Heel Toe Around Town?

[SkullWorks]

I live at the bottom of a twisty road near the cliffs in San Pedro,

Damn Straight I Heel Toe on my drive to and from work, and sometimes I get carried away in the industrial complex behind my shop too...the car is just a tease, it's like having a friend in the passenger seat egging you on all the time..

You gotta love this car, you can have all the fun in the world taking corners at the speed limit.

[OmarGC]

Originally Posted by ML

practice makes perfect.

This.

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by ML

practice makes perfect.

As simple as that. In fact, on low-speed situations it's actually harder to get it done right and smooth, so makes better practice.

Most people think that heel and toe (as well as double clutching/rev matching, however you wanna call it) is only useful on spirited driving or racing, but in normal driving it takes away some stress from the drivetrain when downshifting and translates into a smoother ride. Passengers won't notice at all when you downshift if it's done right.

[campy]

When I come to a stop, I just put it in neutral and coast because fuck it I'm lazy

[kthxbai]

In town it's rare for the need to heel-toe...however I agree with practicing when it is safe. I'm not going to lie, when I'm approaching an open turn, no cars, and I have the green I have been known to practice heel-toe. I think for the gents`on the forum with your bigger feet it is easier for you to grasp this concept unlike us gals with smaller and narrower feet. Gotta practice sometimes....

[Barbarian]

Originally Posted by Laika

There's 3-4 turns where I'll routinely heel-toe around my town. Mostly because they're fun turns with no traffic. The rest of the time I just rev-match down shift.

this

[KKaWing]

I do it mostly for fun. That said, how is it "dangerous" in traffic? All it does is waste gas, make noise and keep the revs up. Sure it makes one look like an arse... but driving a car with no power (see sidebar), keeping the revs a little higher (read: ~2.5k to 3k) will allow me to either brake without having to clutch in when someone cuts me off. Which then, allows me to get on the gas and get outta the way quicker if necessary.

I can see a problem with a novice not getting it right and surging all over the place, but done right, it'll be smooth albeit noisy. Besides, HTA around here states a car should be in gear at all times (I think, and not that anyone follows it or enforces it...)

Speed

Steadily reduce speed as you approach the turn. In a vehicle with manual transmission, you may downshift into a lower gear as you slow down. Do not coast with your foot on the clutch pedal.

^ In light of that, why not go all the way and heel-toe? It's not like you have to go full throttle or be at max revs. It's all part of the fun of driving a manual no?

[wheelhaus]

Almost everywhere. Hell, I even double clutch most downshifts. It's all easier to do near the limit when pushing the car harder, but doing it at low-mid rpm in traffic speeds requires a little more sensitivity and precision.

As someone already said, practice makes perfect...

Rev matching the bike is a little more fun, it has a hyper responsive and extremely satisfying "BRAPP" from each blip... Especially with the Akrapovic exhaust.

[FrX]

I heel-toe all the time in town. You don't need to be at full throttle for it to be applicable. It can make life so much smoother in a manual-shift car. Especially in our cars. Where the torque can be...lacking...down low.

[Mandy]

I always heel toe when I have a passenger, because I like giving them the smoothest ride possible. When I'm by myself, I generally only do it on turns where I rapidly decelerate for practice. I wish they had kept the peddles on the FT86 though, I have relatively small feet at a 8/8.5, and generally I can only heel toe consistently where I split my left toes on the break and my right toes on the accelerator.

To elaborate:

as opposed to:

[chillywilly]

Originally Posted by radroach

Yeah heel toe if you bog the engine at the speed you take the corner at. I'd rather be in the right gear at the right power taking a corner. It's NOT a reckless technique.

I think the act of "powering thru a corner" on public roads can be deemed as pretty friggin reckless unless you are out in the middle of no where.

[KKaWing]

Originally Posted by chillywilly

I think the act of "powering thru a corner" on public roads can be deemed as pretty friggin reckless

I think you've mistaken having access to power through a corner with *powering* through a corner. Just because the revs are high =/= WOT.

Edit: Also, you can heel-toe to something like 3k RPM. Just because you heal-toe =/= red line either. I suspect some people are under the impression that heel-toe automatically = WOT, peddle to the metal, bouncing off the redline, 4-wheel, full opposite lock drift. Hint: It's just a little blip of the throttle as you downshift to smooth things out. If that impression is true, all the soccer moms driving the new luxury cars, with the auto-blip feature, would be spinning around like UFO's by that logic.

[SC David]

Originally Posted by Mandy

I always heel toe when I have a passenger, because I like giving them the smoothest ride possible. When I'm by myself, I generally only do it on turns where I rapidly decelerate for practice. I wish they had kept the peddles on the FT86 though, I have relatively small feet at a 8/8.5, and generally I can only heel toe consistently where I split my left toes on the break and my right toes on the accelerator.

To elaborate:

as opposed to

This. This car is set up so that you've gotta be hard on the brakes to get the alignment of your right foot correct. I always found it easy to heel-toe BMWs and Porsches while driving liesurely, which were the only other manual cars I had lots of seat time in, but I find the FRS takes some serious braking commitment. I've always done it in the way outlined above. Heel on the brake pedal feels unnatural to me, but makes the motion much more fluid on this car. I've not found it worth the effort to relearn to do it the backwards way, so I only do it on fast freeway off ramps or turns with serious deceleration. Maybe once a day, not often at all, whereas in BMWs, I would do it for fun coming to stop signs or traffic lights just to hear the sweet I6 soundtrack.

[chillywilly]

Originally Posted by KKaWing

I think you've mistaken having access to power through a corner with *powering* through a corner. Just because the revs are high =/= WOT.

Edit: Also, you can heel-toe to something like 3k RPM. Just because you heal-toe =/= red line either. I suspect some people are under the impression that heel-toe automatically = WOT, peddle to the metal, bouncing off the redline, 4-wheel, full opposite lock drift. Hint: It's just a little blip of the throttle as you downshift to smooth things out. If that impression is true, all the soccer moms driving the new luxury cars, with the auto-blip feature, would be spinning around like UFO's by that logic.

Having power thru a corner simply means being in the right gear at the right speed. It seems that you've mistaken rev matching with the heel-toe technique. I do enjoy taking fast corners occasionally but I can spare a fraction of a second to take my foot off the breaks to blip the throttle.