Racing Preparation: Heel Toe shifting

Quick beginner guide to Heel Toe shifting. Now I know people will tell you that they love their Sparco or Piloti shoes, but honestly, a $25 pair of Chuck T's have worked for me for years. They have thin soles and great grip.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• heel
• shifting
• toe

[tkeza10]

why do you need to accelerate when changing gears down?

[colinlucas]

@tkeza10 You aren't accelerating. The clutch is pressed in during the transition. When braking and downshifting, the engine speed must be brought up to the proper gearing. As an example: Drive your car in third gear at say, 30 mph. Downshift to 2nd without pressing the gas while downshifting. The car will decelerate due to engine braking and the synchromeshes will be forced to match the engine speed with the now lower gear of the transmission. "Blipping the throttle" fixes this.

[SexRobotOfDoom]

Can I get an explanation in heel toe technique in laymans terms since I have no idea what's it for and how it is done?

I drive a Golf 4 SDI 1.9.

[colinlucas]

@SexRobotOfDoom Sure. The laymans explanation is that this is a technique for reducing stress on the transmission when downshifting a manual transmission. It is most useful in auto racing where precise downshifts are required for smooth weight transfer under braking.

[sillychink3293]

i have a question, what if you have a euro car like a bmw where the gas is in a different position?

[colinlucas]

@sillychink3293 The video was of an Audi, so there really isnt much difference. In some vehicles the pedals are slightly farther away from each other. Please remember though that this is RACING preparation. If the pedals are too far apart, you bend them closer together or get sturdy (not cheap plastic) pedal covers to help close the distance.

[aristicolombia]

you might be right but ive seen alot of chinese professional drivers and they do it the way u explain not to do

[gewdesto]

bullshit dude. in that form u cant braking in a soft form. to reach to the gas pedal u have to press brake till to the end, thats not heel&toe

[nattapolcha]

@MrMockeryMcFly Yes I think that's some problem. Squeeze on brake pedal with very light pressure and do heel-toe. That's hard to do with constant brake pressure. If I want to rev match while my foot slightly on brake, I'll easy off braking and do normal rev match instead.

IMO Heel & toe with very slightly braking is hard to do and rarely to use. In race track only hard or medium braking the driver do. For street driving it may be, but not necessary to do.

[nattapolcha]

@MrMockeryMcFly Yes that's right. And for very light brake pressure you may found that heel-toe foot job is very hard to do with constant brake pressure. I have the same problem. So when I want to rev-match with slightly brake pressure, I'll easy off brake pedal and do only normal rev-match. That's work.

IMO heel-toe rev match is suitable for medium-hard brake pressure. Because apply light braking and rev match is hard to do and rarely to use.

[MrMockeryMcFly]

I find it hard to H&T when I apply only light braking...the brake pedal doesn't go down far enough for me to blip the throttle..

[nattapol2522]

very nice demonstration ;)

blip throttle with edge give more stabilize to do heel-toe. But I use combination between roll and twist to do this. Apply brake and have a feeling only left part of big toe push the pedal forward(not downward) and knee lean to the left. Then use big toe as pivot point to roll the heel and suddenly move knee to the right that'll automatically twist edge of foot to blip throttle. That's suit for my ride Mazda3 with out any pedal mod. :D

[auomauom]

thats a good how to ^^ took me awhile to finally understand what I was doing wrong. I do the same with the third of my foot on the brake but by using my heel to blip the throttle, not like how you do it. It works for me :]

[4point184]

@Alexdc Ayerton Senna did it this way too FTFY