What kind of foot position do you folks use when doing a heal/toe downshift? I'm tall, have size 11 to 12 feet (depending on the shoe manufacturer) and am having a hard time getting my foot into a position that works for me. I tend to want to keep the ball of my food on the brake and use the heal for the throttle but with the position of the steering wheel relative to my leg, that doesn't work. I can put my heal on the brake and rotate my leg over to that the ball of my foot works the throttle but it's "very" difficult to modulate the throttle without adding unwanted braking inputs too.

So far, I'm being "very" conservative about this. I just hope the clutch and synchros survive my learning curve! I doubt that I'm hurting anything. I just like being smooth about this, it's kind of a point of pride. I've never owned a manual transmissioned car that can gain and drop engine rpms as fast as the S2000 can. It's taking come getting used to and I am getting better.

Actually, the car itself has smoothed out a LOT since I pasted the 600 mile mark. It had the 1-2 "crunch" when the transmission was cold and that's gotten a lot better in the past couple hundred miles. It also felt a little buzzy (vibrations?) in the engine between 3 and 3.5k rpm which is all but gone now too.

Thanks for any input!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Not sure this is 'proper' but I put the ball of my foot on brake & just roll the pinky side of that foot to the gas. Lets me keep heel on the floor, which I like. For anyone with size 12 shoes this should be easy.

Comments on this method welcomed also. I can't do 'real' heel-toe and would have some major unlearning to do so.

 

You should work the brake with the ball / toes of you foot because you muscle movement is more fine with your toes / ball of you foot than with you heel.

You should start by just braking with your toes and blipping with your heel without worrying about using the clutch. Once you get used to braking and blipping then you can engage the clutch. You

 

I do what axis_of_evil does... i wear a size 16 so its even harder for me to use "proper" form...

 

I'm a size 11....

what I find works best is braking with the ball of your foot, and rolling the side of your foot over to the gas. My heel maybe moves about 20 degrees in the process.

I think the most important thing is the shoes. I tried it with running shoes, found my feet to be too narrow for my technique. I also have some leather "GQ" shoes that are too wide.

Surpisingly, the perfect footwear for me for heal and toe is a pair of near-death leather sandals (sorta like Birkenstocks). I've had them for like 6 years, but their the perfect width for my technique.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 03_AP1
I'm a size 11....

what I find works best is braking with the ball of your foot, and rolling the side of your foot over to the gas.

 

The term heal / toe is really not correct even though that is what everyone calls it. I believe (but could be wrong) that this term came from when pedals where hinged on the floor thus allowing you to use your heal. Like what has been said before, I use the left half of my foot to modulate the brake and then rotate my right knee thus blipping the throttle with the other half of my right foot. The end result is that I do not fully cover the brake at any time. Think of your knee bent and the knee cap is straight up in the air, when you roate it, it points towards the radio, this rotation allows you to keep the same pressure on the brake while modulating the throttle.

This was the procedure taught to me at the Skip Barber racing school and may not work for others but it is good for me.

 

There are two basic techniques, both described in earlier posts.

1) "Classical" ball of the foot on brake heel on gas.
2) Shifting the foot so left half brakes and right half on gas.

I use 1) since I have small feet and naturally pigeon toed. 2) is usually more comfortable with bigger feet. If you still feel awkward, you can modify the position of the pedals or get different shaped gas pedal to be more comfortable.

 

I wear a size 9 if that matters....

I do the traditional toe/heel clutching...ball of foot on brakes and use heel to blip throttle to right rpm's. Eventually you can get good enough you won't even need to use the clutch to downshift.

 

Size 8.5 and I use the ball of the foot on the brake and the heel on the throttle. I tried it originally using the left side for gas and right side for throttle and sometimes my foot would slip of the brake. I think the most important part of this technique is to make sure that your braking is flawless - it's the most important part by far. If you miss the blip on the throttle, your synchros will back you up. If you miss the brake, you may send the car off a canyon cliff.