Heel 'n toe for dummies...

[Rick Lee]

OK, I've finally got a good handle on double-clutching and with the Fabspeed on my "new" 993, I just love the sound of the throttle blip. My car has the racing pedals with the phat accelerator for heel and toe'ing. But I don't know how to do that.

Can someone pretend I'm a 16 yr. old, blonde, female, new driver and explain heel and toe'ing to me. Keep it simple, stupid.

Somehow I know I've phrased this one such that the replies will have nothing to do with my question. But please humor me with at least one serious response. Thanks.

[GeorgeM]

Made this slide for a presentation on high performace driving and track events. If someone else wants to provide the verbage, here's a simple diagram.

[s_wilwerding]

The concept behind heel-and-toeing is to match engine revs with speed. For instance, taking a corner on a race track, the engine may be running at 2,000 rpm but when you shift down a gear, you want the engine to be running at 5,000 rpm. Heel-and-toeing allows you to blip the throttle, while you're braking, in order to be in the optimal rev range for shifting coming out of a corner.

The easiest way to heel-and-toe is to get pedals that "match up" to each other. In other words, get a gas and brake pedal that are almost side-by-side (it sounds like you may already have something like this). Then, with your right foot on the brake, angle your foot to the right so that the top right side of your right foot is blipping the gas, while the lower left side of your right foot is braking. If you have pedals like I described above, you shouldn't have to move your foot over much to blip the throttle.

Heel-and-toeing takes a lot of practice to get right. I've found that it's best to practice while the car is parked in the garage, just to get the feel of it. Once you're confident you can do it, start practicing on the street, making sure to go slow around corners when you first start (in case your foot slips off the brake, you'll be going slow enough that you won't hit anything).

Keep at it. It takes quite a while to do correctly, but once you get it, it's pretty neat.

EDIT: Obviously, my instructions don't match the slide. However, I've found that with big feet (size 13), it's easier to angle the top of your foot to the right rather than the way it's pictured. YMMV.

[jpnovak]

Here are the basic details. The idea is to blip the throttle to increase the revs as you go into a shorter gear. I am sure you do this already when downshifting. You just need to do the same while braking. Sounds easy right!?

What works for me since I have big feet is to brake with the left side ball of my foot (behind the big toe). Angle the heel to the right so your foot is like this (\). As you brake, roll the outside of your foot to hit the gas pedal to blip the throttle. Takes some practice. It only works with certain shoes and generally under hard braking to get the brake pedal down far enough for my foot to reach the gas pedal.

you may want to try the braking and blip the throttle, then add the gear change, then add the double clutch.

Practice, practice, practice.

[IROC]

Here's what I do:

1. Brake
2. Clutch in
3. Shift to neutral
4. Clutch out
5. Clutch in
6. Blip throttle
7. Shift to lower gear
8. Clutch out
9. Release brakes
10.Back on the throttle

I brake with the "ball" of my right foot on the right side of the brake pdeal and then "roll" my foot over to blip the throttle.

Steps 8, 9 and 10 all happen really quickly sometimes as I have a bad habit (?) of trail braking and need to get on the throttle really quickly.

If I'm going down more than one gear, I skip the ones I don't need. Like from 5th to 3rd, I skip fourth.

This will feel horribly awkward at first, but in time it will be second nature. In fact, it seems to happen in slow motion on the track after awhile. Speaking of that, I find it's sometimes easier to do this while braking really hard. Practicing on the street is sometimes harder than actually doing it in anger on the track.

Mike

[targa911man]

Originally posted by Richard LeSchander

Can someone pretend I'm a 16 yr. old, blonde, female, new driver and explain heel and toe'ing to me.

Can't we leave your girlfriend out of this?

[Elombard]

I will come up and show you in the new 993 :-)) I agree easier on the track. I use the ball of my foot on the barke and the outside to blip the throttle. Dont practice this in traffic ;-))

[rs911t]

Heel-and-toe is a bit of a misnomer. In practice you'll have the ball of your right foot on the brake and will blip the throttle with the right-side of your foot, just below your little toe. With your foot on the accelerator you should be able to lift your toes, pivot your foot at the heel while turning your knee inward and land the ball of your foot on the brake. If all's well, the right-side of your foot should touch the gas pedal as you mash the brake. If you have big feet, be careful not to mash the gas at the same time! Use your leg to modulate pressure on each pedal, your knee moving left/right to adjust braking/acceleration, respectively.

Dont practice this in traffic

I heel-and-toe all the time - have for years. Like anything else, it becomes second nature.

[jpachard]

Originally posted by IROC
.

Steps 8, 9 and 10 all happen really quickly sometimes as I have a bad habit (?) of trail braking and need to get on the throttle really quickly.

Mike, Trail Braking is not a bad habit. It is a very useful tool if applied at the right time and the right corner. THe trick is to know when to use it.

Cheers, James

[IROC]

Originally posted by jpachard
Mike, Trail Braking is not a bad habit. It is a very useful tool if applied at the right time and the right corner. THe trick is to know when to use it.

Cheers, James

Yeah, I kind of said that in jest to emphasize how quickly those last three steps need to happen sometimes. I wouldn't recommend it for someone learning to heel and toe. I use it alot to get the car to rotate to the apex quicker. Pretty handy.

Mike

[masraum]

Mike/IROC, I think ideally #6 should come in between 4 and 5.

My thoughts are this, 4 and 5 are for double-clutching, and my understanding is that the point behind double-clutching is to accelerate the tranny input shaft to match the rpm of the engine. If you blip when the tranny is in neutral and the clutch is out then you will accelerate the shaft, but if you blip afterward then you aren't accelerating anything but the engine. Granted we have syncronizers, but I thought the normal procedure was neutral, clutch out, blip, clutch in, next gear.

[Rick Lee]

Thanks guys. Looks like the email notifcation was off, so I just saw all these responses. I need to work on this sometime.

Dan, I don't date blondes, as you've seen at some of our fun runs.

[IROC]

Originally posted by masraum
Mike/IROC, I think ideally #6 should come in between 4 and 5.

My thoughts are this, 4 and 5 are for double-clutching, and my understanding is that the point behind double-clutching is to accelerate the tranny input shaft to match the rpm of the engine. If you blip when the tranny is in neutral and the clutch is out then you will accelerate the shaft, but if you blip afterward then you aren't accelerating anything but the engine. Granted we have syncronizers, but I thought the normal procedure was neutral, clutch out, blip, clutch in, next gear.

I think you're right. This is one of those things that I don't really think about the mechanics of it anymore - I just do it. I knew that when I tried to write it down, I'd mess something up.

Thanks,

Mike

[911pcars]

Steve (Masraum) has it correct in the sequence of events. 1-2-3-4-6-5 .....

The objective of double clutching is to:
1. Reduce rotational speed differential between all drivetrain components while downshifting so as to provide smooth power application through the drivetrain to the road.
2. Reduce synchronizer and clutch disc wear during downshifts.

There are actually three sections of the drivetrain in play here: engine speed, gearbox input shaft speed and gearbox output shaft (axles) speed.

In order to perform a true double clutch (that's two times) to match rotation speed of all three items, you must rev the engine in neutral with clutch engaged (pedal up) in order to rotate the input shaft/clutch disc to the same speed as the output shaft. The correct engine rev is the engine speed one would end up in the lower gear (with provisions for the brief time to declutch and downshift).

Without the blip in neutral/clutch out, your are merely matching output shaft and engine speed. That's better than merely shifting into a lower gear and slipping the clutch disc as the clutch engages (clutch pedal comes up), but that's not the whole enchilada.

Listen to the in-car F1 sounds this weekend and enjoy the split-second rev-matching downshifting provided by the ECU-controlled paddle shift mechanisms. This is what we should all aspire to, manually.

Glad to contribute
Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars

[juanbenae]

if you were an 18 yo blond cheerleader i could show you more than a heel and toe,,, but 16 that gets you dropped at the curb.

[Superman]

I don't think it's about blipping the throttle or shifting, really. I think it's about making a smooth transition between braking and accelerating. You can shift without blipping.

In an automatic, you can just left-foot-brake. That way, you set the nose of the car, start your turn and ease onto the gas as you ease off the brake. Unfortunately, with a manual transmission car, there would be downshifting involved, so your left foot would be busy and your right foot would be on the brake, and when it's time to push the gas pedal, you'd lift off the brake, move your foot and begin pressing the accelerator pedal. With heel-and-toe, your transition from braking to accelerating becomes smoother.

You can't be really fast without doing this.

[Stanley]

BMWM5.com has some pretty good shifting technique videos. It explains how to double clutch, heal and toe, and how to launch.

Heres the directory link:

ftp://www.bmwm5.com/bmwm5.com/movies/greg/shifting_videos/

[Wil Ferch]

Here's a "mantra" that adds to what was already said:

in-shift-out-gas .....
in-shift-out-gas...

Let's say you're downshifting from fourth to third. "In" is pushing the clutch in. Followed by a "shift" to neutral. "Out" is bringing the clutch back out. At this time, blip the throttle ("gas" ). Now do it all over again as you shift further into the lower gear...."in" with the clutch, shift to lower gear, out with the clutch...and now you're on the gas again.

The whole preceding paragraph occurs in a fraction of a second....it takes much longer to say than it is to "do".

In any event, as you get the hang of it ( braking the whole time)...the "mantra" that now rings in your head will help out. Give it a try!

---Wil Ferch

[911pcars]

Double-clutching is a technique for downshifting with or without braking. Heel and toeing is a technique of applying the brakes while double-clutching.

If you're new at this, learn the former first before trying the latter.

Sherwood

[masraum]

Superman, well, I think blipping the throttle is a requirement of the smooth transition. The doubleclutch is not required, but blipping the throttle is, otherwise you don't get the smooth transition, when you let out on the clutch because the engine has spun down the engine will add engine braking to the braking that is already being done and may lock the rears.

I don't think heal at toe is to get on the gas before you get off of the brake, the point is to get the engine up to the correct rpms to match the speed of the tires. Ideally you wouldn't feel any extra accel or decel during the shift.

Maybe I'm just not completely understanding you and we are actually in agreement to some extent.