Do help me out here

FastTrac

New member
I am still fairly new to the alltrac, just bought my car in September of 06. This is the first manual car i've ever owned, 1st car i've ever fully rebuilt, and quite frankly I do not understand the method of 'heel toe'. Just last year I was introduced to the Evo's two-step.
My car will probably be an on going project, I want to try to auto-x, and maybe a rally-x here in Iowa.
If there are any videos/ articles on the method, reasons why, how the engine performs when h/t is applied, that would be great.
My car will be on the road within the month and I would like to know as much as I can with different driving technics.
 

Corey

Active member
Check youtube. Lots of videos there.

Heel-Toe is the method by which drivers use to match the Engine RPM, to the driveline speed of the lower gear that was just selected - While braking.

The left edge of the Ball of the foot is placed on the edge of the brake pedal. Then, with the right edge of your foot, you "roll" your heel over and blip the throttle.

The name Heel toe is kinda misleading in that regard.

To get used to this motion - sit in the driveway with the car in neutral with the motor running, and just practice blipping the throttle while holding the brake with the same foot. Note how much/long a blip takes to raise the rpm roughly 1000rpm, and 1500rpm etc.

Before you start the braking part, just start by trying to change down while at a constant speed. Start in 4th gear at say 65 km/h. Down shift as you normally would, but this time, halfway through the shift, blip the throttle to a little over 3k rpm - This is where practice comes in, the more you do it, the more attuned you will be to engine rpm, and how much to blip the throttle for the lower gear based on your speed. Once the throttle is bliped, let the clutch out.

Now that the driveline and the engine are at roughly the same speed, the car continue on perfectly smooth with no jerking - you'll know when you get it right.


This greatly reduces clutch wear, and reduces shock to the driveline.


Once you've mastered that, Try the heel toe (braking). Find a nice long stretch of deserted road. You have to apply consistent brake pressure, while blipping the throttle in the gear change.



After the heel toe, comes the Double clutch (double de-clutch). This adds an additional step to the process.

Where the purpose of the revmatch/heeltoe was to save on driveline shock and clutch wear, the double clutch not only does that, but helps to save the transmission as well (syncros).

Here are the steps (with no heel toe).

Clutch in
Shift to neutral
Clutch out and revmatch at the same time
Clutch back in
Shift to lower gear
clutch out.

Should take no more than a fraction of a second.

If done perfectly, not only will the car not lurch forward, but the shifter should slide into the next gear with very little pressure. Its a tough thing to do, and takes lots of practice.

Once you've mastered that, add the heel-toe brake into the mix.

Have fun!
 
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