex, thus extending the straight. The hardest part of this is to not over-slow the entry, but still maintain enough entry and mid corner speed and still be able to get to WOT before the apex without modulating throttle as you go through the turn. This lengthens the straight and increases your terminal speed at the end of the straight. (Turn 7 at Road Atlanta). Tommy Kendall famously wrote ..... "its not the racer that gets to throttle first that wins, its the racer that gets to wide open throttle first that wins"...... and T7 at Road Atlanta exemplifies this theory.

• "Trail Brake Corners" - where we trail the brakes through the corner to set the nose and only get to the gas at or after the apex. This is done to assist rotation and to avoid front end push. Turn T10A at Road Atlanta, T6 hairpin at Barber, T7 hairpin at Sebring, T3 and T4 at NOLA

• "Careful Brake Release Corners" - where we come off the brakes very smoothly so as not to upset the chassis as we are in a situation where sudden brake release will cause the rear to step out (Turn 6 at Road America) or the front to push out - (Turn 11, 12, 13, 15 at COTA)

• "Left foot brake to set the nose corners" - this approach is used, for me, in corners where I do not need to downshift but there is a small amount of deceleration needed, but more importantly there is a need to get the front to set and bite and to get good corner entry with good mid corner speed. When you get to WOT in these corners is secondary to the entry and mid corner speed. Turn 11 at Watkins Glen,  Southbend at VIR

• "Threshold brake as late as possible for the compromise corners" here we do not care about getting to throttle - this is all about carrying as much corner entry speed as possible, and getting to WOT is secondary as there is normally another corner just after it. Turn 13 at NOLA

 

I am sure there you will all be able to point out to me several more braking styles and add several corners as references, and I am sure that several of you will probably contradict every thing I above. But as was written at the start of this "SETUP GUIDE" thread, we all drive differently and we all setup our cars to suit our driving styles very differently. So YMMV

I was going to chime in earlier that this discussion is corner specific. 

 

Your typical flat apex corner (Atlanta turn 7) in my effort to get better at this important corner i watched a lot of you driving the corner from a trailing car. To me it looks like you have not fully come off the brake at turn in,  but the brake is off just after you start the turn in. Is that the intent?

 

Let me put this in context of my home track Mid Ohio

Turn one is a left foot brake corner or if your not good at that a tap and back to WOT WAY before the apex.

Turn 2 or 3 depending on the configuration Key Hole that is a trail brake corner for me the car will not turn going down hill if you don't. 

End of the back straight Turn 7 (mid O) , to me a lot like Road Atlanta turn one and turn six brake late and go WOT before the apex

 

finally something to talk about that is interesting.

[Bench Racer]

Watching video's, do we really know if braking is occurring or are the brake lights on with no braking?  It's only a question.

[Danny Steyn]

Your typical flat apex corner (Atlanta turn 7) in my effort to get better at this important corner i watched a lot of you driving the corner from a trailing car. To me it looks like you have not fully come off the brake at turn in,  but the brake is off just after you start the turn in. Is that the intent?

 

Yes, at Road Atlanta T7, you are still trailing as you turn in to ensure front end bite on corner entry, but not trailing to the apex, which is how I would classify a typical trail braking corner.

 

As soon as the car has taken a set, you commit to WOT before the Apex hoping that it will not push out over the exit curbing.

 

Approach 1 - slower corner entry speed. You turn in, commit to WOT and exit perfectly without throttle modulation. All is good, however you "might" have just overslowed the entry and mid corner speed ever so slightly, so you plan to carry more speed the next time around.

 

Approach 2 - Now you enter a little bit faster, trail in, commit to WOT before the apex and as you carry more speed through the mid corner,  WOT and you now start to push out over the exit curbing and you have to modulate your throttle or go over the curbs. NOT GOOD, as the guy behind you that committed to WOT before the apex and was able to hold it flat all the way will pass you down the straight. 

 

This is the fine line in all corners. How much entry speed can you carry, how much mid corner speed can you carry, and still get to WOT without modulation before anyone else. Do that at every corner on the track and you WILL destroy your competition. But as we all know, this is one of the hardest things to master, as every corner is different, and it changes lap by lap depending on what you did to you tires in the corner before!

[FTodaro]

Yes, at Road Atlanta T7, you are still trailing as you turn in to ensure front end bite on corner entry, but not trailing to the apex, which is how I would classify a typical trail braking corner.

 

As soon as the car has taken a set, you commit to WOT before the Apex hoping that it will not push out over the exit curbing.

 

Approach 1 - slower corner entry speed. You turn in, commit to WOT and exit perfectly without throttle modulation. All is good, however you "might" have just overslowed the entry and mid corner speed ever so slightly, so you plan to carry more speed the next time around.

 

Approach 2 - Now you enter a little bit faster, trail in, commit to WOT before the apex and as you carry more speed through the mid corner,  WOT and you now start to push out over the exit curbing and you have to modulate your throttle or go over the curbs. NOT GOOD, as the guy behind you that committed to WOT before the apex and was able to hold it flat all the way will pass you down the straight. 

 

This is the fine line in all corners. How much entry speed can you carry, how much mid corner speed can you carry, and still get to WOT without modulation before anyone else. Do that at every corner on the track and you WILL destroy your competition. But as we all know, this is one of the hardest things to master, as every corner is different, and it changes lap by lap depending on what you did to you tires in the corner before!

 

Thanks for the comments. I am not a regular at Atlanta, but i think that corner is one of the hardest corners that i have driven, only because as you say there is a fine line between good and bad. If you cannot drive that corner well you will not do well at that track.

[Tom Hampton]

Great Danny.  thanks!  I'm not familiar with many of those turns, but I've been studying them on the map in an effort to understand "why" each corner type is applied to each of those corners....Let me see of I can get close.
 
 

• "Typical Spec Miata Corners - Flat before Apex" - where we brake to get the car slowed enough to where we can commit to Wide Open Throttle before the apex, thus extending the straight. The hardest part of this is to not over-slow the entry, but still maintain enough entry and mid corner speed and still be able to get to WOT before the apex without modulating throttle as you go through the turn. This lengthens the straight and increases your terminal speed at the end of the straight. (Turn 7 at Road Atlanta). Tommy Kendall famously wrote ..... "its not the racer that gets to throttle first that wins, its the racer that gets to wide open throttle first that wins"...... and T7 at Road Atlanta exemplifies this theory.

Your typical "critical corners" such as the last corner before a long straight, or a corner dividing a long straight (which requires a downshift). 

• "Trail Brake Corners" - where we trail the brakes through the corner to set the nose and only get to the gas at or after the apex. This is done to assist rotation and to avoid front end push. Turn T10A at Road Atlanta, T6 hairpin at Barber, T7 hairpin at Sebring, T3 and T4 at NOLA

The ones at the end of a long straight leading to either a hairpin, carousel, decreasing radius turn, or other arcing entry type of turn. 

• "Careful Brake Release Corners" - where we come off the brakes very smoothly so as not to upset the chassis as we are in a situation where sudden brake release will cause the rear to step out (Turn 6 at Road America) or the front to push out - (Turn 11, 12, 13, 15 at COTA)

I'm less sure of this type of corner.  But, I think these are corners that lead to corners, but with a very short straight separating them.  Almost like a ppre-corner, or an extreme decreasing radius corner. 

• "Left foot brake to set the nose corners" - this approach is used, for me, in corners where I do not need to downshift but there is a small amount of deceleration needed, but more importantly there is a need to get the front to set and bite and to get good corner entry with good mid corner speed. When you get to WOT in these corners is secondary to the entry and mid corner speed. Turn 11 at Watkins Glen,  Southbend at VIR

Mid-straight corners.  Kinks, wide radius 90-degree corners, less than 90 degree corners, etc.  Any single corner with straights on both sides that doesn't require a downshift. 

• "Threshold brake as late as possible for the compromise corners" here we do not care about getting to throttle - this is all about carrying as much corner entry speed as possible, and getting to WOT is secondary as there is normally another corner just after it. Turn 13 at NOLA

This seems like a special case of the trail-brake corner above.
 
I am sure there you will all be able to point out to me several more braking styles and add several corners as references, and I am sure that several of you will probably contradict every thing I above. But as was written at the start of this "SETUP GUIDE" thread, we all drive differently and we all setup our cars to suit our driving styles very differently. So YMMV

 

I once had it explained to me, that trailing can be good as long as you don't compromise your WOT points.  So, when working on a corner...start by determine where the WOT point is (typical get the exit right first paradigm), then begin braking later / trailing deeper until any later and you would have to move your WOT point. 

[Danny Steyn]

Great Danny.  thanks!  I'm not familiar with many of those turns, but I've been studying them on the map in an effort to understand "why" each corner type is applied to each of those corners....Let me see of I can get close.

 

Tom, a map wont really help. It has to do with grip, inclination, declination, camber, off camber etc. Really comes down to what the car wants to do when you commit to WOT. In some cases rear gets loose, in others front wants to wash out. This you cannot see from a map. Rather watch a video for that track IMHO