http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=bsoo

 

No one seems to have addressed an earlier question re: why one would heel and toe. It's certainly not so that you can engage a lower gear to use engine-braking to come to a stop, as one poster explained it. For that, you use the brakes and conserve unnecessary wear on your clutch and syncros, which are more expensive to replace than brake pads.

The reason for using heel and toe is to provide for smooth engagement of a lower gear, by matching engine speed with gear speed, while simultaneously braking to slow the car down as you enter a corner. Why the downshift? To be at higher engine revs to achieve greater torque, so that you can achieve better acceleration exiting the corner, and also attain better rear-end tractability while rounding that bend.

The pedals in the G are close to optimal for heel and toeing, and the fly-by-wire accelerator provides for greater engine responsiveness; a quick touch of the side of my foot kicks the engine revs higher. In my old G20 with the cable-linked accelerator, there is sufficient play before a response is felt, making it difficult to achieve a smooth transition to the lower gear.

Another poster posted a link to a set of aftermarket drilled pedals with a wider surface area. These will definitely enhance your ability to heel and toe, and it will be my next mod before hitting the track again in June.

RainMeister
'04 G35C 6MT, diamond graphite, premium, nav, aero

 

Sorry, I've been on vacation a while . . .

DC-ing on the track just doesn't buy you anything except extended tranny life. Racers dont care about that, they are trying to win. If you are a budget racer then go for it, but you still trade corner exit speed for tranny life.

In limited situations you can DC with no worries on the track. For example if you are behind a car with worse braking than you right before entering a corner and can't get by. They brake at the 250 mark, where you normally would break at 225. They slow down first, giving you a bit of a brake breather so you have time to DC instead of HT. Still, it buys you nothing practical to racing. Another situation where I DC when braking on a long wide sweeper with an increasing radius exit. You don't need much breaking since lateral slip is the limiting factor. You can DC from 5 to 4 without losing much if any time.

However, HT is still the preferred technique to master, since your car is out of gear for less time and you are back on the throttle faster. It's about corner exit speed. You approach a corner, you hit the brakes HARD. You slide out your heel or rock your ankle right (depending on your car's config), clutch, blip throttle, downshift, and hit the gas on the exit line.

Hitting brakes hard is why you can't DC successfully that often, there's just no time to do it before you need to be in gear again. It's also why after track-racing street cars you don't engage the parking brake, but instead use wheel blocks to keep the car from rolling. Hot-rotors + parking brakes = warp.


Black/Willow 03.5 6MT, Premium, Navi, Aero, SAT
350Z Nismo CAI

 

yes...yes...yes...no...no...no

but can any of you control a slide at 70mph? ie drifting? :P
lots of left brain, right brain working because in order to pull off a high speed drift...it's not just throttle control (right foot) but brake input (left foot).

anyone can perfect heel-toe techiniques. if you're an avid road racer...H/T, D/C and Rev Match will become second nature. only when i'm road racing the car, i would apply D/C or H/T. One thing everyone is forgetting to mention...is that you have the advantage of late braking while H/T. D/C is applied to set entry speed prior to a turn. H/T can be used while in a turn, or prior. I'm real bad at writing examples...I'd rather it on a show and tell basis. but hopefully you guys can catch my drift.


| Hawaii International Race School | Formula Hawaii | Drift Session | Mid Pac Road Racing Association |

 

Quote: ***but can any of you control a slide at 70mph? ie drifting? :P ***

Me and another guy on this forum (SammyJL with GReddy Twin Turbo) took our G's to the track (with some people from our regional forum) and by the end of the session had VDC off and were both drifting our cars on turn 1 (right-handed sweeper at end of the front straight) without lifting throttle. ...and I mean that the rear-end is fully broken loose and slight countersteer (with constant correction) to hold the racing line. Pure drifting.

Two turns on our circuit (a double apex hairpin and a decreasing radius) both required heel-and-toe downshifting because they were both low speed corners at the end of fast straights. To get on the throttle quickly and get good exit speed coming out, it's pretty much a must-do technique.

For those who don't do it, when you're squeezing the brake as hard as possible at the end of the straight, your right foot has to be turned "pidgeon toed" inward -- then blip with your right heel to rev-match on the downshift. Then your ready to punch it coming out. The G's pedals are set up perfectly for heel-and-toeing, but then again I can do it on almost any car -- the key is to brake hard, so that the brake pedal is lower than the gas pedal.

 

If the pedals are arranged right and your foot is the right size relative to the pedal arrangement, then the best way is typically to keep the heel planted on the floor the ball of the foot on the brake and you use the right side of your right foot to press the gas. Pushing your knee to the right is as much as you would need to blip the throttle.Keeping the heel planted allows you to modulate the brake much better.

 

With very few exceptions.......most who are asking how to H/T or R/M.....should be learning how not to roll backwards on a hill from a stop....before trying further complicated procedures.
LOL

"I like you.....You remind me of myself when I was young and foolish"