irish89rmf

I had my first experience at the track on Monday and Tuesday at a Trackmasters event at Watkins Glen. What a blast.

I have never done a heal/toe shift before and my instructor said it would be very beneficial to learn. I tried a few times at the track and have even tried a few times on some empty roads, but I can't seem to make it work. The difference in height between the accelerator and brake makes it very difficult to blip the gas on a downshift.

Any suggestions, thoughts or ideas. Thanks.

Bob

1995 C2

jscott82

Heel-toe is no different than throwing a ball or riding a bike... Its all muscle memory and repetition, do it 10,000 times and you will have it down pat... I don't know any shortcut... Place to learn is on the street not the track though. Try it in secluded place until you start getting the hang of it, then force yourself to do it every time you downshift (no matter how bad you f it up)… After a couple of months you will have it.

The pedals on a 993 are perfect when under HARD breaking (where you really use it) so I'm not a big fan of changing the height. What may help though is adding a little width to the accelerator. You can buy the fancy winged pedals or simply add an aluminum plate slightly wider at the top. Be warned that it makes it very easy to catch the brake and accel at the same time by accident (ask me how I know).

It worth mentioning, unless you have really small feet, its more "ball of foot / pinky toe" than "heal/toe"...

David in Chicago

When I first learned to heel and toe, I was helped greatly by - in my opinion - the single best primer on all aspects of performance/race driving, Alan Johnson's classic, "Driving in Competition."

I think it's out of print, but Amazon still can get it:

I hope this is helpful.

Regards to all.

jscott82

oh.... forgot to mention the most important part... how to get started...
1) Park car in garage
2) Close door, make sure no one else is around
3) Put 6 pack of favorite beverage in passenger seat
4) Practice until beverages are gone.

Worked for me anyway...

Falcondrivr

I got the rennine pedals with the extra tabs on the gas pedal. It makes the "pinky-toe" method easy.

KaiB

Rather than rolling the foot, you may try a more angled approach: Big toe area on the brake and the outer heel area on the throttle - one does whatever it takes to giterdone, and each car is different.

Regardless, the advice above is spot on. Practice always, practice softly blipping the throttle while holding the brake at intersections (zoom zoom, you'll be accused of being one of those folks!!), do it always.

Learn how to double clutch while incorporating the heel/toe and do it every time you select first gear - pulling into parking lots, etc. This will be a big help and also teach you to feel engagement.

If you're in your DD, or another car with an auto tranny, practice regardless: Brake with the same part of the foot you need for the H/T and roll your foot over to the throttle.

It will become second nature soon enough. Just remember that the blip occurs just prior to the engagement of the clutch.

have fun!!!

boman993

THANKS! I always wondered how I could twist my ankle over the two pedals.
Now I totally understand what your foot does! I rev match when I downshift;
but it's totally cheating as I do not heel/toe... Going to master this art before
the season is over! Thanks again!

Quadcammer

The pedals are height adjustable.

I brought the brake pedal down and the gas up. I also used a "ultimate pedal" winged gas pedal to bring the pedal up a bit.

Still takes a bit of work, but far easier than it was.

Mark in Baltimore

In addition to all of the other good comments, be sure to try heel and toeing with a shoe that has a thin, rubber sole. It's a little bit harder to do with a thick running shoe or, God forbid, hiking boots.

flatsixforme

All good advice in this thread but I wanted to comment on this. I don't think it is right to make this blanket statement as these cars vary so much from car to car and who knows what someone has done to the pedals before you. I've driven 993s with "stock" pedal placement that was about right when under hard braking. I've also driven them where things were WAY off. This could have been due to someone changing the height of the pedals before you owned the car. Bottom line, while practice makes perfect you need to be practicing on pedals that make it as easy as possible and are in the ballpark. Making the gas pedal wider is a for sure modification...then test to see where the gas pedal is under hard braking. If still too low to reach then adjust the gas pedal ONLY if you raise it...if you need to lower it due to a new pedal or pedal spacer you've installed DO NOT lower the gas pedal height, instead raise the brake pedal. Why? Because if you lower the gas pedal then you likely won't be getting to WOT anymore.

Resident Sicko

Quadcammer

fwiw, I don't do whats pictured above.

I do more, ball of foot on brake, other side on gas, which is partly why I've brought my pedals closer together in height.

red95993

With size 14 shoes I find this virtually impossible, no matter how I adjust the pedals. Damn....

Bill Verburg

W/ my big feet I could never do a H&T w/ the stock pedals

w/ this which raises and widens the gas pedal, big toe half is on the brake and little toe is on the gas, I just roll the foot side to side, by moving the seat closer to the wheel so that legs are more bent I can also do a real toe on the brake and heel on the gas

ReinerFink

I run the brake pedal without the little rubber grippie thing on it. I took mine off b/c I couldn't slide my foot easily on the brake pedal. After doing this a PCA instructor once remarked "Its so good to see you got rid of the pedal cover!" so perhaps this is a more common practice than I am aware of.

-reiner