Heel Toe?

[SenorMcawesome]

Ok so I'm new to drifting and I don't understand what exactly does heel toe do?

[Mux213]

heel toe is a technique where you use your toe's to brake and your heel to throttle at the same time. It allows you to change gears while breaking before a corner so you can accelerate while you're in the right gear once you exit the corner without loosing time and without the need to change gear at the wrong time.

[Miguel - Newera]

To double de-clutch a down-shift:

Depress Clutch.
Drop it into Neutral.
Release Clutch.
Rev Engine to a tad beyond what it will be at when you've released the gear you want to select.
Depress Clutch.
Slip into lower gear.
Release clutch.


If it's properly done, the change down should feel seamless and very smooth. Someone used to doing this can do it in roughly a split second - i.e. very quickly (Provided the engine can be blipped quickly enough).
You can use it to smoothly change down from say 5th to 3rd, without needing to use 4th in between.

Heel & toe is doing all the above whilst controlling braking at the same time.

Takes some practice at first, start with double declutching, then when you're perfect at doing fast synchronised downchanges, start using your right foot's toes to control braking, whilst using your heel to depress the throttle.

Heel & Toe means the car's weight is only transferred to the front once whilst braking (Each time you let off the brakes, the weight comes off the front suspension).

Personally, I do it always, when driving a manual car. It's become 2nd nature - I hate the new paddle shift transmissions that do this for you!

Hope this helps!

Miguel

[banpei]

Have a look at how Keiichi uses his right foot when he drives around the track:

As you can see whenever he brakes for a corner he pushes the throttle at the same time to get his engine up to revs while shifting down... This way he matches the revs of the gears downwards. If he wouldn't do this the revs of the engine wouldn't match the speed and gear and the car would slow down due to the engine running slower than the gear would require.

[Mux213]

I still need to learn that double clutch thing at some point, I'm never fast enough for it...

Damn Robokill even does it in his fathers damn trucks!! (its fun driving with him when he drives these 2 or 3 ton trucks around, you'd think he's behind the wheel of a race car)

With good synchros double clutching is a little less important I guess if you rev match correctly on the downshift though, heel&toe does become that much more important..

[Apolan]

I don't think you use heel&toe so you "dont slow down", because when your braking into a corner, you [u:2295d94e4a]are[/u:2295d94e4a] slowing down, and you never brake with your engine when driving hard - its the brakes that should exactly dose your stopping power. Heel toe is used so that the difference in gear speeds in a downshift doesn't lock the proppeled wheels and fucks up your braking ballance. This is best felt on slippery surfaces (rain and snow), speed into a corrner, brake and let the lower gear go without the throttle blip - rear will lock, putting you into a slide. With the throttle blip, gears match nicely, and you get much smoother, non-jerking braking.

So this technique is best used for racing, when you want smooth tranitions/braking/etc.. but the absence of this technique can be used to initiate a drift.. although its not very nurturing for your driveline.

here's a funny but clear video on the subject:

[Mux213]

Apolan,

If you brake, then stop braking, and then waiste time to change gear, you loose time ergo, you slow down. You can't change gear in the time after braking and before stepping on the accelerator without loosing time because that is the time you are cornering and changing gear while cornering is stupendously dangerous, and ideally you want to hit the accelerator as soon as possible after you release the brake anyways.

As you say yourself, when you brake you are slowing down, if you change gear during the time while you brake, you WIN time because you do not loose time later.

Its not the braking causing you to loose time, its not having to change gear while you are not braking that causes you to win time.

[Apolan]

Mux, dont tell me your car doesn't shift without throttle-blip when the brake is depressed? I mean ofcorse youre not going to shift before or after braking, or even stop braking to shift the gear, that i rediculous. Heel toe isnt "neccessary" so to speak, it just makes the braking phase more controlable and smoother as you're downshifting. Im sure we all agree on that, i just wanted to point this out as it hasn't been mentioned.

When i first drove my hachi abit faster, and its was at a time my first rwd experience, the rear broke out while braking&cornering&downshifting.. it was never that "obvious/meaningful" with the fwd car.. there you only get mild undeersteer, than your on your way, but with rwd i think it so much more important that you do heel and toe as you might even spin out if not careful.

[manipula]

This lot above covered it basically.

For what it's worth if I get in a car with someone for a spirited drive and they can't heel and toe and blip gear changes you can let me out. Absolutely fundamental to quick driving IMO. Same goes for two hands on the wheel at all times, braking and changing gear before a corner not in it (though trail braking to get the ass of the car out is slightly different as it's intentional).

The idea behind blipping downchanges, and heel and toe is to relieve or minimise the effect of the bodyweight of the car changing whilst you're 'on one.' If you're proper hurling down a road braking hard into a corner and then change gear by dipping the clutch and selecting gear, then letting the clutch up so the revs of the engine do that horrible struggled whine as they try and catch up with the speed the gearbox is running at, you're gonna unsettle the car. It will lurch forward and when you're on one that can be and often is enough to get the car to lose stability and grip.

Blip your downchange or use heel and toe and there's no sudden lurching forward of the weight of the car.

Double de-clutching is a technique largely redundant in modern cars with syncro mesh boxes, but should be learned anyway IMO to enable you to drive anything smoothly, not just modern cars. I'm currently practising it and have it down until I am on one, at which point I'm not quite quick enough or reliable enough yet to use it safely.

Also think about left foot braking...

[Mux213]

Apolan Wrote:Mux, dont tell me your car doesn't shift without throttle-blip when the brake is depressed?

If I am going full throttle towards a corner with a small bank infront, and I downshift while braking and I do not add throttle on the downshift, my rear wheels will lock and I will spin.

I do not want to spin going 100+ kph into a corner thanks

Seriously though, yes relying on synchros and the small throttle jump when downshifting can help, but its far from enough in most cases I encounter.