Heel-Toe braking....

Mitch Connor

Can someone explain what this term means. I may do this, but i'd like to know exactly what it is, please.

(I'm fully licenced and don't know this!:D )

RosieJoe

Older cars used to have the accelerator slightly lower than they are now. This allowed the driver to rest their toes on the brake and there heel on the accelerator.

This allowed the driver to use the one foot to brake and accelerate. Main use would be when doing a hill start. You would rock your foot to lessen the pressure on the brake and apply more pressure on the accelerator to move off.

Hard to do this now as the 2 pedals are beside one another, unless you have wide feet

Mitch Connor

my girlfriend will confirm i do not have wide feet, or big ones.....

Definately don't do that so.

Cheers for clearing it up for me though.

nastysimon

RosieJoe wrote:

Older cars used to have the accelerator slightly lower than they are now. This allowed the driver to rest their toes on the brake and there heel on the accelerator.

This allowed the driver to use the one foot to brake and accelerate. Main use would be when doing a hill start. You would rock your foot to lessen the pressure on the brake and apply more pressure on the accelerator to move off.

Hard to do this now as the 2 pedals are beside one another, unless you have wide feet

It's not just for hill starts and such. It's much more frequently used for smooth down-shifts while braking. You brake with the left side of your foot and assuming your car is properly set up to allow it, you blip the throttle with the right side while the clutch is depressed and release the clutch quickly. This only works if you can get the revs close to what they should be, but it does allow you to make rapid progress very smoothly as you don't have to fumble getting the car into the right gear for when you've stopped braking. Also, it is fairly gentle on the clutch (if you're good at it). The one problem is that most modern cars have pedals which are a little wide for this, or the brake and accelerator are at two different levels (usually the brake is too close to the floor when pressed for you to be able to comfortably reach the accelerator). If you don't have wide enough feet, you actually do use your heel and toe instead of different sides of your foot. BTW, it is really rewarding when you learn to get it just right and it's supremely useful on a racing track.

Rovi

Yep, a sporty/race/rally technique for smooth downshifting.
Check out this video-
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/c8710573-fd48-4c11-8a2f-80db3f41d4d1.htm

A 'how to':
http://motoringfile.com/2005/07/24/heel_and_toe_shifting_made_simple/

SouperComputer

As others have said, its prettymuch used in peformance situations. It helps balance the car and maintain steady braking.

It can be tricky to learn, if you get the balance wrong it can be pretty jerky and could damage the car or cause it to jerk unexpectedly. Practice in a safe environment

The video above could be confusing to a newcomer as it covers double clutching too, which is very rare these days.

Try this vid: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cPj9XXW25GA

It's handy if you are approching a clear roundabout at low revs in 4th or 5th, using heel\toe you can drop into 2nd in most cars smoothly and be ready to proceed.

Heres another good vid: http://youtube.com/watch?v=IuoZeuSgEj4

annnnd another: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ihCgxQnex5Q