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Double clutching and HT'ing into the turns at
Riverside International Raceway were the ONLYIST way to get around safely in our
early 911 - 901 transmissions. Set up is important. I put a small
washer under the right hand side of the floor mounted hinge throttle pedal which
kicked the pedal over to left about one inch at the brake pedal.
PERFECT. And Dennis is MOST correct - you can learn how to do this going
to the store. All my students were FORCED to learn double clutching at
first and then put in the HT before they got on the track. Once learned -
it takes almost no more time to do AND no more reverse wheel torque with chassis
upset. Smoooooooth.
Our 308 is a bit tough to do as the pedal is too
far to the right - guess I could place an extension as the race cars are prone
to do.
And speaking of Porsche 911's - our 1982 911 SC
with the floor mounted set up but monkey motion brake apparatus into the trunk
is horrible - no smooth HT for me - but still double clutch on down
shifts.
Onward
DOUG
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 8:46
AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Stunning New
Porsche 918 Spyder - Another Hybrid
Fellippe: no excuses, you can practice and use heel & toe
downshifting everyday. Do it on the street all the time, and it becomes
2nd nature, pure reflex. And you don't need to drive like speed racer on
the streets to do it either. While, to a degree, it IS easier to pull
off a nice heel-toe when you're driving aggressively on the track (n.b., it's
much more noticeable --and costly-- if you screw it up there), just PRACTICE
and you can do it anytime, in any car.
And
some cars are much better set-up for heel/toe than others. For example,
the Miata is about perfect; most Ferraris are pretty good. The pre-996
911s were horrible; if you could do a smooth heel-toe downshift from 3rd into
2nd at a tight corner on a racetrack in an earlier 911, well, that's pretty
close to the ne plus ultra for downshifting in a synchro tranny
car.
vty,
--Dennis
Ah right,
Well its really experience based, any stick shift
car can be heel and toed, I have done it in pickup trucks... Some are
easier to do than others... Ferrari's actually have really perfect pedal
placement for this, as do later model Porsche's (post 993), I never liked the
pedals that hinge on the floor instead of from behind or above as on early
911's, but a smooth HT is very important in those cars, and a good double
clutch shift on early cars also. Part of the challenge of getting an
older 911 to go through turns nose first the entire way :), but a 1972 RS is
about the best, most enjoyable track toy ever built when its dialed
in.
Heel-Toe is really a misnomer though, its more of a side to side
roll of your foot on most sports cars, the right edge of your right foot rolls
to the throttle to blip it while planted firmly on the brake pedal. It
should not matter how far down the brake pedal is as much as how accurately
you can blip the throttle, and that is entirely dependent on your foot but
also the engine's elasticity and torque delivery...
My
current Vette is a bit of a pain because while it revs pretty quick its not
quick enough and the torque available everywhere makes getting it just perfect
a bit tricky, you can't be close, you have to be dead on our the rear end
shakes (or the front if you don't give it enough I guess). The M3 and
Ferrari both revved high and had much less torque which made them easy to do
it, my Boxster also... My 01 Z06 was actually really good, it had the
torque of my current Vette (and then some) but the engine would spin up much
faster than my LS2 Vette's and was on a more predictable throttle curve.
My Miata worked pretty well, but once momentum was gained, much of a track was
4th gear, just hold on at ludicrous speeds through corners, and read a book
down the straights.
Dennis may have more input on this, not sure if he
still wears his instructor helmet occasionally?
Mike
Fellippe Galletta wrote:
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 3:57 PM, Mike <themightytoe [at] gmail.com> wrote:
Ok.
You all have convinced me... The vette is getting the
loudest
street legal exhaust I can find for it... Gonna make some
babies and
Prius owners cry...
:-)
And
anyone who has ever done a perfect heel-toe downshift at race
speeds
would never trade that experience for paddles...
Never.
Very inspirational, thanks Mike!!
I hope to be able to
execute a perfect heel/toe downshift at race speeds someday.....that's
always been the thing I've wanted to learn how to do most ever since I
learned how to drive stickshift.
Curious if we may side track on a
"worthy" topic?
My biggest question is does it matter much really to
a good heel/toer about pedal placement, width of pedals, and perhaps even
pedals mounted from the floor as opposed from above??
Also I believe
I was told heel/toe was far more natural at full sustained braking than
casual driving given how much closer the brake pedal is to the floor than
usual.
I remember heel & toeing WITH EASE (at age 20) a car that
had the brake pedal go to the floor....shitty braking but oh such joy
blipping that throttle. :)
FG
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