what is......

[captain_clio]

heel & toe ??

 

[mikeherts]

Its when changing down gear you blip the throttle to match the engine revs in the new gear before releasing the clutch. Its done by braking with the heel of your right foot, left foot on clutch and blipping the throttle with the toe of your right foot

 

[telford_mike]

takes a lot of practice

 

[boyracer666]

y wud u need 2? jus lift the clutch up and accelerate....

 

[jon_r]

easier if you blip the throttle with the outside of your right foot whilst braking with the lhs.



But yes does take practice, and the first time you do it, youll either go through the windscreen braking to hard, or start accelerating by taking your foot off the brake! make sure its a quiet piece of road.

 

[captain_clio]

should i try and do it next to some police cars?

 

[jon_r]

no but its great doing it when driving past somewhere with loads of people sitting outside, if you get it right you look like Schumi.

 

[captain_clio]

why? what does it do exactly?

plus, no one could look like Schumi in a 1.2

 

[simonjones10]

It stops the kangaroo effect you get when your trying to change gear quickly!

Bliping the gas brings the engine speed up to the road speed that the engine will be spinning at once the next gear is engaged. Thus smoothing out the change and putting less stress on your transmission, allowing you to pull the clutch up faster.

Oh and its good to do when changing down to overtake someone ( Just miss out the brake part of the procedure!)

 

[MarkCup]

It matches the engine revs to the next gear. When youre accelerating the revs naturally fall between changes so that the engine matches the gear and road speed. When changing down, foot on the clutch, revs fall, change gear, clutch up, you get thrown forwards as the engine then has to spin up to higher revs to match the gear. What heel and toeing does is allow you to blip the throttle to bring everything into line. Plus it sounds and feels great if you get it right! Takes a bit of getting used to though.

I agree with jon_rs technique...and practice first when youre parked up somewhere...

Instead of putting your whole size 10 on the brake, put only the left hand side of your foot on the brake so that the right side of your foot covers some of the throttle as well. Then when putting pressure on the brake, "roll" your foot to the right so that the right edge of your foot press the throttle.

 

[Frosty]

It slows you down (braking), saves your clutch from burning out completely (blipping throttle to rev-match) and makes you look really cool when you do it

Seriously though, say you have a long straight, followed by a tight right-hander. You are doing about 100mph in 4th gear, then you brake hard, slow down to the right speed for the corner and then change down to second or first. If you do this a few times you will seriously melt your clutch.

Using heel and toe, you are on the brake the whole time, but dropping gears whilst you are braking with the aid of the throttle. This means that there is virtually no wear on the clutch, and as soon as you come off the brakes, you are in the right gear.

It took me about a year to learn the technique, and about another 6 months to put to practical use. The 172s pedals are built for it.

However - I learned heel and toe in my old 1.2 8v Clio . Start by going along in 4th gear and change down to 3rd without braking.


Look at your revs in 4th, and guess what they would be if you were travelling at the same speed in 3rd.
Dip the clutch and change into 3rd, whilst simultaniously blipping the throttle so the revs shoot up to the revs you estimated.
Release the clutch (you can almost sidestep if you matched the revs correctly)
If you did it correctly you should not have felt a jerk (or a lunge if you revved too much)
Master this, then try it braking too
Have fun.

 

[Frosty]

I was beaten to it by two people that time - LOL

 

[captain_clio]

f**k it, im gonna get an auto

 

[captain_clio]

Quote: Originally posted by Not_for_long on 31 July 2003




Instead of putting your whole size 10 on the brake....

LOL, im a size 5.5 - 6

 

[MarkCup]

"The 172s pedals are built for it."

Music to my ears...

 

[simonjones10]

I had a bad experience H&Ting. I used to use the side of my foot to do the braking until, I was heading towards a r/about at high speed with my foot firmly emdedded into my floor mats having just slipped between the pedals. Oh Poo!

I now brake using the ball of my foot and twist my leg to blip the gas with my heel.

Anyone tried left foot braking?

 

[MarkCup]

Once...never again...almost went through the windscreen! My left leg/foot is so used to the sort of pressure need to depress the clutch, that getting the finesse needed to press the brake would take a lot of practice. Evo, in their "track car of the year" feature said that it helped when driving at 10/10 to get that last bit out of the Cup, but Im not sure if thered be a need for it on the road.

 

[simonjones10]

Dito!

I thought id give it a go to see what it were like (not while cornering tho) almost had the sh*troen badge from my steering wheel embedded in me bonce!

 

[Chris1.4RT]

lol, i once tried to do some left foot braking in my dads car, as my right foot was itchy. of course being so used to planting your left foot to the floor for the clutch, i slammed the brakes on, skidded to a halt and stalled. everyone was pointing and laughing at the silly man doing an emergency stop for the invisible child. lucky there was no one behind me.

 

[Scudetto]

said it earlier today, but i found it easier to h & t in the Golf than the Clio (size ten feet. oops).

g