Clutch Heel & Toe Instruction & Demonstration

  • Thread starter JogoAsobi
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JogoAsobi

JogoAsobi

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This thread is dedicated to the art of the heel & toe shifting technique.
Includes instructional videos, IRL and Sim demonstrations of its execution.

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If you have issues with GT6's clutch implementation, please take it elsewhere.
I'll be first to admit it's timing has caused me to go ballistic more than once.

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:) Hope you find the following posts to be informative and useful. :)​
 
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This video is a good a basic introduction to heel-toe.

Heel and Toe Braking - Shifting Technique Tutorial:
Hooked On Driving


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This video features useful exercises to help master heel toe.

Fundamental Skills of Heel-and-Toe


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New Addition Jan. 13, 2015

This iRacing Tutorial has great explanation of heel toe technique, starts at min 3:36.

iRacing.com Driving School Chapter 6: Downshifting​


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Excellent nuts & bolts explanation of what really happens.
Not as exciting as watching on-board, but I really recommend it.

What happens in the transmission when you
double clutch / Heel Toe Downshift???

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Now on to some IRL demonstrations of it in action. :)
Great way to use these videos is for reference with same tracks/cars in sim.

Senna in NSX street car w-driving loafers? on Suzuka West.

On-board: Ayrton Senna's - Heel-and-toe


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New Addition Jan. 13, 2015

Japanese video of time attack at the ring with NSX-R & heel toe pedal cam.​

Honda NSX-R 7:56 Nurburgring​

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Japanese video of Ferrari F50 heel & toe technique on Suzuka with left foot braking!.

On-board: Driving Technique - Ferrari F50


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Japanese video of heel & toe technique on Tsukuba

Race Car Driver & His Footwork

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New Addition Feb. 4, 2015

Heel & toe in Ford GT Prototype (1st Gen), Big Willow (from min 5:55)

Ford GT Driven on Big Willow - Best Motoring International

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More IRL application of heel & toe with foot cams (Aussie Supercars)

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Alternates left and right foot braking while doing heel & toe different places on track.

Bathurst 2009 - Foot cam Cameron McConville in Wet

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Bathurst 2010 - Foot cam Allan Simonsen
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Next up are a few videos of just heel & toe foot action in race cars.

Some drivers use their heel, some middle of sole, others the side of foot.
Style can be affected by foot size, footwear, pedals' dimensions, & pedal area layout.

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Foot cam from the HRT V8 Supercar hot lap


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Heel & Toe Shifting Technique


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Heel-Toe Downshifting in a BMW PRO3 Race Car​


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Videos of heel & toe sim pedals ranging from entry, mid-level, and hi-end.

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Fanatec Carrera pedals.

Forza 3 Footwork (Fanatec 911 Turbo S)


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G25 pedals.

Double Clutching & Heel Toe with G25


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Virtual Performance Parts Pedals

Heel & Toe technique @ iRacing.

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Some examples of heel & toe in GT6 & PCARS Replays.

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@digiprost has a great GT6 video of Ferrari F40 on Nordschleife doing heel-toe.

GT6 - Ferrari F40 @ Nordschleife (Manual TH8, T500 Rs, GoPro HD)



@digiprost has also posted videos using clutch w-heel/toe on this CARS thread.
His videos feature pedal/shifter cam footage too. :drool:
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New Addition Jan. 14, 2015

Project CARS, Le Mans, McLaren F1 by @veilsidebr OC & pedal cam!
Blz, valeu!!! :bowdown:



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GT6 - Roma Reverse TT by @Divinus, Stock Shelby GT350



Other @Divinus's & @MadMax's replays here.
Cockpit view of prior GT6 Stock Seasonal TT clutch runs using heel-toe.

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GT6 - Mazda Eunos Roadster @ Tsukuba A-spec. Seasonal Traffic Weave Event.



GT6 - Replays (cockpit view) A-spec. Seasonal Events used for heel & toe practice.
A-spec Tsukuba, A-spec Roma, A-spec Brands.
 
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Well done @JogoAsobi 👍👍 I have only begun to dabble in heel and toe myself in the last week or two and I must say, the learning curve is steep but once you get the hang of it it's incredibly addictive. This is an excellent thread with great resources for anyone who is looking to really get into this technique. :bowdown:

I especially love that Senna video and I've watched it many times. He's going faster than most of us will ever go around a track, with no safety equipment at all, wearing sunglasses and loafers and making it look as easy as going to the supermarket to pick up some bread and cheese. Epic.:bowdown:
 
Great thread.

Growing up around rally drivers and living on gravel this is an essential technique for going fast IRL. I picked the skill up early on and use it everyday as it's also safer on slippery tarseal, as you avoid compression lock up on turn in. Nasty in an AWD but not good ever.

Learning to double clutch is important if you ever plan on driving anything with a Roadranger gearbox or getting truck licence. Old non sycro sportscars need to be double clutched too.

I personally use my toe on the brake to give me better modulation and heel the throttle. But love the different techniques. It all in the timing especially with GT6.
Senna was a legend, awesome vid.
 
Great job @JogoAsobi !
I use it irl driving my friends (race modded) Mégane around the track.
Whish he would go to sequential, because I cramped up a few times (probably aging has something to do with it...)
 
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Heel and toe used to be relatively easy when cars didn't have stupidly over-servoed brakes (I think anyone reasonably coordinated could teach themselves to T&H)... but try toe & heel AND left foot braking in a 3 pedal car :)

 
Stotty
... but try toe & heel AND left foot braking in a 3 pedal car :)
Click to expand...

@Stotty, Nice video! Thanks for sharing it, now thread has a rally car example too! 👍

2nd Video in Post #3 (Ferrari F50 on Suzuka) is doing heel & toe AND left foot braking too.

1st Video in Post #4 (Bathurst '09/McConville) is doing heel & toe AND alternating between right & left foot braking, depending on part of track. :)
 
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Great thread 👍

I don't have a wheel for GT yet, but I like to practice heal & toe in my street car for fun, and the satisfaction that comes from a smooth downshift :)

I have a question, maybe slightly off-topic, as it relates more to real life....but, how come in some of the videos (specifically the "white board explanation" vid) they say to double clutch, and in other videos, the driver is not double clutching.

I've never double clutch shifted my car, as I always thought you only really needed to do that in old Land Rovers and farm tractors.

So, have all my single clutch, heel & toe downshifts been for naught? Or is double clutching only necessary with non-synchromesh transmissions?
 
twitcher
Great thread 👍

I don't have a wheel for GT yet, but I like to practice heal & toe in my street car for fun, and the satisfaction that comes from a smooth downshift :)

I have a question, maybe slightly off-topic, as it relates more to real life....but, how come in some of the videos (specifically the "white board explanation" vid) they say to double clutch, and in other videos, the driver is not double clutching.

I've never double clutch shifted my car, as I always thought you only really needed to do that in old Land Rovers and farm tractors.

So, have all my single clutch, heel & toe downshifts been for naught? Or is double clutching only necessary with non-synchromesh transmissions?
Click to expand...

The title by the video's author includes "Double Clutch / Heel Toe Downshift"....

...and in the opening statements he says he is out to address what happens in the transmission during double-clutching or heel toe.

So I think sometimes maybe there is loose labeling of the two, although double clutching is a different technique often associated with gear shifting in trucking. Both involve rev-matching when downshifting.

I first learned how to use a clutch back in the day on dirt bikes, we called rev-matching on downshifts with the clutch pulled in as "double clutching" although its really the same technique referred to as "heel & toe" in cars.

For in-depth reference, I suggest this double clutch technique Wikipedia page, heel toe is listed as a related technique on it.
 
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AFAIK people needs double clutch as mentioned in syncro-less vehicle. But some people do it any way. I think most heel & toe you see are not using double clutching with heel and toe.

I never GoPro my foot before....lol...This is driving the S1 quattro Pikes Peak around Ascari. My footwork so far is limited to video game as my real car is a DSG VW...replacing it with a manual car next year so looking forward to learn it properly on a car...the clutch feel on the T500RS pedal is nothing like the real thing...lol

 
JogoAsobi
This thread is dedicated to the art of the heel-toe shifting technique.
It includes instructional videos, IRL and Sim demonstrations of its execution.

------------------------------------------

If you have issues with GT6's clutch implementation, please take it elsewhere.
I'll be first to admit it's timing has caused me to go ballistic more than once.

------------------------------------------
:) Hope you find the following posts to be informative and useful. :)​
Click to expand...
Jogo, your awesome. Another great thread....This to me is GTPlanet at it's finest. I will hit this thread regularly...thanks DaddyO!!
 
I think they actually LFB quite a lot in NASCAR. Since they pretty shift clutchless most of the time. I don't know how much the gearboxes in stockcar racing changed in the last 20 years though...
 
Added some videos to previous posts.

Post #2, 3rd video is from iRacing's Driving School...
... has some useful heel toe info & tips for those getting started. :)

Post #3, 2nd video is a NSX-R Time Attack @ the Ring with pedal cam. :dopey:

Post #7, 2nd video McLaren F1 @ Le Mans, Project Cars, OC with pedal cam. :drool:

:cheers:
 
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My problem with H&T is keeping the brake pedal pressed when blipping the throttle. I can't maintain a constant brake pressure so my braking distances ends up longer. I mean it's OK if you're just cruising, but for racing I have no incentive to use H&T. Also the clutch implementation in GT6 considers it a missed shift if you insert a gear when the throttle is pressed, so H&T makes for plenty of misshifts (like, 50% of the time). Which is just not fun. Maybe I just need to get more practice with the timing, but turning ABS off is a more rewarding experience than H&T in my opinion.
 
LeGeNd-1
My problem with H&T is keeping the brake pedal pressed when blipping the throttle. I can't maintain a constant brake pressure so my braking distances ends up longer. I mean it's OK if you're just cruising, but for racing I have no incentive to use H&T. Also the clutch implementation in GT6 considers it a missed shift if you insert a gear when the throttle is pressed, so H&T makes for plenty of misshifts (like, 50% of the time). Which is just not fun. Maybe I just need to get more practice with the timing, but turning ABS off is a more rewarding experience than H&T in my opinion.
Click to expand...
The clutch implementation in GT leaves a lot to be desired but I don't think the heel and toe is about the fastest way to do things, it's more about simulating driving a car the way it was meant designed to be driven. Paddles and left foot braking is the fastest way around any course without a doubt. In some PC sims like Assetto Corsa, you can setup lobbies or your own hotlapping to "factory" settings, meaning you will have to rev match on older race and street cars or you won't be able to downshift. As I move along in the sim racing world I find more and more appeal in driving cars via simulation, to the point where I won't drive older cars with the paddles anymore, nor on grippy slick tires. I just learned heel and toe myself recently, and look forward to the challenge every time.
 
one_zps3584e359.jpg

JogoAsobi
If you have issues with GT6's clutch implementation, please take it elsewhere.
Click to expand...
two_zps0a054f30.jpg



Belgian rally driver Renaud Verreydt in his M3. He's using a sequential gearbox so not much heel-toeing, but it's definitely worth a look :bowdown:

 
LeGeNd-1
My problem with H&T is keeping the brake pedal pressed when blipping the throttle. I can't maintain a constant brake pressure so my braking distances ends up longer. I mean it's OK if you're just cruising, but for racing I have no incentive to use H&T. Also the clutch implementation in GT6 considers it a missed shift if you insert a gear when the throttle is pressed, so H&T makes for plenty of misshifts (like, 50% of the time). Which is just not fun. Maybe I just need to get more practice with the timing, but turning ABS off is a more rewarding experience than H&T in my opinion.
Click to expand...

That is where the "art" of it comes in. That just takes time and practice. :)
Once you get it down, you can quickly downshift thru gears, with proper brake pressure.

That being said, heel & toe in manual trans is always disadvantageous to using paddles.
When using them in same car in sims they emulate a sequential transmission's auto blipping.

In the beginning, while doing heel & toe, it can be easier to skip a gear to compensate...
...like 5th to 3rd, T1 at Tsukuba.

Tsukuba is a good starter benchmark track for heel & toe, even against GT6's pathetic AI.
You have to heel/toe quickly & effectively brake, it's too short to make up time otherwise.

For ref. see post #3's 4th video (Tsukuba IRL heel & toe).
Post #7's 4th video (GT6 Seasonal traffic pass @ Tsukuba RPL using heel & toe.)

Adjusting your pedals' positions can also help with maintaining enough brake pressure.

Like I stated in the OP;
I'll be the first to admit GT5/GT6 clutch timing & implementation has issues.
Click to expand...

If you're new to heel & toe, GT5/GT6's clutch timing probably steepens the learning curve.
Various PC-based sims have better implemented and/or more adjustable parameters.
 
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