I’ve tried braking with my left foot and nearly caused a couple accidents by pushing the brake pedal to the floor when I meant to merely tap it. I ditched that habit pretty quickly. :smack:
IMHO, that’s a bad habit. I always use my right foot for both brake and accelerator. At one stage I learned the trick of doing a hill start with left foot on the clutch and right foot controlling both brake and accelerator – heel end on brake, toe end on accelerator. Yes, you can control two pedals independently with one foot.
the description 6Sage Cat gave is basically how I viewed it as a kid. The first time I drove a clutch was when I was 15 and accidentally rolled an MGB down a hill while practicing how to shift. The owner thought it would be fun to see me pull the car back up the hill so he threw me the keys. I pulled the car up hill on the first go because I understood how the clutch worked. I also learned to drive without the clutch because I knew how the transmission worked.
As to your question about automatics, The traditional ones are a completely different and use planetary gears with a torque converter. There is a new type of auto on the market that greatly resembles a manual and it is a whole new breed.