# Heel Toe



## mecklaiz (Mar 20, 2003)

I've been entertaining myself trying to figure out how to heel toe and it occurs to me that I haven't a clue about this.

Do you "heel" the brake pedal and toe the throttle?

Do you actually just use half a foot on the brake and half on throttle?

How do you do this exactly?

Z


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## bh330ci (Feb 6, 2002)

Although the technique in its truest form uses one's heel and toe, in our cars I think the consensus is that big toe on the brake/pinky toe on the gas is the most comfortable and practical way to accomplish the same thing.


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## Chris330Ci (Jan 23, 2002)

Taken from the Tar Heel CCA chapter website...



> Instructor's Corner:
> Brought to You by Your Driving Events Committee
> 
> Heel & Toe Downshifting:
> ...


Maybe this should go in the track forum..? :dunno:


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Chris330Ci said:


> *Maybe this should go in the track forum..? :dunno: *


Yes, it should


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## Fuzzypuppy (May 1, 2003)

*heel and toe*

Depends on your foot size and distance between pedals, but you put the top of your foot on the brake. Rotate your heel towards the accelerator, usually using the outside of your foot to hit the pedal. More nimble or smaller-footed drivers sometimes use their actual heel. If you have broadband, here's a video that shows the feet and pedals in action:

http://auto.joins.com/upboard/pds/pdst/battle-Fr.wmv


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## PunchIt (Dec 24, 2002)

*I thought we changed the name*

There was a thread about this a long while ago, and I thought we decided that it was toe toe, becuase you just "roll" your foot on the edge of the brake pedal.


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## TGray5 (Jan 22, 2002)

*Re: I thought we changed the name*



PunchIt said:


> *There was a thread about this a long while ago, and I thought we decided that it was toe toe, becuase you just "roll" your foot on the edge of the brake pedal. *


It really depends on a number of factors...the type of gas pedal you have (hinged at bottom makes it harder to use heel), how big your foot is, how far apart your pedals are, etc. Interstingly I learned on my M roadster with tennis shoes and when I went to the track and put on racing shoes (much narrower), I could no longer heel toe. Needless to say, the racing shoes went very quickly and are relegated to go kart use only.

My technique uses the side of my foot to hit the throttle.

Now I have SMG and its all moot. However, I have now started left foot braking all the time and it really works great:thumbup:


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

The actual term Heel and Toe comes from MANY years ago when the pedals were much further apart. You actually rotateed your foot sideways to put your toe (ball of the foot) on the brake and blipped the throttle with your actual heel.

Also some cars the brake pedal was up higher, again allowing you really heel and toe.

Modern cars use more of a side to side rolling motion. Depending on the pedal spacing and your foot size, you may be pure side roll, or you may use a little lower on teh foot to blip the throttle, but no modern car truely allows for using your heel and your toe.


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## Andre Yew (Jan 3, 2002)

The most remarkable thing I saw in the Japanese video comparing the G35, M3, and 350Z posted recently was the 350Z driver doing a real heel-and-toe downshift. A friend who drives a 350Z uses side-side, so I guess it all depends on how you learn and how you're built.

--Andre


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## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

I found that I had to re-learn how to do heel-toe downshifts once I got my E46.... 

On my old car (Acura Integra) the accelerator is hinged up at the top... I heel-toe shifted all the time by rotating my foot and hitting the accelerator with the middle right-side/heel.

In the E46, since the pedal is hinged on the bottom, using my heel doesn't work as well and I had to retrain myself to use the side of my foot to do that. I think old habits die hard, as I still rotate my foot slightly, but try to tip my foot over enough where the right side blips the throttle instead.

I find myself second guessing myself when I do it now until after the maneuver is done and then I know for sure if it was done right or incorrectly if the car lurches a bit. I think the "bone stock" nature of my 330 has something to do with it because the car is so smooth and quiet (relatively speaking). My old car (high revving honda) made plenty of noise, plus I have a cat-back exhaust on it, so I guess I used auditory feedback from the car as well to tell myself how much and when to blip. :dunno:

Practice practice practice...  :drive:


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