heel to toe driving
HCF Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,360
From:
RE: heel to toe driving
if anyone wants to know what it looks like, look at the nsx post that went up in the sights and sounds or maybe street and strip aobut the nsx at nurburgring, it has a good view of his foot action and whats going on with the road so that you can see how to do it.
HCF Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 991
From:
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 35
RE: heel to toe driving
Heel and toe driving? Practice, practice, practice. It's like learning how to ride a bike. Once you get good at it, you wanna go faster and eventually end up crashing into a fence (not to put people off but it does take time to get the hang of it).
Sit in the driver's seat. Place your right foot on the gas, left foot on the clutch. Your in 4th gear crusing. Now picture yourself heading towards a hairpin turn at 80 km/h (around 60 mp/h). The only thing you can do is slow down to avoid dying right?
Heel and toe was a technique used WAY long before us. This technique was being used by very fast drivers only it came instinctively. People who can master this technique only by instinct are truely fast drivers meaning they know exactly what the car is feeling when driving it hard and know when and where the margin of safety is. There really wasn't a name for it until someone thought that it would be cool to call twisting your right leg 45 degrees to control two pedals simultaniously was a cool feature of driving a car.
Noticing that the toe(s) of your right foot controlled the brakes and the heel of your right foot controlled the accelerator, I'm guessing that's where the name "heel and toe" was born from (kinda makes sense, don't you think?).
This technique focuses on controlling engine revolutions (rpm's for the mechanically declined), timed clutch meeting, and braking strength. It really is an art form looking at it close up while not actually driving using the technique. It is used to reduce stresses on crucial mechanical parts, and you begin to develop a new sense for the behaviour of the car as you become more comfortable with the new control patterns.
When I say "It reduces stresses on crucial mechanical parts...", think of the clutch. If any of you have ever seen a clutch taken apart, you know that there are basically two plates. When you push the clutch pedal in, you seperate the plates and when you release the clutch pedal you create stress, pressure and friction between the two parts and end up turning at them at the same speed. When you are crusing up to a light and you are beginning to downshift, basic routine for some of you, you push the clutch in, shift to a lower gear, and release the clutch hearing the engine speed up to what the gear ratios equal out to. The engine speed change from one gear to another is completely noticable on a tachometer but if you are like me, screw the tach you are smart enough to time and notice gear shifts with your hands, feet, ears, basically all your senses. What some of you don't know is that when you are coming up to a light and you take your foot off the gas to slow down and press the clutch pedal in, the engine speed instantaniously drops to idle speeds but the car is still moving at the same speed until you release the clutch in a lower gear. The clutch, two plates, one is attached to the engine and one is attached to the gearbox. When you push the clutch in before a downshift, the plate attached to the engine slows to an idle rpm while the gearbox plate is still spinning at the higher rpm. When you let go of the clutch to complete a downshift, the faster spinning plate needs to speed up the slower moving plate up until they match speeds. During the speed up/down (downshifting/upshifting), you put alot of stress on your clutching system, relying on the material that the clutch is made out of to slow the car down. The pressure plate and friction disc is NOT a brake! This is the number one cause of wear and tear to manual clutching systems right now because of drivers not knowing how to compensate for the change in the speed of the moving parts of their vehicles!
In order to fully understand what heel and toe driving achieves, you needed to know all of that. The heel and toe technique is TECHNIQUE and not an ABILITY! I guarantee if you were to drive a civic for 5 years, completely master the heel and toe technique and you got into an Infinity G35x and tried to match what you learned in the civic to that car, you would not deliver a smooth ride whatsoever! Basically, the heel and toe technique compensates for the loss of engine speed while decelerating a car during a gear change. You use the heel of your right foot to keep the engine spinning the clutch disc at the same or about the same speed as the gearbox plate to give a smooth transition while downshifting or upshifting. Knowing this, you should now know that the heel and toe technique is used to give maximum efficiency of engine power to the gearbox (transaxle or transmission whatever you want to call it if your wondering why I'm saying gearbox all the time) at all times. This technique is a "racing-bred" technique and is very unnecessary to your average driver who commutes everyday to work and school. This is a technique used for hard play on weekends or if your really into the track scene.
Heel and toe is all about engine efficiency and total power management. If you cannot understand why after me writing all of this, then I'm sorry, but you are definately not the next Michael Schumacher (Miss him on Ferrari dearly!). I must stress this, even if you do not understand all about heel and toe. Use the clutch for power transfer only, NOT A BRAKE! THATS WHAT YOU HAVE "BRAKES" FOR!!! If you try, you would be suprised as to how long a clutch actually lasts. I've been driving for almost 6 years on the same clutch putting about 100 km on the the car each day to and from places (excluding road trips!). Mind you all that driving will effect the clutch even if you have Michael Schumachers godley skills and natural born talents so if you buy economy parts more than you buy high performance parts (like me), replacing a clutch shouldn't be a big deal after a few years if you respect the vehicle and drive like you should (having fun on weekends counts too).
I'll stop writing with this final message: drive smart and understand what your body is telling the car to do at all times.
-Efficiency is everything!
Questions, comments? Message me and I'll be happy to let you know of more hidden techniques!
Sit in the driver's seat. Place your right foot on the gas, left foot on the clutch. Your in 4th gear crusing. Now picture yourself heading towards a hairpin turn at 80 km/h (around 60 mp/h). The only thing you can do is slow down to avoid dying right?
Heel and toe was a technique used WAY long before us. This technique was being used by very fast drivers only it came instinctively. People who can master this technique only by instinct are truely fast drivers meaning they know exactly what the car is feeling when driving it hard and know when and where the margin of safety is. There really wasn't a name for it until someone thought that it would be cool to call twisting your right leg 45 degrees to control two pedals simultaniously was a cool feature of driving a car.
Noticing that the toe(s) of your right foot controlled the brakes and the heel of your right foot controlled the accelerator, I'm guessing that's where the name "heel and toe" was born from (kinda makes sense, don't you think?).
This technique focuses on controlling engine revolutions (rpm's for the mechanically declined), timed clutch meeting, and braking strength. It really is an art form looking at it close up while not actually driving using the technique. It is used to reduce stresses on crucial mechanical parts, and you begin to develop a new sense for the behaviour of the car as you become more comfortable with the new control patterns.
When I say "It reduces stresses on crucial mechanical parts...", think of the clutch. If any of you have ever seen a clutch taken apart, you know that there are basically two plates. When you push the clutch pedal in, you seperate the plates and when you release the clutch pedal you create stress, pressure and friction between the two parts and end up turning at them at the same speed. When you are crusing up to a light and you are beginning to downshift, basic routine for some of you, you push the clutch in, shift to a lower gear, and release the clutch hearing the engine speed up to what the gear ratios equal out to. The engine speed change from one gear to another is completely noticable on a tachometer but if you are like me, screw the tach you are smart enough to time and notice gear shifts with your hands, feet, ears, basically all your senses. What some of you don't know is that when you are coming up to a light and you take your foot off the gas to slow down and press the clutch pedal in, the engine speed instantaniously drops to idle speeds but the car is still moving at the same speed until you release the clutch in a lower gear. The clutch, two plates, one is attached to the engine and one is attached to the gearbox. When you push the clutch in before a downshift, the plate attached to the engine slows to an idle rpm while the gearbox plate is still spinning at the higher rpm. When you let go of the clutch to complete a downshift, the faster spinning plate needs to speed up the slower moving plate up until they match speeds. During the speed up/down (downshifting/upshifting), you put alot of stress on your clutching system, relying on the material that the clutch is made out of to slow the car down. The pressure plate and friction disc is NOT a brake! This is the number one cause of wear and tear to manual clutching systems right now because of drivers not knowing how to compensate for the change in the speed of the moving parts of their vehicles!
In order to fully understand what heel and toe driving achieves, you needed to know all of that. The heel and toe technique is TECHNIQUE and not an ABILITY! I guarantee if you were to drive a civic for 5 years, completely master the heel and toe technique and you got into an Infinity G35x and tried to match what you learned in the civic to that car, you would not deliver a smooth ride whatsoever! Basically, the heel and toe technique compensates for the loss of engine speed while decelerating a car during a gear change. You use the heel of your right foot to keep the engine spinning the clutch disc at the same or about the same speed as the gearbox plate to give a smooth transition while downshifting or upshifting. Knowing this, you should now know that the heel and toe technique is used to give maximum efficiency of engine power to the gearbox (transaxle or transmission whatever you want to call it if your wondering why I'm saying gearbox all the time) at all times. This technique is a "racing-bred" technique and is very unnecessary to your average driver who commutes everyday to work and school. This is a technique used for hard play on weekends or if your really into the track scene.
Heel and toe is all about engine efficiency and total power management. If you cannot understand why after me writing all of this, then I'm sorry, but you are definately not the next Michael Schumacher (Miss him on Ferrari dearly!). I must stress this, even if you do not understand all about heel and toe. Use the clutch for power transfer only, NOT A BRAKE! THATS WHAT YOU HAVE "BRAKES" FOR!!! If you try, you would be suprised as to how long a clutch actually lasts. I've been driving for almost 6 years on the same clutch putting about 100 km on the the car each day to and from places (excluding road trips!). Mind you all that driving will effect the clutch even if you have Michael Schumachers godley skills and natural born talents so if you buy economy parts more than you buy high performance parts (like me), replacing a clutch shouldn't be a big deal after a few years if you respect the vehicle and drive like you should (having fun on weekends counts too).
I'll stop writing with this final message: drive smart and understand what your body is telling the car to do at all times.
-Efficiency is everything!
Questions, comments? Message me and I'll be happy to let you know of more hidden techniques!
Laced with Sarcasm
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15,280
RE: heel to toe driving
ORIGINAL: civicexracer
heel toe is usually used when drifting, not very practical for DD.
heel toe is usually used when drifting, not very practical for DD.
