I8ACHEVY

I had a run in with a co worker and his 3 series Bimmer last night. He pulled out from behind me (didn't even know it was him) and started to get a run alongside me, when my buddy (riding with me) says "hit it!" I was just cruising along in 3rd and just punched it and realized..."man, I should have downshifted to 2nd and eaten him alive". Well, I just stomped on it in 3rd and moved up thru the gears and I still got him, but it was closer than it probably should have been. Was still kind of impressed considering he had a hell of a run on me.
What exactly do you do, or what are the steps, when you want to downshift to get more acceleration? I have been practicing "rev match" downshifting but, not at that speed, so I was hesitant to go for it. I hate that HARD, jolt or bucking feeling when you downshift incorrectly.

jonpo

I put the clutch in, rev it up a little bit(Maybe 2K) and put it in a lower gear and let the clutch out. It makes the shift much easier and smoother.

Barbarino

You simply have to learn how to blend gears, while down shifting is a lot of fun it's also bad on your clutch unless you can do it perfectly every time. No matter what though you won't be perfect, a friend of mine use to race on speed vision he can blend 100000% better than me, yet I'm def above avg, he's flawless and can do heel and toe which I can't come close to doing.

Your problem wasn't blending gears, your problem was not knowing instictively where you were in the tach.

jerseystang07

I've read a thread on it before but I still don't understand. Can someone please explain heel toe for me?

mygt500

listen to the engine...it will tell you where anf when to shift. you will feel the difference and know if you r doing it correctly when the car reacts the way you intended it too. Just give it time and practice.

limer06stang

i think it's also knowing what rev range to go into and how many mph you are already traveling to get the engine revved up to match the higher rpms that your downshifting to and that should definitly make the downshift a lot smoother. other than that learn the car and it's behavior when downshifting and it shouldn't be a problem....good kill though.

acrokat

Heel-Toe is the art of simultaniously pushing on the brake and gas to achieve a faster downshift. It is mainly used while braking before a turn to allow for a swift downshift providing power through the apex and exit of the turn.

the basic principle is that the ball of your foot is pushing on the brake while your heel is tapping the gas to rev the engine to match the engine RPMwith the intended gear. You do all this with the clutch floored, of course.

Barbarino

You could also use heel toe to power brake, which I don't suggest you try and do. You can do it two ways. right foot keeps brake down and hits gas at same time while left does clutch or right does gas and left does brake and clutch. It depends on your pedals how they are set up, I've only met a few people who can do it, the nascar guys who actually shift unlike F1, can shift flawlessely however they use two feet to drive, left on brake, right on gas.

Getaway

Stomp gas and clutch, shift gears, release clutch with gas planted in the floor. Releaseclutchsmoothly, and no hurky-jerky. Drop it and you will get a little bounce or loss of traction. Release too slow and smell the stinch of clutch smoke.

Practice. Clutch is wear-n-tear like tires. It's expendable.

Heel-n-Toe sounds impossible to me. I'm not even gonna try it.

SlowHand

In the situation you describe, it seems to me that heel-and-toe is irrelevant, as you are not downshifting to decelerate into, say, a corner. You therefore didn't need brake input. All you need to do when downshifting to pick up speed is shift (3rd into 2nd) and with the clutch still engaged and the stick in the destination gear, blip the throttle (i.e. give it a quick squirt of power then lift off) immediately before releasing the clutch and getting back on the gas. If done correctly, the revs would match and you'd take off in 2nd without bucking.

FWIW I practice this on fast freeway offramps. I want to downshift without decelerating so I'll blip my way through 4th into 3d and 3rd into 2nd as long as the coast is clear.