Heel & Toe

[Bob_Defly]

Which (real world, i.e. less than £50K) car has the best pedal set up for heel & toe?

[bikemonster]

I've never driven a manual car that I couldn't heel and toe.

What exactly do you mean by your question?

[Bob_Defly]

bikemonster said:

I've never driven a manual car that I couldn't heel and toe.

What exactly do you mean by your question?

Some cars just don't have the pedals set up to make it easy, some do. For example the Exige that I had had quite a difference in travel between the pedals, not saying it was impossible, far from it, it's just that the pedal set up didn't do it any favours (lots of redundant brake travel). Just wondering if there are cars out there with a very good/perfect pedal set up?

TVR's always impressed me with the floor hinged pedals, but I've never driven one in anger so I wouldn't know.

[bikemonster]

It prolly has more to do with individual cars then - I've driven an Elise a number of times, and never had an issue.

AFAIK the Elise and Exige use the same pedal box.

I'm not especially powerfully built and don't have a goatee, although as this is PH I am naturally a driving god with multiple company directorships.

[Bob_Defly]

I had to stick a crushed can of red bull on top of the brake pedal to even keep up with an ambliwans!

I am less of a driving god, so need help from a good pedal box when I can.

[GravelBen]

No idea what the best is, but Mk1 MX5s are pretty good.

[Oldandslow]

MX5

Well it's PH's standard answer to everything and you can heel & toe them. I've not tried it in anything else, my brother would have killed me if I'd tried it in his TVR especially if I got it badly wrong.

[Magic919]

911 is good.

[HustleRussell]

Caterham is perfect. Proper heel & toe, the foot remains vertical- you don't have to get your toes on the brake pedal then kind of twist your ankle to get the ball of your foot uncomfortably on the throttle like you do in most tin tops.

[Zippee]

The floor mounted pedals in the S6 TVRs make heel and toeing that bit easier. I'm in a Cayman at the moment and find the brake travel is a bit too long to do it, though I'm not an expert and probably not doing it right.

[Daniel1]

My current bangernomics addiction that is the E36 3-series is pretty good

[Athlon]

Mazda 6 is very good, along with the 6 speed box can be good fun.

[chrisispringles]

One that surprised me was the Volvo 850. The right hand edge of the brake pedal is slightly angled down towards the throttle, which gives you a solid contact on the brake pedal whilst making it easier to roll your foot onto the accelerator. The pedals are also well spaced and the brake is very progressive and quite firm, so you don't launch yourself through the windscreen if you get it slightly wrong.

[rossmc88]

My BMW E30 is great for heal toe

[TommyBuoy]

S2000 is nice and easy.

Jeep Patriot not so

[kazste]

Suspect there's a lot of cars at least equally good, but I always struggled to make it work until about two days into elise ownership when it just became second nature.
Imho you need a combination of pedal feel, pedal placement, and a responsive engine.

[AndyBrew]

Clio 200 Cup
Porsche Boxster

My Focus RS was nigh on impossible, really high brake pedal with a massive gap between brake and accelerator.

[LordHaveMurci]

Magic919 said:

911 is good.

+1
Clio 172 not so good.

[robinessex]

Many, many, years ago, I used to heal and toe my Lotus Europa TC. Well, you had to, the Renault GB was bloody awful. It took a while to get the pedals set up correct, and play with the throttle return spring(s) to balance out the brake/throttle balance, and some decent driving shoes. A lighter flywheel helped speed up the engine repsonse to a 'blipped' throttle. When done and mastered, driving the car was shear fun and pleasure. I've yet to find a modern, off the shelf saloon that can be driven the same way. Over light, instant grab brakes, pedal ergonomics crap, nil engine response to a quick throttle blip, etc. etc. Nowadays, it's flipper gear changes, the engine management system doing the throttle blipping for you. Sad really.

[bikemonster]

Zippee said:

I'm in a Cayman at the moment and find the brake travel is a bit too long to do it, though I'm not an expert and probably not doing it right.

AndyBrew said:

Porsche Boxster

The Cayman and the Boxster will have the same pedal box, if they're both 987 versions, and may have the same pedal box (certainly similar) if the Cayman is a 987 and the Boxster is a 986.

So, a mix of different peoples' feel and differences between the setup of individual cars.