Heel and toe

[deathsled]

After 6 quarts of fresh oil I had big red out this afternoon practicing heel and toe shifting.  I found that my right heel on the brake with the ball of the foot at a totally perpendicular angle to the gas pedal yielded my best results with the stock positioning of the brake and gas pedals.  I wondered what others found as their technique.  Maybe there is a better way out there.

Best regards,

Richard E.

[JD]

I seem to do better right toe on the brake and side/heal on the gas, not contradicting you just works better for me.

[deathsled]

Your technique works best on my 89 Saleen, but I'll give it a try on red.  Thank you!

[shelbydoug]

I THINK the way to do this with the Mustang configuration is to put a block on the accellerator pedal, heel on the brake, flick the throttle with your toe.

You need to play with the thickness of the block but the "universal" stamped steel clamp on works pretty well.

I used it when I autocrossed but found it to be difficult to live with otherwise so it's now long gone.

It raises the pedal about an inch. Racers have been using blocks of wood for years but anything that can potentially fail in use and block the pedals, like this, is not necessarily a good idea and caution should prevail.

Consider that many racers of the day were like jockeys. They were slight of body and had little size 9 feet. Even so you need to match your driving shoes with the car and the pedals.

Miles is often shown wearing his black Thom Mcan street shoes. You don't start to see dedicated racing shoes until a little later.

I have to use a Ne Balance road racing sneaker because the soles are molded to curve in with no square edges to catch on anything.

You have to do what works for you. Everyone is different.

[Bigfoot]

About 1/2 of us on the track don't even bother....

[Bigfoot]

And a big percentage at the track now have Formula one Trans.
Even the new GT4 Mustang has f1 style thumb operated trans.

[shelbydoug]

And a big percentage at the track now have Formula one Trans.
Even the new GT4 Mustang has f1 style thumb operated trans.

I test drove a new Porsche with the PDK trans and the sad/happy thing is that it shifts faster then a human could possible shift a manual transmission. It OUTHINKS you also. It new a second before you did to shift gears.

You don't even need thumbs. Just leave it in auto shift. The day of the manual shift is gone.

As far as our Shelbys go, even with a stick, if it has 3.89 gears, you just back off the throttle in the turns, then punch it coming out. Downshift? Why?

[deathsled]

Those damned Germans ruining our fun with their high and mighty technology. To paraphrase an exchange with Indiana Jones: "It belongs in a museum."
"So do you Dr. Jones!"

[shelbydoug]

Those damned Germans ruining our fun with their high and mighty technology. To paraphrase an exchange with Indiana Jones: "It belongs in a museum."
"So do you Dr. Jones!"

You saw my hat didn't you? Look out for the whip.

[deathsled]

Lol!  No doubt!