Heel and Toe braking.

[pink69]

Can someone please explain to me exactly how heel, toe braking works. I hear it used all the time but never really understand how its done. Thanks

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Ok, to start off with I'll explain the point of heel-and-toe braking:

As a driver you have either two (Accelerator/Brake) or three (Accelerator/Brake/Clutch) pedals to operate.
However you'll only ever have two feet to operate those pedals.

Lets say we've got three pedals and we're a right-foot braker. We're approaching a corner and we have to brake and change down two gears, whilst blipping the throttle.
Clutch is sorted because the left foot is on that pedal, but we've got the right foot for both brake and blipping the accelerator.
So, your 'toe' goes on the brake pedal and presses down firmly, but then you turn your foot towards the horizontal so that you can blip the throttle with your 'heel.'

I've put the marks around the words 'heel' and 'toe' because in actual fact you don't really use those parts of your foot. It's more like 'side-of foot' and 'ball of foot' braking, but that sounds a little less eligant than heel & toe.



Hope that clears it up for you


Alex

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

Ok, to start off with I'll explain the point of heel-and-toe braking:

Lots of stuff

Hope that clears it up for you


Alex

Not realy.
Pink, the reason for heel and toeing on the downshift is to bring the engine revs back to the same as the drive train as you let the clutch up, otherwise the rear wheels could lock as you come off the clutch, this could cause the car to spin.

[Alex Hodgkinson]

well I did answer how it's done

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

well I did answer how it's done

Yes, but not why.

[kickstart]

I find toe and heel of most use in the wet, as it can be very easy to lock up wheels under braking.

[Erki]

Wouldn't it be possible to just brake hard and then change down those 2 gears without h&t?

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Originally Posted by Erki

Wouldn't it be possible to just brake hard and then change down those 2 gears without h&t?

yes, but then you loose a lode of braking capacity through loss of engine braking.

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by Erki

Wouldn't it be possible to just brake hard and then change down those 2 gears without h&t?

going down 2 gears at once makes it even more important to heel and toe to try and sync engine revs/ road speed

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by falcemob

Not realy.
Pink, the reason for heel and toeing on the downshift is to bring the engine revs back to the same as the drive train as you let the clutch up, otherwise the rear wheels could lock as you come off the clutch, this could cause the car to spin.

quite, infact in the wet when my old 02 used to want to understeer, coming off the clutch a bit early and snatching the rear slightly used to do wonders for helping the turn in at hairpins, other than that circumstance i always do in the wet, and often in the dry as its much nicer on the mechanicals

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

yes, but then you loose a lode of braking capacity through loss of engine braking.

engine braking? never do it, thats why we have brakes, if you can lock wheels under braking i cant see why you'd want to use engine braking, unless you were trying to preserve fading/overheating brakes

[Alan Raine]

There isn't the room in many Single Seaters to heel and toe. I used to set the brake and accelerator pedals close to each other with the brake slightly forward and used the flat of my foot over both pedals. When the brake is pressed I could then blip the throttle by flicking my foot slightly. Superb at somewhere like the hairpin at Mallory where you come down from a high gear to first.

The only ever problem I had with it was when the brake pedal went soft and instead of slowing down for the corner I started accelerating!

[Al Weyman]

I used to know someone who made a habit of mincing engines on the downshift and he used to give it massive heel and toe I stood watching him once when I had an off and he could not understand why he kept blowing them up, that poor old Pinto I recon was hitting 10,000rpm on the downshifts, yer gotta get it right or leave it alone!

[Al Weyman]

I used to know someone who made a habit of mincing engines on the downshift and he used to give it massive heel and toe I stood watching him once when I had an off and he could not understand why he kept blowing them up, that poor old Pinto I recon was hitting 10,000rpm on the downshifts, yer gotta get it right or leave it alone!

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Originally Posted by graham bahr

engine braking? never do it, thats why we have brakes, if you can lock wheels under braking i cant see why you'd want to use engine braking, unless you were trying to preserve fading/overheating brakes

Ok, well maybe it's my particular driving style then.

I just don't feel comfortable jumping on the brakes in a braking zone (say Mallory's hairpin) and changing down several gears when I get near to the end of that braking zone.

I like to drop down a gear at a time and bring the clutch up in each gear. I feel more in control that way, which may be strange, because through doing that, the car starts to move around.

I just like to feel it moving around a bit underneath me.

[Alan Raine]

I always tended to go down each gear instead of missing any out. I found it very difficult to judge how many revs I needed if I missed any gears out.

I once had the clutch pedal go to the floor early on in a race at Oulton and spent about 8 laps changing gear without it. Virtually everytime I changed down the rear wheels locked slightly. Towards the end I was getting good at judging the revs and getting it into gear smoothly. It's amazing what you can do when you have to!

[Alex Hodgkinson]

The thing is how good was the inside of the gearbox afterwards

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by graham bahr

quite, infact in the wet when my old 02 used to want to understeer, coming off the clutch a bit early and snatching the rear slightly used to do wonders for helping the turn in at hairpins

I found that out by chance when I thought I had misjudged the Mallory Hairpin. I turned in while slightly still on the brakes and came off the clutch at the same time and it went through the corner like a dream. Never had understeer round there again. Not so much fun in the wet as the Formula Fords is a bit tail happy, but a great feeling when you get it right.

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

The thing is how good was the inside of the gearbox afterwards

It survived. I was in a Formula Ford and the Hewland box is pretty strong.

[ss_collins]

I don't heel and toe - I kinda pre select of sorts - at least in the vee which doesn't seem to like heel and toe - when I was running the fiesta or golf I did all the time though...

Being confident in your own style is worth more than the benefit of heel/toe

[graham bahr]

personally i find working my way down the box hard work when i'm concentrating on other things, so i tend to leave gear changing until i'm about to turn in, which often means going down more than one gear so the heal and toe really pays off for me, i also find the it tends to prevent me locking the front non driven wheels, i suppose thats because the action of doing it causes me to brake a little less, but seeing as i dont down change and thus heel and toe until almost the apex when i've already scrubbed off most of the speed it works out just fine

[carsreunited]

There was some wonderful footage on 5th gear of Plato doing heel and toe when he was trying to teach the harrier jet guy how to technically drive quick.

If anyone rides a motorbike, blipping the throttle between downchanges has the same effect. I would say you can ride smoother but not necessarily faster IMO. Saying that, I'm still practicing heel and toe. Its seems easier with a floor mounted accelerator rather than a bulkhead mounted pedal.

[Erki]

Originally Posted by carsreunited

Its seems easier with a floor mounted accelerator rather than a bulkhead mounted pedal.

Why couldn't all cars be with pedals mounted on the floor?? Could be so much easier... If it's bulkhead mounted, you can't hold the heel in the same place. When I had driving lessons it was hard to feel the clutch when I didn't have contact with the floor. Especially when the biting point is high.

In Aussie V8Supercars, pedals are mounted on the floor and driver just slides his right foot on the throttle and blips.

[vs346]

I saw on television once, with the in-car camera (think it was a Porsche driver, in ALMS maybe or LMS) where he did the opposite of what Alex Hodgkinson said. He used mostly his heel to brake, and bliped the throttle with this toe, or outside part of his foot.

Very interesting take on the heel and toe method. As long as both methods work!

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Yeah you can do it both ways, I have done, but there's not really any preference for me. It's just how good your contortionist skills are!


If you look in the right places you should be able to find a clip of a driver using both heel on brake and heel on throttle within the same lap.