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Question. I'm having problems heel toeing in my AE101; the brake and gas pedals are a little too close than what I would like and I end up over braking if I attempt to give the throttle a blip.

Possible solutions?

Only answers I can think of for that one is 1. Get thinner shoes (if you are wearing big, thick sneakers or shoes) or 2. Trim the pedals (or find someone who knows how to).

2 suggestions. One, go bare foot. Two, remove the idea of "heel-toe" out of your mind. Some cars you just need to roll the edge of your foot over, others its a more literal use of the name. Just keep practicing until you can do it smoothly.

You mean angle my foot so it's less of a parallel placement and more of a 45 degree-ish thing?

Pretty much, that or whatever way works

And make sure you don't wear leather dress shoes... >_<

...

And this is the other reason for me to hate my school uniform.

Though I dont think I'll be doing any Heel toe in Manila traffic heading to school with this thing. A bit of rev matching, yes, but nothing that would require ( or allow ) me to brake and downshift a gear.

Ah well. At least I no longer have to lug my crap around now that I have my own vehicle. Just leave it in the trunk and lock it. >_>

I have been practicing heel toe technique for many years and believe I have it down pretty well. Those who are new to it should read this thread from beginning to end. very good read!

I would love to be able to heel-toe, but my feet are just too big. I can do it if there is a ton of room and space between the pedals, though. But I am 6'3" and almost 300lbs, I wear size 15 or 16 6-wide shoes, so for the most part, I just downshift and ease the clutch. Haven't lost a clutch yet.

Shoe size is irrelevant. Having the proper bend in your leg, and adjusting the pedals properly is what is important.

You don't really use your heel, you use the side of your foot. Also, having racing shoes is a big help because they are super thin (gives THAT much more legroom), and very narrow, and usually have an edge on the side of the pedal that helps with heel and toe.

The closer your pedal and gas pedals are together, the easier it is to do. But they need to be at about the same height (the gas pedal can be slightly higher) when you are pressing on the brake.

Finally, it's easier to do when your leg is about 80 straight. Which is the hard part when you are tall.

Not true, leather dress shows can actually be better at heel and toe than a badly designed driving shoe because the hard edge of the side of the foot helps you press harder on the edge of the throttle.

This post has been edited by Banken on Apr 12 2013, 12:09 AM

I acutally use my old marching shoes from band in high school for racing events, though I can do it just fine in both the running and skate shoes I wear on a regular basis.

Sandals too. Haven't tried it barefoot yet, though.

EDIT: Forgot dress shoes, I've got a brown slip-on pair and a pair of black Deer Stags with HUGE soles. I've become accustomed to heel-toeing in both.

This post has been edited by Spaz on Apr 12 2013, 06:48 AM

I want driving shoes so bad but none of them I've found are wide enough for my foot. And those that are, are custom made for big $$. Right now, if I want to heel-toe, its more like toe-heel. keep toes on gas and brake with side or heel. Theres a floor curve under the gas in the Z that makes other ways near impossible for my feet. Like, the gas pedal is very very close to the side. I can do normal heel-toe on the Xterra, though. Not much need. I mean yeah its supercharged and all but its hard to feel sporty in a vehicle thats over 5000lbs with me in it.

You can bend the gas pedal and install a custom pedal cover, so it can be adjusted in basically any way you want. It might take a little bit of finessing but the size of your feet doesn't matter as long as you do it right. And it might also take just the right shoes (or lack thereof). Again, you don't actually use your heel or your toe!!! The term heel and toe comes from back when the gas pedal on racing cars was in the middle.

That said, you will never be able to drive a formula car... there simply isn't enough room for a big driver and even less room for big feet. Ask me how I know. lol.

Also, having stainless mesh brake lines helps because it reduces brake pedal movement. And also remember that you can adjust your brake pedal height (and probably take a small amount of slack out of the pedal, but you have to be careful with that).

This post has been edited by Banken on Apr 13 2013, 03:54 PM

I've got braided and coated lines ready to go on... the brakes are very responsive as-is. I'm not really interested in competition against other people, only spirited driving on the mountain/hill roads by myself. And I figure having some of these techniques at hand would make it more fun.

How do you know about Formula 1? hehe

There is a reason there are no guys over 6" in formula racing with size 16 6E feet.

They don't fit in the car!

I've driven a formula car and sat in another one and at 5'11" with size 10 feet I was BARELY able to fit inside of it. The steering shaft was so low that I could only press on half of the brake pedal. There is ZERO room in the front of the car. There is no room even for a dead pedal. If I hadn't had racing shoes, I wouldn't have been able to drive it at all! I was BARELY able to heel and toe.

Even though it was a Formula car, and we took the seat and pads out, I was basically sitting straight up! My legs were still bent so my knees still hit the steering wheel.

Barely able to heel-toe? Must have been an older car, eh? They have had those paddle shifts for a long time now. That was probably an awesome experience though.

You realize I'm not talking about an F1 car, right? There are all kinds of Formula cars. The one I drove was an FJ1600, which is an older Japanese Formula car similar to Formula Ford (the most common kind of Formula car).

Most Formula cars still have shift levers and clutches.

I was able to do heel and toe just fine, but it would have been easier to do if I had time to adjust the pedals. I would not have been able to do it at all without my very thin, very narrow driving shoes.

Ah, ok. I've heard of that sort of thing but like I said, I'm not very interested (and therefore not knowledgeable at all) in multiple car racing really, mostly watch time attacks, hooning, autocross, rally stage solo type races. But that doesn't mean I don't like the cars. Still must have been amazing. Maybe I could try it someday if someone put me in a trash compactor haha

That's sort of like being interested in masturbation but not sex. Once you try it you will never want to autocross by yourself again.

Anyway, try driving barefoot and if you still can't heel and toe, there's either something wrong with your car's pedals or you're simply not going it right.

Haha thats a good analogy, but I'm more interested in the mechanical side than the driving. I work on my car because I enjoy creating and fixing things, not because I want a good car. (well maybe a little) I barely even drive the Z, I put around 1-2k miles a year on it. Most drives are under 20 miles round-trip. The heel-toe thing just interests me in a technical way, not in a go-faster way. I may practice and try the shoes-off thing and see how that works out, although its technically illegal to drive without shoes here.

You don't have to actually drive to practice heel and toe. You can do it with the engine running in neutral.

Heel and toe is the first thing you have to learn in order to be a competent sports car driver, assuming you can already drive a manual.

Roger that, will give it a go. Like I said, I CAN actually do it, just not in the Z, need to work out how to fit my foot. I think its over-revving that scares me about it. That thing goes from 1k to 6k almost instantly now with the clutch in, so I gotta be gentle, not used to it yet. The same-ish engine in the Xterra is like a dinosaur to rev in comparison. That and the Z brakes are super sensitive now. Thanks for the advice, I'll go practice.

There is no load on the engine in neutral, so as long as your rev limiter works the only thing you're going to hurt is your neighbor's ears.

Redline is at 6000. Rev limiter is a fuel cut at 7200. Engine will go before then most likely, with the cams in it, I'll float a valve. Cams supposed to be OK with stock springs to about 6200 according to company that did it. Above that, bad things, and I'm not looking to test it. I keep it under 5k usually. Power starts dropping off at around 5500 anyway.

Why would you not upgrade the springs with the cams? It would have taken basically no extra effort.