Heel & Toe

[Lux]

Method A follows the definition but method B is also acceptable. I use method B myself.

Heel/toe is not easy to do on the Boxster if you're casually braking as the pedal travel needs to travel quite a bit before your foot lines up with the gas. My M3, on the other hand, had really overboosted brakes so a little travel stopped the car a lot. This allowed the gas pedal to be more lined up with the gas pedal from the get go, which in turn made heel/toe very easy. However, overboosted brakes means less brake pedal feel.

If I'm casually driving where I know I'm not going to be getting on the brakes hard, I'll just blip the throttle to match revs, do the downshift, then brake before the turn. If I'm driving pretty hard, then I'll do heel/toe.


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[Adam]

Originally Posted by Lux

Method A follows the definition but method B is also acceptable. I use method B myself.

Heel/toe is not easy to do on the Boxster if you're casually braking as the pedal travel needs to travel quite a bit before your foot lines up with the gas.

If I'm casually driving where I know I'm not going to be getting on the brakes hard, I'll just blip the throttle to match revs, do the downshift, then brake before the turn. If I'm driving pretty hard, then I'll do heel/toe.


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Exactly. The brake pedal is pretty uneven with the gas so that is why it feels so awkward for me. I see what you mean about it being easier to do under full on braking because the brake would be more "aligned" with the gas. Like you though I do like blipping the throttle to match a downshift because it is reduces clutch wear and it feels cool when you execute it just right. I find myself trying to memorize engne speeds in particular gears so I blip it just right. Hopefully with enough practice I will just be able to be spot on by feel and sound and not have to look at the tach.

[eslai]

You'll get used to it--I was able to heel-toe the boxster just fine even during the test drive.

One thing--at low speeds you'll find it hard to heel-toe primarily because you don't need the revs so you'll overshoot most of the time. Don't bother. It's only useful if you're hard on the brakes heading into a corner.

[Onad]

Amatuer question: What do you guys mean when you "match revs" and "blip the throttle"?

Thanks in advance.

[eslai]

Matching Revs:

When downshifting, the idea is to match your engine's RPMs with the tranny's, so to speak. This avoids the situation where you downshift and get a bunch of engine braking, which upsets the car's balance, which is not good when you're on the limits of tire adhesion and/or setting up for a turn.

It also puts less wear on your tranny if you do it right.

In order to do this, you have to give the car some gas while you're downshifting. This is done by tapping, or "blipping" the throttle.

When you're first starting to learn how to heel-toe downshift, you should first practice rev-matched downshifts. This keeps the brake pedal out of the whole equation. Basically, you'd be coasting along in a high gear, you'd take it into neutral, leave your foot on the clutch and immediately blip the throttle to get the engine RPMs up to speed, then put it into the lower gear and release the clutch.

Eventually you get that all smooth and quick, then you can start worrying about doing it under braking.

A couple of resources I found on the web just now:

http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/45792/article.html
http://www.ferrariclub.com/faq/heeltoe.html


You want to be careful when doing this as you don't want to over-rev the engine, of course. if you're just dorking around and don't really need to race the car, be gentle while learning. Well, be gentle regardless, I guess what I mean is don't go all crazy thinking you have to learn this stuff and get into second gear at 70 MPH or anything.

Learn as best as you can what RPM equates to what speed in each gear. For instance, on my 987 six-speed, second-gear is pretty easy to work out--the most significant digit is the same for RPM and MPH, pretty much. At 40 MPH, I know I need to be around 4000 RPM when I downshift, etc.