View Single Post
      01-16-2012, 01:47 AM   #10
e90pilot
Freight Dawg
e90pilot's Avatar
United_States
104
Rep
2,103
Posts

Drives: E90 325i
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Oakland, CA

iTrader: (3)

Why yes. I taught myself to heel-toe this way: Frist you need to find out where your feet need to be. Practice the motion while the car is stopped and in neutral. There are two positions for your feet. This first is the traditional or Japanese style. Keep the ball of your foot in the middle of brake pedal. Pivot around the ball of your foot and place your heel on the gas pedal and rev the engine. You should be able to rev it all the way to redline while applying normal brake pressure.

The second position (the one I use) is more for people who can't comfortably swing their heel out or for small pedal boxes like in small open-wheel formula cars. Place half of the ball of your foot on the brake and let the other half hang over the gas pedal. Apply normal brake pressure then roll your foot to the side and rev the engine. Again you should be able to rev it to redline. With this style, it's important not to press the gas and brake at the same time (other than when you want to rev the engine). You might have to move your right knee over to the left as far as possible.

Keep practicing either meathod while the car is stopped so you know where to place your feet. Also practice moving from the gas to the brake to get the motion down. You can also practice pressing the clutch as well. Brake - clutch in - rev - clutch out. Don't worry about shifting just yet.

Next, you need to get used to rev matching without heel-toeing. While coasting in a high gear (3rd for example) downshift to the next gear as you normally would but as you move the shifter through neutral give the engine a rev. Your goal is to figure out how much to rev the engine. Remember, the lower the revs are in the higher gear the smaller the rev gap is to the next lower gear. Practice this several times until you can do it smoothly and quickly withough thinking about it in any gear. (Don't do it into first gear often, it's really hard on the syncro)

Once you get both the foot position and rev matching mastered separately, put the two together. It's way easier to do it this way I think. Keeps the number of things you have to think about to a minimum.
__________________
--Marcelo
'06 Arctic Metallic 325i | Sport Package | 6MT | Dinan Stage III suspension | Dinan exhaust | 330i manifold swap! Click here! | Active Autowerke tune | 135i Brake Calipers | Deiselboost caliper brackets | E46 M3 front rotors
Appreciate 0