Heel Toe Shifting
A few tips that work for me
I have noticed that any time someone mentions HT shifting on the car forums, it is inevitable that someone asks what it is, usually with the comment added “Excuse me for being ignorant, but what is it and how do you do it” I think a lot of people are greatly relieved when someone else asks the question first so they don’t have to be the one that may appear “ignorant”. I have seen some real flames when this happens, unfortunately. I will describe how I do it but want to caution that this isn’t the ONLY way, just what I have found that works for me.
A little history on how the term Heel and Toe came into being may be interesting. In the early hot rod days, many of the drivers found that matching revs of the engine and transmission were crucial to maintain balance, stability, smoothness, and to keep wear and tear on their machines to a minimum. Transmission synchros sometimes were not existent or refined to the extent they have become in more modern machines, so matching engine revs to the transmission was critical for many reasons. Most car manufacturers in the early days were not concerned with making their cars easy to use in high performance situations. Many still aren’t. :>( The term Heel and Toe is a description of what these early pioneers literally did to use their right foot to brake and blip the throttle simultaneously. The brake and go pedals were not positioned to do it conveniently so they literally used the heel and toe of their right foot, usually with their toe on the go pedal and the heel to blip the throttle. Some even repositioned their pedals so they could even do this at all. In most modern high performance cars, it is nearly impossible to actually use your heel and toe so it is really a misnomer now though some people still do it that way, depending on their personal preference and the pedal positions of what they are driving. There really is no right or wrong way as long as the method used allows smooth and consistent downshifting while braking.
The Purpose and Benefits of Heel Toe Down Shifting
HT shifting is a braking and shifting method allowing you to downshift quickly and safely, during constant braking, without upsetting the balance of the car. Good HT shifting keeps the engine, transmission, and rear wheel speeds matched closely so there is no jerkiness through the drive train when down shifting, making high speed maneuvers much more safe and stable. Smoothness is a key to going fast safely so this skill is a must if you want to drive fast with a high degree of control where braking and downshifting is involved. It also puts a lot less stress on the whole drive train, making it last a lot longer.
Maybe another way to look at this is to consider what happens when you don’t HT. You are coming up to a turn, going fast. It’s obvious that you have to slow down in order to get around the corner, on the pavement at least :>) You are braking now but must also get into a lower gear to accelerate quickly out of the turn. When you shift into the lower gear while braking and let out the clutch, a major jerk goes through your car’s drive train while your rear wheels are chirping, or worse, locking up. That will definitely put a serious pucker in your hinder parts!!!. You might get through corner in one piece. It wasn’t smooth and controlled, therefore slow and dangerous, and your car just took a beating. Not a lot of fun for you, the drivers around you or your car.
Now consider the same scenario when you can HT. You come up to the same corner. You begin braking to slow down with your right foot on the brake. Subsequent to beginning to brake you need to downshift to be able to exit the corner under power in the right gear but you don’t want to stop your braking at that time. While pressing the brake you are about to depress the clutch with your left foot. Up to this point, you have done nothing differently but now the fun begins. With your right foot still fully planted on the brake and as you depress the clutch, you simultaneously blip the gas pedal with the right side of your right foot. The engine revs up, matching the speed of the gears in the transmission and rear wheels. When you let out the clutch after down shifting, everything engages smoothly, you get back on the go pedal, smoothly accelerating out the turn to your track out point. Your car’s balance and stability were never disrupted, you were smooth, fast and your car is just as happy as it was before you went through the corner. It also puts a smile on your face because you know you just completed a tricky high speed maneuver safely and very quickly. You will NEVER be as fast or smooth as you can be without learning this crucial skill.
Getting Started
HT is relatively easy to understand but it does take practice to become skilled. You can get a little rusty so practicing wherever it is safely possible is a good idea. I find exiting freeway ramps is an excellent place to practice. You don’t really need to downshift exiting freeways in most cases but you can force the shifts in order to get in some practice. I would highly recommend finding a deserted stretch of road or a track where you can accelerate up to about 70 or so and then begin braking and shifting down through the gears. If you miss a shift, foot falls off the brake or you mash the brake instead of the gas pedal there is nobody around to endanger or, of course, laugh hysterically at you!!
The first thing to understand is proper foot position. We are only dealing with the right foot so imagine the position of the brake and gas pedal for a moment. The idea is to use your right foot to span the distance between the brake and gas pedal. This takes some experimentation. For the brake, you use the ball of your right foot under the big toe to rest on the right edge of the brake pedal and when you blip, you roll your foot over to the gas pedal using the ball of your right foot under your small toe to blip the go pedal while maintaining pressure on the brake pedal. That’s it!! Well, not totally, but you get the idea :>) In the C5, I have found that the most comfortable way to get the “roll” accomplished is to use my ankle mostly but I also leave my right leg away from the center console enough so I can move my knee to the right a little while rolling my foot/ankle. This seems to take the strain off my ankle and I can drive for much longer periods without getting cramps. Find what works best for you.
You can practice the basic foot position while stationary. It takes some practice to figure out just how much of your foot to have on the brake so you can use the other side of your foot to roll onto to the go pedal without having to make huge rolling movements. It also takes practice to get on the brake with same foot position every time. Just do it and find what works for you. I keep as little as possible of the left side of my right foot on the brake as it requires less roll with my ankle to blip the go pedal. You need to make sure you have enough of your foot on the brake, otherwise your foot may slip off. That will also put a serious pucker in your hinder parts!! Everyone has different variations and positions they have found to work so figure out what feels most natural and comfortable for your particular body. Shoes are an important factor in all this. You need to be able to “feel” where your foot is. Big hulky tennis shoes or army boots will not work very well. Specialty racing shoes, or any other shoe where you can feel the pedals, and are wide enough to span the distance between the brake and go pedal will work.
Practice Makes Perfect – Now go and do it!!
After getting the basic foot position down and practicing the roll in a safe area, begin doing some actual downshifting runs. Again, make sure you are in a deserted area or on a track where other drivers aren’t in your way or vice versa. At Bragg-Smith’s high performance driving school, we went out to the back straight and practiced for an hour each morning of the class. It was a good warm up time for the cars and drivers. We would accelerate up to about 70 and get into 4th gear. We would then begin braking, smoothly, and downshifting all the way down, turn around and go the other direction.
Again, here’s the sequence to understand. When applying the brake, make sure you get your foot in the proper position when you first apply the brake, meaning you use the left side of your right foot as described above. Begin braking and at appropriate times begin your downshift (s) into the next lower gear(s). When you begin to disengage the clutch, begin to do the “roll” and use the right side of your right foot to blip the go pedal while maintaining continuous pressure on the brake. Remember, you want to maintain an even pressure on the brake while disengaging the clutch and doing the roll and throttle blip. As the clutch is going down, you roll your foot and blip the throttle to an rpm that matches your engine, transmission and rear wheel’s speeds. By matching speeds, I mean when you have shifted down and let out the clutch, there is no jerkiness or rapid rpm change. This takes practice too. If your car jerks forward, you revved to high and/or popped the clutch out too quickly. If the car dives, wheels chirp or lock up your revs were way too low. The objective is to have a seamless, very smooth transition to a lower gear without upsetting the balance of the car, all during constant braking, sometimes very hard braking. It may sound complicated at first but you will soon be an expert with a little practice and patience.
Summary
First of all, don’t get discouraged if at first it seems awkward or you are very jerky!!!!!!! Nobody gets this nailed down without some time spent and practice. Here a couple of little tidbits I found to make this easier to do. Again, this is what works for me. As you begin to practice and try different little things, you will find the comfort zone that works for you. Sometimes the smallest little adjustment just makes it click perfectly so experiment to find the sweet spot for you.
1) Make sure whatever shoe you wear allows you to feel where you are on the pedals. You want them flexible enough for the feel but not so thin that it causes undue pressure on the balls of your feet. There are many good racing shoes. I wear my “street” loafers when driving around town and they work fine but for the track make sure you have some good shoes that give you proper support and feel. Make sure whatever shoes you are wearing do not restrict you from rolling your ankle.
2) I have found that keeping your right heel off the floorboard makes the roll easier to do. I rest my heel on the floorboard when accelerating but when I go to brake, especially when I will be downshifting, I raise it about a half inch off the floorboard. For whatever reason, this makes rolling my ankle/foot much easier for me. I also keep my right knee a little distance from the center console so it can move to the right in addition to rolling my ankle/foot.
3) HT is actually easier to do at speed when you are pressing harder on the brake pedal than typical street conditions. Little variations of pressure on the brake pedal are much less noticeable when braking hard verses easily. I mention this because when you are trying to learn this at lower speeds you may think it will more difficult to do at speed. It’s not. If you can do this smoothly at lower speeds, during less aggressive braking, you can certainly do it on the track. Of course, you will not have to rev as high during slower speeds but the smoothness, especially of brake pressure, is a little more difficult when not at speed.
4) If you can do some uninterrupted practice you will be getting the hang of it after 20 or 30 tries. Getting your feet in the proper position is half the battle. You will then understand where you are not coordinating the actions and it’s just a matter of getting some extended practice in to get consistent and smooth. Once you learn this skill, it becomes second nature. It’s sort of like riding a bike. Once you learn you always have it. Believe me, you can get rusty so whenever it is safe to do so, practice it in everyday driving. You will soon be doing it without even thinking about.
5) If you find you just cannot roll your foot/ankle enough to blip the throttle because the distance between the brake and go pedal is too wide or the level of the brake and go pedal vary too much from each other, there are some things you can do. To span the gap, try finding some shoes that have wider soles. This effectively widens your foot! There are also some kits sold that widen the brake and/or go pedal. You need to make sure you don’t get the height of the brake and go pedal too far off from each other when adding extensions as this will solve one problem but create another. If the height of the go pedal and brake are substantially different, you can add a spacer on the lower of the two pedals. The C5’s pedals are just about perfect for me but I wear a size 11 1/2 to12.
6) I didn’t cover double clutching. Double clutching (or declutching as our British mates across the pond say) is when you are downshifting, you hesitate for an instant in the neutral shifter position while letting the clutch out then depressing the clutch again while finishing the shift into the lower gear. Personally, I do this out of habit but many people don’t bother. I admit to not doing it when there is an extremely fast downshift needed. It adds a little complexity to the timing and speed of the actual shift but becomes second nature after awhile. There is a lot of debate for the need to double clutch when you have synchronizers in your tranny. If you don’t have synchros you most definitely need to double clutch. I saw one of the nastiest debates I have ever seen on the internet regarding double clutching. I mention it here for information purposes. Some claim it is crucial and others say they are crazy for even bothering.
Now, just go and do it! Good luck and keep the shiny side up!!