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First off, congrats for stepping back in. You’re going to enjoy it and your goal is certainly achievable.

Your identification of the area for greatest potential for improvement is key. Conveying this to your coach/instructor is important, but it’s only one of many different things you’re going to want to work on.

Take a deep breath. Clear your mind. Push that anxiety out of your mind, either by focusing on what you CAN do well and enjoying simple triumphs or again, breaking the operation down into smaller parts.

On mastering heel and toe, or even being competent about it, break it down into smaller parts. The blip, the timing, the shift lever timing and movement, THEN put all those pieces together.

Ultimately, you will want to prioritize braking (slowing) over the heel and toe choreography, but for now, just develop and ingrain “the order of things” you want to do in the execution of the downshift. Start with one downshift, not the end of the back straight, where many are needed.

While it would be best to practice on the street, it is what it is. Just don’t obsess about “losing” the gear. Pick yourself up and focus FORWARD!

Good luck. You are not alone and many people have, with the help of someone who can help break down into individual components and actions, been able to get at least competent, if not downright stylish, in their heel and toe (or in my case, ball-of-the-foot/side of my shoe) downshifts! Let us know how it goes!

I first learned how to heel/toe during a Formula Ford driving school - those cars had 4 speed syncro boxes and couldn’t be downshifted without heel/toeing. I was having trouble feeling the accelerator pedal with the side of my foot through my shoe, so the instructor suggested trying a few laps in my socks. Worked like a charm. Made for some exciting Turn 1 action until I finally figured it out. Was a good way to learn - like throwing a kid into a lake and telling ‘em to learn how to swim. You figure it out real quick. Or you don’t.

I am not familiar with the C4GTS pedal arrangement, and that makes a big difference on how easily you’re going to be able to practice this and figure it out. On my 996.2 C2, the pedals are staggered perfectly for heel/toeing - a fact I was not aware of until I was at the track and needed to brake and downshift at the end of a fast straight. In a street environment I never found myself needing to brake that hard, so never got enough pedal travel to get my foot down far enough to be able to roll over to the accelerator to make the blip. It’s not really a safe thing to do in a street environment, certainly not while you’re trying to figure it out (imho).

You might find you could start to learn to feel it a bit while you’re parked in the garage/driveway/parking lot. With the engine running try pushing your brake down as far as it will go, and while there roll your foot toward the accelerator and see if you can feel it at all with the side of your foot. Then see if you can actuate it. This may tell you whether or not your pedal arrangement is going to support heel/toeing. You do have to mash down pretty hard on the brake (at least in my 996 that’s the case), or you won’t get the amount of travel needed.

If your shoes are preventing you from feeling the pressure of the accelerator on the side of your foot, take off the right one and try doing this in your socks and see if that helps. As I said earlier, for me that was the key that unlocked the whole heel/toe mystery. Like riding a bike, once you learn it you don’t forget it.

Or, as someone posted above, get a PDK. Honestly. Depending on what kind of power you’re used to having on the track, you may find that you have your hands full managing a C4GTS in a track environment. Things happen a lot faster with 350-400hp (or whatever those have), than they do with lower-powered cars. That’s another thing I found with my 996 - it’s just more power than I’m used to managing with a 6-speed. If I did it over again I’d get one with a PDK.

Anyway, good luck getting back to the track! It’s a lifelong addiction - and a fun one, for sure.

Hahaha, oh god, non-synchro boxes are the bane of my existence. Those and self-adjusting hydraulic clutches. (I'll do it myself, thankyouverymuch.) Unfortunately, no lakes to get thrown into that I'm aware of, at least not these days.

Couldn't find a 996.2 to drive so can't compare there. But you actually just clued me in to EXACTLY why I suck at it. Like, dead on. The car I'm most familiar on, I've always avoided braking as much as possible. Only time I would brake hard was emergency situations, otherwise it was feather touch. Engine brake and wheel work, and maybe a tiny dab of brake. And where I had to go full braking, I didn't need to heel-toe because I wanted to be out of the boost. Otherwise it's nothing but tire smoke and new gravel carpets.

Because I'm an idiot, it never once occurred to me that brake pedal travel was an important part of it. Not once. I'm gonna go die of embarrassment now.

And that right there is why I was worried... when I drove the 997.2 GTS, I was sitting there going "guess I need to work on my achilles to get this 70 degree bend in my ankle." Because I was way too gentle with the brake. GAH! And of course, sure enough, when I really stomp on it in what I have now? Yep... all of a sudden it's an easy roll.

You, sir, just made some poor instructor's life a WHOLE lot easier!