The easiest way I have found is to have the top left part of your Right foot on the brake, with the Right part of your foot on the gas pedal. Almost no twisting of the ankle is required, and the transition from braking to throttle in the corner is butter smooth.

Practice this rev-matching technique everytime you brake for anything i.e. corners, lights, even accident avoidance (because once you have slowed down to maneuvering speed, you may need to accelerate hard to avoid an oncoming vehicle, and there is nothing worse than having the wrong gear when you need the most out of the engine.)

Gain enough experience, and you won't even feel the shifts, but merely the car slowing steadily with no alterations in suspension. That is the mark of a true racer. Just master corner technique and upshifting and your the next Shumacher (of course he uses paddle shifters, but how do you think he got to that level?)

 

This post has been adressed, but just to clarify, whether or not you hit neutral and re-clutch between gears is up to you. If you do, it's called a double-clutch heel-toe downshift and I recommend knowing how to do this. For those who say this technique is useless on a modern transmission, explain to me why race car drivers still use it to this day, even with today's synchro technology and everything. It can be very useful on a street gearbox, especially if your aim is to minimize suspension change & weight distribution change, while minimizing mechanical wear. Though when you're on the street just practicing, just heel-toe if you don't feel comfortable double-clutching. Personally, I double clutch every single downshift without thinking about it, as do many driving enthusiasts.

Beautifully said broddey.

Great book, this is where I learned a huge amount of what I practice in my daily driving. I recommend this to anyone on these boards, especially those interested in the 'Driving Techniques' section.

 

Double clutching, as effective as it may be with Straight Cut Gears, seems to be superfluous on the street. I realize that it is a little more challenging to the every day driver, and is great practice for enthusiasts, but is there any real advantage in applying this technique on stock transmissions?

 

i think the first step is learning how to brake effectively with just your big toe region. once this becomes natural then move to bliping the throttle. it is all a matter of timing. its one of those things best learned on a beater car.

 

At first I would practice on red lights. While waiting for the light to become green I would apply the brakes and get a feel of the gas pedal with my heel and rev the engine a little bit. I went gradually and now it's second nature. Obviously I still have lots of room for improvement, for I heel toe almost every time I enter a corner where I need to apply the brakes. It's only a matter of practicing it.

 

I heel-and-toe all day, everyday. It does not save your syncros, it helps save your clutch. When you synconise the revs for the lower gear it keeps your clutch from draging and reving the engine up with your drivetrain. In Europe many countries actually require you to learn this technique because it makes driving safe. You have less control when your engine is disconnected from your drivetrain. You should always be in gear when moving. Most people here in the USA don't know how to driving. I catch many of my friends and customers putting the transmission in neutral when aproaching a turn and placeing the car in second gear before the turn or even worse coasting through the turn in neutral. And yes I heal-and-toe through all of the gears and even into 1st. With practice you can too.

 

I heel toe a lot... its very very easy to do in the STi - from my quick drive in the evo I remeber the pedals being a bit harder to work with but still not bad. Just to learn sit in a parking space and practice the pedal movements. Its not hard

 

haha, i agree w/jerdeitzel, my foot is wide or the pedals are close 2gether. point being, practice it while u're goin straight and rev match properly, then do it right b4 corners 2 shift the weight to the nose and turn in, u kno how it is...

 

I still double-clutch when I'm downshifting multiple gears at once, for example 4-2 into a turn. It's a lot quicker than 4-3-2 and slows the car down faster. The reason I double-clutch in this situation is because skipping a gear results in a huge rotating speed difference between the engine and transmission, so between shifts you release the clutch, blip the throttle to put the transmission up to the correct speed for the gear and then re-engage. Not doing this will result in a huge lurch of the car as the clutch engages and tries to pull the transmission up to speed.

I'll also double-clutch into 1st gear if I ever need to downshift into first, which I try to avoid doing.

 

For those of your with larger feet try brakeing with the left side of your foot while throttleing with the right side. I do that sometimes also but it isn't the best for road racing. It is a little hard to make sure you are on the brakes hard enough.

 

it's just your body reaction.

you should practice it with the car turned off, sitting in the seat, just go through the motions.

once you do this for 30 minutes or so, your body get used to it and you will automatically do it when you need to or it'll be alot easier.

 

I heel toe because I basically need to....my car is a older car and reacts differently if I don't...

 

Yep, those wacky old cars flip out if you finish your braking before you shift.

 

I heel-toe pretty much all of the time, not so much when pulling up to lights though, always when turning. The actual motion of the feet was not hard for me, but matching to the correct revs still gives me trouble. Just got to keep practicing.

 

i should start practicing it. It's the heel rev matching part that gets me nervous, b/c if I don't do it right the car would either buckle, or I'll over rev and drop the clutch at too high of a rev.