Paolo1

I'm how many people here heal toe? If so, is this only on the track or on special aggressive drives or is it most of the time how you drive your car? I asked the owner of the shop where I take my car to and he shrugged and said he just drives "normal' and he's in the track all the time. I'm curious. Is this something I should be doing?

tstafford

“Should” - no.

IMO - it’s only important if you track the car. And if you do practicing on the road is great.

95_993

Yes, it's a must in the track. I do it on the street occasionally as much as possible. Rev matching is ideal on downshifting. If your not on the brakes hard, it's not that easy.

rk-d

Pretty much every drive. I only drive my car on the weekends, usually in the morning when the roads are pretty empty and I can blast around. I’ll do it when I’m coming up to a turn or sharp curve at speed and want to brake and keep the engine on the boil. When you nail the heel/toe it’s so satisfying. I do have to wear narrow sneakers to do it effectively.

Gbos1

RudyP

Not every downshift (or anywhere close to it) but sometimes yes. In practice, it is different enough between track (threshold braking with brake pedal depressed pretty far) vs. street (light braking typically and only an inch or so into the pedal travel) that it isn't that easy to be fully calibrated on both. If I heel and toe on the street too much, I tend to overblip on the track until I get used to the threshold braking pedal relationship again. I also have big size 13 feet and so I angle my foot differently for track vs. street heel and toeing.

uniquenamehere

Sometimes on the street for me, always when I'm on the track.

It's much easier to do on track when you're braking heavier than on street.

swmic

When ever I can. Great practice for the track. I drive a 986 at the track so the pedals are a bit different. Great for muscle memory if you are just getting the hang of it.

Mark in Baltimore

I do it every time I drive a manual transmission car on the street. I definitely couldn’t imagine not doing it on the track.

Also left foot brake on the street in all kinds of situations.

NC TRACKRAT

"Heel & Toe" is rite of passage...a necessity to advance your skill level. You can "get by" without it but, on track, you risk upsetting the car and spinning on entry to a turn with a ragged downshift that doesn't match revs.

Sword_of_the_Spirit

Thats the caveat! Threshold brake pedal relation to that of the accelerator. When putzing around, it’s hard and messes you up from one manual to the next. I cannot stress how important the line between your threshold and throttle need to be equal. The throttle loads up the car much faster and with less pressure on the throttle plate than in gear.

I do drive a manual daily and have been since late teens. Because I’ve karted a great deal of my life, left foot has been used whenever possible. No brainer in a slush or pdk.

Enjoy the new challenge and have fun out there.

fatmike

There is a decreasing radius turn on a highway exit ramp near my house that requires two downshifts and a fair amount of braking. I don't think I've ever gotten it exactly right.

/

Novice

Every time, when I turn on to my street to get home. The main road is down hill, and require quite hard braking to slow down for a sharp ( < 90 degree) turn, with immediate uphill ( ie requires at lower gear , high RPM and on the pedal)

Meenrod

I wish I could. I keep trying but I can't do it.

This is my inspiration... and he is wearing loafers!

rk-d

That is seriously one of my favorite driving videos of all time. He is teaching that NSX a lesson. A beautiful thing. If you haven’t watched the Senna documentary, you need to. The guy was a driving god.

The biggest thing to learning heel/toe (for me) was being appropriately aggressive with my throttle blip. Also it’s not really a heel/toe, more of a foot roll using the side of my braking foot to dab the throttle. Got to get rev match to where the engine will naturally want to be at the downshift. For a single gear downshift, that might be ~1-2k RPM above where it’s at before the downshift.

This is where the lightweight flywheel helps - it makes it much easier to get the engine to rev quickly.