Heel & toe gear changing

[five5v]

My Piloti's have a raised bit on the side of the right shoe to help heel and toe action. The heel is rounded, which makes them even more comfortable and precise. Also, when you're driving your powerful rear wheel drive supercar (?) with lots of engine braking, rev-matching is essential in slippery conditions to stop the rear wheels locking, or so I've heard.

 

[Nath]

You don't need to be racing competitively to benefit from this. I always blip the throttle to rev-match on down changes but usually only heel and toe on the track (occasionally on the road too though). On the track it's impossible to blip the throttle on downshifts without heel and toeing (unless you're driving like a granny ).

 

[Raptor6767]

I always do the rev matching but only use heel-toe when on track. I find it to be tricky to do in my 197 because of the 2 things:
High brake paddle position
Low throttle position so it's hard to give it a lot of throttle & brake at the same time - I need to slow down from ~180km/h to ~95km/h and to shift down from 6th to 3rd gear in one turn...

 

[Nath]

Agree - it is quite hard to do on the road due to the different pedal heights and brake sensitivity. Easier on the track as you're one the brakes harder which makes the pedals closer together. I'm pretty sure RS designed it this way to be optimal for the track

 

[Marv]

I have always matched revs in any car I drive and when having professional tuition recently learned how to heel n toe properly. Sad to say that even with practice, I just find I unsettle the car more than when I match the revs in my normal way.

 

[N0ddie]

Thnk I'll take the opportunity while the industrial estates are closed for the holidays to go n test this method out.

 

[Willis]

I did try left footed braking with awful results lol

Facepalm onto Steering Wheel!?! :thumbup:

Again, this is another one that once you can do it, it does become second nature.

The Clio is the car that's taken me the longest to get used to though with the brakes being as good as they are.

 

[luke3]

I don't understand what this achieves?

 

[N0ddie]

I don't understand what this achieves?

Essentially no "sudden lurch" when changing down the box.

 

[GrumpyTwig]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel-and-toe

" One benefit of downshifting before entering a turn is to eliminate the jolt to the drivetrain, or any other unwanted dynamics. The jolt will not upset the vehicle as badly when going in a straight line, but the same jolt while turning may upset the vehicle enough to cause loss of control if it occurs after the turn has begun."

Basically what N0ddie said just more long winded, think of what would happen entering a corner with a tough of steering applied and you stamped on the brake pedal momentarily.
In the worst scenario the back end will come around, I've had it happen so that's why I do it.

 

[fmp]

It seems those that track thier car understand the benefits of this technique, and those that dont.... dont.

I do it when on track, but generally dont day to day.

And as its been explained a few times, just makes the mechanical motions of the car smoother. Smoother generally means under more control.

Cool vid tho mark!

 

[Raptor6767]

I always do the rev matching but only use heel-toe when on track. I find it to be tricky to do in my 197 because of the 2 things:
High brake paddle position
Low throttle position so it's hard to give it a lot of throttle & brake at the same time - I need to slow down from ~180km/h to ~95km/h and to shift down from 6th to 3rd gear in one turn...

I was thinking of this turn:

[YOUTUBE]3SwZnKN-WRA[/YOUTUBE]

The difference is that Hrky in his heavily moded FocusRS has 224km/h, and I have only ~179km/h (Racechrono) before the turn and I need to slow down to ~95km/h.

You can do it without the heel-toe, but you lose some time (the front wheels can block a little and then you oversteer and loose ideal race line).


This is me in the Punto Cup behind a friend (86hp, not a powerful car, but it corners almost like our Clios - it has the suspension, roll cage, full slick tyres, stripped down,...)

[YOUTUBE]FMi12-e4Z1E[/YOUTUBE]

P.S. Please, don't mind my comments - I'm pissed off because I got the Punto with a weaker engine like the last time (only this one has a bucket seat my size - XL ).

 

[930Tech]

I feel really sad asking this but what shoes are those?

;/ i feel sad as i spotted the piloti P before the first heel an toe action.

 

[Graeme GTR]

Never really seen the point in any such techniques unless your racing competitively to give you the edge over others oh and it looks cool 2, although I did try left footed braking with awful results lol

havent we all...

found this clip to show off some awesome left foot braking from the man himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMEqOGejlrw

was trying to find the video of the rally cars with four pedals for some insane pedal work, but could find it. Try again later or unless someone can find it for me :thumbup:

 

[ben_r1]

2bh if i saw someone blipping the throttle on the downshifts towards a set of lights I'd just think.... Tit.

 

[richandgem]

For normal driving there isn't much point, in my opinion anyway. But driving hard and especially on track this can be a really useful thing to learnt, keeps the car far more settled

 

[Azza]

As cool as heel and toe looks there isn't much point in day to day driving - if your being aggressive or on track then yes there will be advantages in terms of smoothness but initially from what i can see all your doing is increasing the speed the flywheel turns and could initially cause more damage to your drivetrain/clutch if you do it badly/incorrectly a little bit like clutch less gear changes (great if you know what your doing but can cause huge damage if you don't).

Don't get me wrong I would love to be able to do it but I don't see the point in learning it for the sort of driving i do as I don't intend on tracking the Clio

 

[ado]

It seems those that track thier car understand the benefits of this technique, and those that dont.... dont.

Does look that way. I only H&T on the road occasionally with just rev matching most of the time.

I found that the throttle sometimes need a bigger dab just to get the revs up as though it falls asleep if I'm coasting.

Left foot brake is also second nature in this car. Trying to perfect both feet overlapping whilst approaching a corner. Nearly there but need more tracktime.

 

[N0ddie]

I tried this today but was finding that my foot was just too skinny to bridge the gap between brake and accelerator.

 

[A2ON]

I tried this today but was finding that my foot was just too skinny to bridge the gap between brake and accelerator.

the 200 is the easiest car i have ever had to do this with as the pedals are close together id like to think on purpose to aid this .

you only need a tiny bit of your foot on the brake noodie and then just angles the whole right side down .

dont forget this is normally in conjunction with heavy breaking thus making the gap smaller.