heel and toe - what's it all about

[dss123]

Help from all the track day boys and girls please!

The term "heel and toe" seems to be banded about a great deal but I'm convinced, half the time people don't really know what it is or when the technique should be used.

My understanding of "heel and toe" is when the braking foot rolls partially off the brake to "feather" the throttle and maintain engine revs. I'm guessing this technique might be used while braking for a corner? I have never tried this as it seems a recipe for disaster for an average driver.

Now, I'm happy giving the throttle a little blip during downchanges to help smooth things out, but I'm sure most people do this.

So, is my understanding correct and is it a technique that can honestly be put to good use on B roads etc or should it be reserved for the track?

Also - what is double de clutching? is that the throttle blipping thing I do when changing down?

Can the experienced drivers out there please enlighten me!

Thanks


DSS

[Raify]

I wouldn't class myself as an experienced driver, but I recently read something about heel and toe in a lotus mag:

Basically it's using the throttle to match the engine revs to the wheel speed while you're braking and changing down for a corner.

changing down and dumping the throttle would result in spinning the driven wheels, not so good in a rwd car approaching a corner.

Do a search on the forums, should bring up raft of information.

edited for spelling

>> Edited by Raify on Thursday 23 December 14:37

[tonyhetherington]

done very quickly, but have a look at these!

here

here

here

and here

[Mark B]

Very easy, heel and toe is the technique used to match the road speed to the engine revs, so as not to 'lock' the wheels on down change. ie, if you down shift without blipping the throttle the wheels will need to drag the running gear back up to the right speed. So, brake hard into a corner and as you press the clutch pedal blip the throttle (whilst braking) and engage the lower gear as smoothly as possible.

You say you blip the throttle on down shifts, well all H&T does is to blip the throttle whilst braking too.

Track or Road shouldn't make a difference, it is an excellent technique to be mastered.

Double De Clutch is the process of re-engaging the clutch between shifts, either up or down the gearbox. i.e. (Up the ‘box) clutch down - out of gear; clutch up – neutral, clutch down – select next gear. And Down the ‘box, clutch down – out of gear, clutch up – neutral and blip throttle, clutch down select lower gear.

The theory now is that if you have a full synchro ‘box you should not use true Double de Clutch as it can knacker the synchro cones……

Hope that helps??

Mark B

[dss123]

Mmm, now I see.

Sounds like fun, but an awful lot to get your head (and feet!) around.

I have also come across a variation entailing sticking a broom up ones backside at the same time and giving the interior a bit of a once over while your at it!

Think I'll get myself on a driver training day and get some tips from someone that knows the art.


Cheers guys


Dunc

[dannylt]

Note there's no need to actually use your heel. In an Elise, it's quite easy to press both with either side of the foot. I'd say essential for driving on track, so worth practicing on the road.

[shirepro]

Ah ah! My beloved dtriving instructor called this 'sustained rev gear changing'. I too had thought it some impossibly difficult track racing trick, so didn't ask.

[Andrew Noakes]

I think 'sustained rev gearchanging' is a bit different, aka 'powerchanging'. Good recipe for destroying an engine if you miss a gear.

As others have said, H&T simply allows you to brake, downshift and match engine revs to the new gear all at the same time - rather than using the clutch to spin the engine up to speed, which causes clutch wear and invites the driven wheels to slide if the surface is slippery.

[Snapper7]

H&T is a very good thing to master.

But pratice away from other road users until you get the hang of it.

I would suggest that you start by learning/getting into the practice of blipping the throttle when you down shift to get to understand how many extra revs you need to match the engine and wheel speed.

Then learn to blip the throttle while downshifting during braking.. this will mean having both feet on all three peadles at once. If you find this a bit difficalt to start with practice while stationary with the engine off.

Best of luck.

[cptsideways]

It's a technique worth learning for any driver of rwd sports car, not only will it make your driving smoother & hence faster, it'll reduce driveline shunt & make for safer cornering, & it's kinder to your gearbox syncro's too.

It looks like this when done quickly Video clips found here

On a large engined RWD car, you have all that engine compression to overcome if you simply lift the clutch without rev matching all that energy gets transferred to the tyres & this will unblanace the car & possibly break traction leading to the start of a spin.


As a rough example in drifting one of the techniques we learn is the driveline shunt, which quite literally is designed to break the traction on the back on end on an entry to a corner. This has the same effect as pulling the handbrake on & will make the car rotate very quickly. Lethal unless you know what to do next, but a great example of the effects of not using heel & toe.

[RB Will]

I use heel and toe all the time, it just makes my driving so much smoother. As mentioned above does not technicallyhave to bee your heel and toe, I use the left and right side of my right foot (big feet and legs cant bend properly to do heel and toe) so i just developed technique of my own (I know must be lots of other people who use it) but it is very effective.