heel toe shifting + tall people
11-01-2008, 8:26 PM
i just ran into a major problem i think. wen ever i try to heel toe shift my thigh hits the steering wheel becuase there so long, i tried but i dont think theres away to adjust the steering wheel height which sucks , and my seat is all the way back.the only way i could ever heel toe is rotating my ankle and using the high side of the side of my foot on the gas but when i tired that i couldnt control the braking i did confidently idk but would racing seats solve this problem or a new steering wheel? or both.

Heel-Toe requires a lot of practice, everyone has their own style.
As for driver positioning you can make many modifications to the car to enable even the fattest leg'd drive to sit comfortably. An after-market seat that sits lower than the stock seat is always a big help, as well as a wheel with a smaller diameter.
One should always be careful when it comes to modifying the steering wheel size, as it has a great effect on how feed back is perceived and given to the car. If you make it too small, you will have to give much more leverage to turn the wheel. David had a really tiny wheel on one of his past Corollas; needless to say it was an odd experience, but he could almost fucking break-dance under the wheel. :)
They also make a few different types of wheels that will give a tad more room, although I couldn't recommend them for drifting; or at least as a wheel of choice.
http://www.sparcousa.com/psteering_comp.asp?id=278
The flat bottom and the reduced size actually helped a lot when it came to me fitting inside my car.
Bored Monkey
"the only way i could ever heel toe is rotating my ankle and using the high side of the side of my foot on the gas but when i tired that i couldnt control the braking i did confidently".
Thats how its done my friend. Your whole leg shouldnt be moving anyway. Heel-toe doesnt mean you literally have to use your heal and your toe. I do heel-toe using the outside of my foot too- and yes, this takes a LOT of practice. It took me about a year and a half of constant practice (yep, even daily driving) to perfect, and be smooth. I even talked to my dad about it recently (who went to Bondurant racing shool back in the day (and was taught by Bob Bonduarant himself)), and told me he does it the same way too. Of course it depends a lot on the car seating position, but thats generally how its done.
On a side note- dump the stock seats (they're worth-less and offer ZERO side-support). Get a good tight racing seat (thats a fixed, NON-reclinable seat). this will give you so much more in feedback, you'll regret not getting one sooner. You can find them on E-bay, but just get one that is FIA, SFI, and no older than 4 years old.
Dan's dead on with the racing seat recommendation. They give you so much more feel for the car. If you get a bottom mount seat, it's really easy to swap in and out for street driving.
Making up rails is as easy as going to a junkyard and getting a second seat rail then taking it to someone who knows a bit about fabrication and welding. It took my friend and I about 2 hours to build a custom mount for the racing seat in my car.
heel and toe is used to keep the car from shift locking and in racing to have higher rpms comming out of a corner right?
Mostly its used to down shift to reach a useable RPM for the duration, and EXIT of a corner, without upsetting the balance of the car.
I remember one particular endurance race I had at Infineon Raceway in a Miata. It was pouring rain, and it was treacherous. The race was about staying on track, without spinning off into the tulips or tirewalls. I got a really good chance to practice all my drift techniques that race. I had 3 hours to try it all. Turn 2 at the top of the hill was extremely loose on the exit, so that was just power over, and you had to use extreme caution in throttle modulation. The ass-end stepped out EVERY lap here, and more than once my rear tires were in the grass with the fronts on the track. (I even had the corner worker come up to me after the race to "thank me for the incredible show". He said,"man, I waited for you to lose it, but you just drifted it every lap!!". Turn 4a is a down hill off-camber. Cars hate this turn, its very hard to make even in the dry. Without the usual aid of trail braking (because of the lack of traction in the wet), I used shift lock to set the car up to make the turn. I'd wait a bit too late to down shift, then just drop the clutch in 2nd. It'd step out, and I'd modulate through the turn. Turn 7 is a flat wide double apex U-turn of sorts. I fought this turn the most, as it's low speed but large diameter. If the car started to understeer, I'd give it a lil clutch kick or even e-brake. The esses were my favorite. Super fast, and the best place to catch faster cars. The last "S" you're hauling ass, about 70 in the wet (with very little room for mistakes). I'd use a technique that I normally can only use in the drift patrol, which involves a quick succession of lift-to gas. This sudden change in momentum would upset the cars balance immediately, and allow me to progressively step the rear out and modulate it using the throttle.
In Mexico when my clutch cable completely disintegrated, I used the lift-to-gas technique to get the drift initiatied. Only torquey or (very loose) cars can really utilize this technique.
Torquey = Domestic V-8's........
This is the only way you can heel-toe in a Mustang with stock pedals.
If you have some racing pedals than you may be able to pull some of this off. Notice the driver is not moving his leg up and down just pivoting his ankle.
AND
I can't imagine why you would need to do this while drifting a Mustang unless you are approaching an initiation and you wanted to keep the revs up. Keep in mind that these are import cars with higher redlines and higher rev powerbands something that is exactly opposite with the Mustang. You are not far from the peak of the powerband just sitting at idle. LOL. Ours is much lower and very quickly achievable hence not much need to keep revs high.
MUSTANG BLOG
i need it becuase i have a 4 cylinder. yea ive finily found sumthing i like to do that i need to perfect .anyone ever actually heeltoe while there driving?btw anyone have a clue why the freakin 4 cylinders redline is sooooo SooOO low its at 6krpms.
all the time when I had a stick shift car.
eventually it will become second nature.
I heal-toe every day. Once you perfect, it becomes 2nd nature- kinda funny cuz I'm sure I waste a lot of gas doing it- but I dont even think about it anymore
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