driving help
HCF Member
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 7,699
RE: driving help
a heel and toe is when you are coming in fast to a corner, and you push in the clutch, then use your right foots toes to press the brakes, while holding the clutch pedal down with your left foot, then twisting your foot over to use your heel to hit the gas as you hit the apex of the corner, and you anticipate releasing the clutch, then push the accelerator pedal to match the revs so that you get a smooth down shift while braking. its hard as hell to master, and my legs are too long to do it in a civic. i cant twist my foot that way because my leg hits the steering wheel. but i dont suggest practicing it in any traffic whatsoever. i almost caused a couple of accidents while trying it. thats when i decided to practice out of town. i am better off doing it with each edge of my foot, instead of the heel and toe, but that required manipulation of the relative positions of the accelerator and the brake pedal, IOW, i bent the gas pedal closer to the brake. it actually worked better when i had my pedal covers on, but they were getting old, and one kept slipping around, so i took them off. now i gotta bend the pedal more, but i have to do it just right or it gets stuck.
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 1,720
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RE: driving help
Yeah I almost never take it out of gear when I'm autocrossing. Most courses are tightly wound enough that you can just leave it in second with the occasional downshift to first on extremely tight and slow corners. I've tried the technique a couple of times, but I just won't use it enough to want to master it.