Inova

i just got my z recently and this is my first manual car. my driving with it is already very smooth and i was curious about the heel-toe downshifting technique. is this something that you have to learn through a driving school, or something that can be done on quiet streets around town? if it means i have to pay money to practice the technique then i'll have to start saving for the classes, i know how to follow lines already and am quite familiar with the track that i will be driving at - just curious how/where you learned.

koba8

I learned at a driving school, but only really because I didn't know anybody that knew how to do it that could show me, and all the written descriptions I had read did not really describe it well enough.

tiggerpooh

go watch some best motoring....hahahaha

i learned it from...........i dunno.......nobody really taught me it.......i just kind of figured it out and picked it up myself..........

here is a great article on it......hope it helps
heel-toe

Jason Bourne

You can definitely learn on the street with some experimentation and practice. I learned on the street years ago and have not in the past 10 years or so executed a downshift without heel-and-toeing (with the exception of the week where I had a sprained ankle that I could not use). The key is to practice a lot until it becomes intrinsic. If you just figure it out but don't keep practicing, you will never really learn to do it and it will make it a lot harder to do it on the track. It is much easier to learn on the street than when you are coming into turn 1 at 120mph and need to lose 70mph in a hurry at the track.

To get started, I would practice with the engine off in your driveway or parking lot. Just sit there and figure out the most comfortable (and logical) way for you to press both the gas and brake pedal at the same time with your right foot. For the street you probably need about 1-2 inches of depression on the brake and a blip of 1-2 inches on the gas (on the track you need to learn how to do it with full braking). Keep doing it with the engine off until you can hold your pressure on the brake relatively constant. Then start the car and keep practicing while stopped and in neutral. Keep doing it until you can keep the pressure on the brakes constant and can rev the car to 3-4000rpm with each blip. After this you can start doing it while driving. Focus on accuracy rather than getting it done quickly. If you keep practicing it will eventually become second nature - this can take several weeks or months but is worth it. One other point: although it is called heel and toeing, for most people you use the ball of your foot and the your toes. The heel is rarely used. I place the toes of my foot on the brake and rotate the ball of my foot onto the gas (foot turned left) but some people do it the other way around (foot turned right).

Good luck. There's nothing like a properly executed rev-matched downshift once you learn how to do it.

Jason

skippyracer7

Get a book called Going Faster - It has everything about racing, absolutely amazing. Try amazon.com

D'oh

Practice, practice, practice.

In theory, heel-toe downshifting is very simple. You step on the brake with part of your right foot, you step on the clutch with the left, then while you are shifting gears you blip the throttle with the other part of your right foot so that when you release the clutch the engine revs are matched with the transmisison so you don't have any jarring power delivery to the rear wheels which could upset the car. You are then in the next lower gear, ready to release the brake and enter the corner with the foot on the gas.

In practice, there are a few things happening:

1. Reaching brake and gas with right foot
2. Modulation of the brake while blipping the throttle
3. Blipping the throttle the proper amount to match revs for the next gear.

So far I've been able to get the last part down (the rev matching), but I can't really reach both pedals in the Z with my right foot. I can't twist my leg counter-clockwise to put the toes on the brake and the heel on the gas, and I can just barely twist it clockwise to use the ball of my foot on the brake and roll the outside onto the gas. Maybe my feet aren't quite big enough, or my knees and ankles aren't quite flexible enough.

I've settled on braking early and then rev-matching right before the corners, but maybe I'll be able to find another way to use my foot so I can reach both pedals.

I think Jason's advice is very good. I tried practicing in the car and just cannot get to both pedals. If you can get that far, then you should be pretty successful as long as you practice alot.

-D'oh!

S8ER95Z

here is an idea..if your not comfortable doing it ..don't. However I learned by just doing. Slam that pedal down and shift. You can run thru the rpms slow or fast..no matter ..just work on shifting as quick as you can. It sorta falls into place pending you don't hit the rev limiter or grind a gear....on second thought.. You better get over to Amazon and get that book.

stx

You can also try braking with your left foot and use your right foot to blip the throttle to shift with out the clutch. If you get good at it you can shift faster than if you used the clutch. Also its pretty easy to do on the 350 especially at high RPMs.

importriders

I have really wide feet so I just put half my foot on the brake and the other half over the gas. Your pedals have to be leveled correctly for this to work though. The Z is pretty close stock. They also sell aftermarket pedals that are wider so that the brake and gas will be closer. Basically you can do heel-toe any way you feel comfortable with. I dont know many people that do it the way your suppose to with the heel blipping the throttle. My leg just cant rotate like that.

slay2k

Interesting... I was gonna ask about this a while ago.

I can't seem to hell-and-toe easily with the 350 since the gas pedal is not very wide... I can barely reach it with the right foot while braking...

PLUS - aren't there drive-by-wire throttle-reduction problems that the ECU does, if you attempt it ?

Marked350Z

I just went through racing school/track day and learned to perfect heel-toe shifting as well as other driving/racing skills. It was very difficult to master with the current set up in the Z. I added some some new aftermarket pedals (larger and installed them a little closer together) and it makes it very easy to do. Majority of the racing drivers don't heel-toe per se, while their braking they just tilt their feet to tap the throttle (that's the main reason why the gas pedal is set lower than the brake pedal, when the brake pedal is depressed it becomes even with the gas pedal and thus making it ideal to just tilt you feet and tap the gas pedal. Obviously if you look at a race car pedal set-up you'll see larger pedals and the gas and brake pedals are closer.

TheLex

so what are good aftermarket pedals to make it easier to heel toe?

dreamin4aZ

well i drive a civic but i taught myself how to heel and toe on the street. i live in a rural area where backroads are deserted and so it was a great place to try this technique. however someone said something about not knowing anyone who uses their heel. i have to use my heel. i place the ball of my foot on the center of the brake pedal. this does feel weird at first cause it is so much higher than where you would normally place your foot. but then there is not much rotation of the heel necisary in order to reach the gas pedal. and on another note. from my personal experience it is harder to heel and toe at 5/10th pace than it is at 9 or 10/10ths. so i would suggest playin arround with it in the driveway (but only with the car started because otherwise the brake pedal will not depress normally). then hit a backroad and try it out.

Kayaalp

Well, there's nothing better about them. It's just that they bolt onto your factory pedals, so you can play with their positioning. You can bolt one to hang off the right side of the brake pedal and another to hang off the left side of the throttle. Then you can easily cover both with the ball of your right foot.

Here's a good link: Heel-and-toe

Emre

Alev

Really helpful read. Wish I'd found it earlier.