leedav

I always heel/toe and blip the throttle when I downshift. It's fun, it sounds good and I plain old like it. It won't change my habits, but any opinions on whether I am increasing, decreasing, or not affecting the wear on the clutch?

marlinspike

I never quite understood why heel toe...I just give some gas while I clutch...why do I need to have my toe on the brake?. Anyways, matching rpm is the way to do it, which I understand is part of what heel toe does.

leedav

The heel/toe allows you to match RPM's while modulating brake pressure. That way you can smoothly manage the car's weight transfer while cornering. (They spend a lot of time on it at Skippy School).

LVDell

You'll actually save the clutch for a longer life because you have matched (as best you can) the RPMs thus reducing the friction during the clamping forces of the clutch.

Patrick

It's for when you are down-shifting while braking hard at the end of the straight.

Bob Rouleau

Matching revs reduces wear - I mention this because it is doubtful than we do heel and toe much on the street since we don't brake as hard as on the track.

The purpose of heel an toe is to:

a) match revs while braking
b) having matched revs the car does not lurch when we let the clutch back out. This prevents unbalancing the car.

Since it is common to downshift just before the turn-in, keeping the car in balance as you change its direction is important.

If you do not heel and toe, you lift off the gas, brake, push in the clutch and then let it out. Since your foot has been off the gas all this time the engine has slowed down to idle. letting the clutch out causes the engine to speed up - this causes the car to slow down abruptly (the lurch) which transfers weight to the rear tires. Since we are about to turn in, we want the weight on the front wheels. That's why good drivers use the heel and toe method.

Regards,

Robin 993DX

I heel and toe with every stick shift car that I drive, just became a habit. If done correctly it actually saves a lot of mechanical wear on your gear box and clutch.

marlinspike

How about if you were to just slow with the brake only, then just before you need to get going again you quickly downshift and hit the gas. That's how I do it, but keep in mind that these are honest questions I ask because outside of driving european rental cars in europe I've never driven stick before this summer.

leedav

it's only a problem if you are driving at the limit of adhesion when you downshift (ie cornering during racing). In that case, the extra drag and transient energy you introduce could cause you to spin.

Palting

Are you talking about heel-toe while street drivng? Like, in 6th gear coming to stop, you heel-toe all the way to 1st?

I would think heel-toe while street drivng will increase clutch wear as compared to when you can simply slow down from any gear then select the right gear when ready to accelerate and just rev match. Not as much fun, though, I agree.

leedav

No.... heel/toe from 3rd to 2nd when cornering or slowing down but anticipating to accelerate. Never see much beyond 3rd gear in this hideous slow-*** traffic ticket revenue state.