maxpowers

When my dad taught me to drive he said he never downshifted into 1st because he didn't have a synchronized 1st gear and I've kind of continued the habit of only shifting into 1st when stopped.

I was watching Tiff and at 4:10 he says with the tall gear ratios it's sometimes necessary to downshift into 1st to get some punch coming out of a corner.

Would you heel-toe downshift into 1st driving around town?

neurotic

never. ever. but i'm also not a race car driver. just a fat man in his porsche.

seattle_sun

LOL no way!

LexVan

I downshift into 1st sometimes when I come out of reverse.

subshooter

I downshift into first occasionally....but only when I am coming to a stop and want to make some noise. I can't see this coming into a turn where I want power coming out of the turn in first..... doesn't make sense to me. I have rev matching and it sounds awesome with the blip down to first as I come to the stop sign.


Yes, I am a kid.....and I can't heel and toe anyway.

Johnny5Alive

My PDK downshifts into first with perfect rev match 😉

However, on my other fun car which is 6 speed manual, I do not downshift to first unless I'm practically at a stop.

Needsdecaf

Never downshift into first. I will, however, select first while rolling to a stop. I will not clutch out and engage the gear. It helps eliminate the clunk.

RODOLFO04

It is only needed on a really sharp U TURN, and it all depends if you cant keep the revs up to stay in second gear.

heel and toe, helps to smooth out the downshift, but it is not 100% necessary with modern syncro transmissions.

in the old days of your father, it was impossible to downshift without rev matching with heel and toe.

gear would just not get in

maxpowers

I never learned until I was on a racetrack and the instructor kept screaming at me to do it and I had to tell him I had no clue what to do. Since then I've been practicing on the street and it's a lot of fun and extremely satisfying to get right.

There's tons of videos online that explain how to do it. It definitely takes some practice though and is tougher at lower speeds.

I was surprised to see Tiff shift into first while moving that fast

subshooter

I want to learn too. I have watched videos online also but the brake pedal in my 981 is too high. I have a 991.2 inbound (also with a manual) which I will use as a daily driver so I will have plenty of time to practice. I've driven the manual 991.2s but I can't remember if the brake pedal is as high as the 981s.

4pipes

You may need to lift the gas pedal with a kit. Made a big difference for me.

seattle_sun

The 981 is pretty easy to heel toe.
IMHO, all the Porsches I've driven are set up perfectly for heel toe.

subshooter

Funny.....Chris Harris disagrees with you. Perhaps you have heard of him?


See 8:05. he specifically addresses this point.


"the brake pedal Porsche! What is about having the brake too high relative to the throttle? I just don't get it. Heeling and toeing in this car is not easy......these pedals show some negligence in that area"

seattle_sun

He's a fairly good driver, but he must have small feet

Quadcammer

on the street heel and toe is difficult because you are typically not on the brakes that hard.

At the track, when you are on the brakes full on, you realize the height of the gas pedal is good for heel and toe.