Excellent tutorial on heel and toe technique

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

http://www.motoringfile.com/2005/07/24/heel_and_toe_shifting_made_simple/
This is actually a site for Mini Coopers, but this how to is excellent reading.

 

[AutoXRacer]

Cool!! Thanks!! (2thumbs)

 

[silverspeed03]

Excellent.

 

[chuyler1]

Nice. My feet are way too big to do this with regular shoes on and I always catch myself hitting the gas pedal unintentionally. I should really get some racing shoes. Although one of the commenters mentioned he liked using Vans, I have a pair and they've got to much width...or maybe my size 11 feet are the problem?

 

[jbiird317]

Nice. My feet are way too big to do this with regular shoes on and I always catch myself hitting the gas pedal unintentionally. I should really get some racing shoes. Although one of the commenters mentioned he liked using Vans, I have a pair and they've got to much width...or maybe my size 11 feet are the problem?

haha 13's arent much better, it is possible tho, just not as easy... I like to try and use the sides of my foot rather than the heel and toe, not as effective, but much easier for those of us with big feet

 

[Aaron2112]

i vote sticky this info is to good to let slip away

 

[jbiird317]

we've got a ton of stickies already, this is good info, but is also very accessible through the search function

*edit* - on second thought, this might be a great sticky in the motorsports section, anyone opposed to moving it there?

 

[Kosh]

No tutorial needed. Nothing to it but to do it! (cabpatch)

Watch it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkYDMPyycoo

 

[blue-sun]

 

[AutoXRacer]

No tutorial needed. Nothing to it but to do it! (cabpatch)

Watch it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkYDMPyycoo

That was cool!!!!! (2thumbs)

 

[dkswim]

neet

 

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

There's a link to a rally driver on the page my original link brings you to that mostly just shows his feet and it is amazing to watch.

 

[chuyler1]

There appear to be two techniques here. The Mini post above talks about having a stiff ankle and kicking your knee out to roll onto the gas. The video posted above is what I always associate as heal toe where you kick out your heal. Moving your knee around breaks up the braking motion while moving your heal keeps your leg planted on the brake. However, my feet are so big that my heal is almost always planted on the floor of the car no matter where I put the seat (since I'm also 6'3"). There is no way I could flip out my heal...but maybe shoes are the problem? I dunno.

 

[jbiird317]

Walter Rohl Rally video

pretty impressive footwork

 

[Mid_Life_Crisis]

There appear to be two techniques here. The Mini post above talks about having a stiff ankle and kicking your knee out to roll onto the gas. The video posted above is what I always associate as heal toe where you kick out your heal. Moving your knee around breaks up the braking motion while moving your heal keeps your leg planted on the brake. However, my feet are so big that my heal is almost always planted on the floor of the car no matter where I put the seat (since I'm also 6'3"). There is no way I could flip out my heal...but maybe shoes are the problem? I dunno.

During the little I watched of it I saw the driver do the technique described in the tutorial, where one side of your foot catches the brake and the other presses the gas. As the tutorial points out, there just isn't room down there for heel and toe, but it sounds so much sexier than what it is, which is more like ball of the foot and toe, or something like that. Notice that the only videos that show true heel and toe technique are custom built cars with the pedals positioned for it. Those of us driving street cars don't have that kind of room. I have size 11.5 and there is no way in hell I am getting a heel and toe on different pedals at the same time. The technique in the article is perfect for those of us with big feet because one edge of the shoe does the brake and you roll your foot so the other side catches the gas. Big feet almost seem like an advantage when you do it that way.

 

[chuyler1]

Yeah I do that on my commute every day. Yeah right!

 

[chuyler1]

During the little I watched of it I saw the driver do the technique described in the tutorial, where one side of your foot catches the brake and the other presses the gas. As the tutorial points out, there just isn't room down there for heel and toe, but it sounds so much sexier than what it is, which is more like ball of the foot and toe, or something like that. Notice that the only videos that show true heel and toe technique are custom built cars with the pedals positioned for it. Those of us driving street cars don't have that kind of room. I have size 11.5 and there is no way in hell I am getting a heel and toe on different pedals at the same time. The technique in the article is perfect for those of us with big feet because one edge of the shoe does the brake and you roll your foot so the other side catches the gas. Big feet almost seem like an advantage when you do it that way.

That must be it then. Thanks. I'm going to start practicing this new technique. BTW, the rally video posted above looks as if he's got his heal planted most of the time and does the roll over but its hard to tell from that angle...and he doesn't do it very often. He does more left foot braking than heal-toe err heal-heal.

 

[jbiird317]

That must be it then. Thanks. I'm going to start practicing this new technique. BTW, the rally video posted above looks as if he's got his heal planted most of the time and does the roll over but its hard to tell from that angle...and he doesn't do it very often. He does more left foot braking than heal-toe err heal-heal.

yeah i noticed that too... i posted taht video because it was the one that was reccomended by the OP in the mini forum. I think he does most of his left foot braking when doing high speed slides but his heel toe technique during regular cornering looked flawless

 

[Bochet]

Does anyone actually use their heel and toe to rev match downshifts? I find myself using the technique described in the article, perhaps because with the current pedal setup it's easier to just brake with the ball of my right foot and roll to blip the throttle with my pinky toe. I did test drive a GTI and they have floor mounted accelerators, so it's easier to mash the go pedal with the heel.

MS3 has DWB Throttle? The DBW on the GTI felt lazy, I;d tap the throttle to bring the revs up :wait: shift.

 

[Kosh]

Does anyone actually use their heel and toe to rev match downshifts? I find myself using the technique described in the article, perhaps because with the current pedal setup it's easier to just brake with the ball of my right foot and roll to blip the throttle with my pinky toe. I did test drive a GTI and they have floor mounted accelerators, so it's easier to mash the go pedal with the heel.

MS3 has DWB Throttle? The DBW on the GTI felt lazy, I;d tap the throttle to bring the revs up :wait: shift.

i do just for fun on the road. Not all the time but it is fun just to practice. Haven't used it at all during autocross but I haven't been past second gear yet either. (doh)