Well if you wouldn't mind the mother of all postwhores here goes:bandit: :
Think about the tyres before thinking of braking; the contact patches and how well they're working relative to the surface they're on determines how much braking torque can be used at one go. I.E on wet surfaces you'll have to slow the wheels down gradually but with a hot surface and sticky tyres from the heat you can slam on the pedal and get away with it.
So like, how you brake oughta reflect t3h driving situation. Braking in snow the same way you brake on a dry and hot fresh tarmac road is gonna be extremely dangerous if not fatal.
If it is dry, you may use the engine brake and the brake pedal at the same time. However, this causes extended wear to the clutch disc. However, it does balance wear between the brake pads and the clutch disc. It becomes a situation of compromise; which one do you wish to sacrifice for the other?
aranoid: If I may, I would suggest sacrificing the brake pads, these are cheaper and easier to replace than the clutch disc.
Using the engine brake together with the footbrake in dry situations also carries a risk: if at 20% pressure on the footbrake the tyre is operating at 75% of its total tractive potential, bringing the engine brake into the picture in an effort to slow down could cause the tyre to overload and break free because of the FWD, especially if you need more braking torque in funny corners[like when the b@stard road builders make reducing radius corners on mountain roads
] In such a situation using the footbrake to safely and predictably modulate the braking torque would be the most favourable condition; breaking the tyres loose with a mis-timed clutch dump, however gradual can be very dangerous.
In wet conditions, using the footbrake to slow down is usually more favourable for the same reasons; bringing the engine brake into the picture can overload the tyres if traction is limited[ie. sleet and rain]However, if the speed is enough to warrant such a technique and the corner is gradual with limited traction, using the engine brake can also be done and is sometimes safer when turning. You'll need to be very sensitive to the lcutch pedal and engagement point though. You will have to modulate the throttle and clutch pedal TOGETHER in order to keep the wheels spinning and slow the car down at the same time.
In the end, try to brake according to the situation. In truth there are many braking techniques, but many braking soloutions to a certain driving situation. All of them are correct in that they slow te car down, however which one is the best, that depends on what the driver wants to do next. The coming situation also affects the technique to use.
Hope that helped man.
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