I do the exact same thing.

Why do i do it? I enjoy heel-toeing and like to get practice at it. I have no problems heel-toeing and downshifting smoothly on the street or road course, but don't yet have the skill to be able to do it consistently smoothly and quickly enough in an autocross setting to not take too much speed off for the corner i'm entering. But if i'm coming up on a red light or stop sign i just figure i'm not getting any real value from practising there, so i might as well save possible wear on the clutch/synchros/gears etc.

 

I downshift through every gear at every stop. 90% of the time I double-clutch too out of habit.

But, I use the brakes to slow the car! The downshifting is to:
A: practice so that it's automatic when I'm at the track
B: have fun (it feels awesome to nail 5 downshifts in a row!)
C: be in the right gear to accelerate if/when the light turns green

I'd say that full throttle acceleration and launching are 10 to 20 times harder on the engine than coasting down at 5k rpm in second gear vs 3k in third*. Woopty doo! I sure don't hold back on the throttle pedal so I'm not at all concerned about decelerating in gear.

* Numbers proudly pulled from my bum, the general point is the same no matter what the rpm is.

 

I'm with a few of the other posters. Heel and toe is a racing technique to slow the car and shift for the appropriate gear to set up for a corner. I do it all the time on the street, but only if I am actually going to go through the corner in motion. If I'm stopping, I stop. I routinely go from second to first too, and it's easy enough to do with the right technique.

I did the Higgins family / Forest Experience rally school in Wales a few years ago. Tony Higgins was the instructor, and he's won British rally championships, as have his kids. At any rate, during one of the sessions, I was going downhill and automatically downshifted to engine brake. The first thing he said to me was "gears for go, brakes for slow". Words to live by. Okay, that was for downill stuff, but the same idea applies here I think.

 

"Heel and toe is a racing technique to slow the car and shift for the appropriate gear to set up for a corner."

WRONG...heel toeing is not for braking at all. It is for getting into the proper gear at the proper rpm to best suit a spot on a track...

if you have ever done lapping days the 1st thing you realize is that you cant heel toe as well as you thought, 2nd is that you will get yelled at for engine braking. It not only unsettles the car, but puts far too much stress on the engine in a racing environment.

if i was at 200km/h in 5th coming to a braking zone, i would:

1.set my line to brake
2.hard braking
3.blip throttle
4.shift to 2 or 3rd
5.enter the corner
6.apex and accelerate out

 

I disagree. Your numbered description doesn't describe heel and toe, but a separate braking input and then a throttle blip.

My understanding of heel and toe is having one's toe on the brake pedal while simultaneously using one's heel to blip the throttle. Everyone has their own way of doing it. Myself, it's probably better described as "half foot and half foot", as I have half of my foot on the brakes, half on the throttle. Then, of course, the left foot is able to operate the clutch.

If one is slowing into a corner, one is obviously braking. The throttle blip of course is to rev match for the gear shift. And to get set up for the next corner, you need to rev match, hence the throttle blip. Don't do the blip and just slam it into gear and the whole car gets unbalanced front to rear.

The need for heel and toe arises because you have to operate all three pedals at once, but you only have two feet. Here's a video:

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/c871057...0db3f41d4d1.htm

and the Wikipedia entry on heel and toe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel-and-Toe

 

^in my description at stage 2, you brake...then blip once braking is done or almost done to match rev to get into the needed gear.

your foot position is right, your reason for heel toeing is not (when speaking to race/track driving)

 

 

Well, I dunno about that. We've all said the same thing - blip for the rev match to ensure the car is set up for the corner in the right gear. I don't think I said it was for braking, but it obviously occurs while braking. So maybe I should have originally said "while slowing the car" instead of "to slow the car". In effect, on the street, I use it to slow the car.

Thinking back to when I've been on the stages...I don't think I ever heel and toe'd because there was enough to think about already with trees and cliffs and such on either side of me. I braked, then blipped, then into gear. Sometimes I didn't even blip, just put it into gear because there was so much going on. But when I did this, I had separate inputs on brake and throttle, so I never really thought of it as heel and toe. To me, heel and toe has always been to use all three pedals at once.

 

We do the same thing on bikes all the time.. the technique is used to eliminate engine braking and set your corner speed using your brake only..

Where as if you just downshift and let the clutch out you have to compensate your braking in account with the engine braking...

 

Wow, I never would have dreamed of this being a topic. Now my head hurts
I was always under the understanding that lugging any sort of high performance powertrain was out of the question. The engine is meant to run at higher than average rpm, and the clutch and transmission were meant for someone who knows how to use them.
I would have bought a minivan but...