Hi guys.

I have been reading a book about racing technique, and they suggest relocating the accelerator pedal backwards and to the left so that when your foot is firmly on the brake into the corner, you can roll your foot over and blip the throttle (in neutral of course) before downshifting so that your car remains more stable going into the corner allowing for better cornering.

I was just wondering whether anyone had tried this, and whether it helped in any way with your lap times?

I don't heel toe in my race car..... plenty of drivers do and claim it saves stress on the gearbox. It takes some getting used to. You can fabricate a accelerator pedal cover as it were that is closer to the brake, you also have to ensure that when depressing the brake the pedals are almost level to assist with the rolling of your foot from brake to accel..... Normally I have enough to concentrate on when racing that getting a heel toe shift right. People suggest yo get in the habbit of doing this on your road car.

Sure Stu and others will reply as well.....

I can heel-toe with my golf perfectly 70% of the time, all it takes is practice, practice, practice and more practice! Basically heel-toeing started in the 1930's or thereabouts, because of the straight gears in the racecars of that era. Drivers had to get the rpm just right in order to get the car into a lower gear whilst braking. A good tip I can give you is to let the clutch out a split second before you think you should. Happy practicing bud!

I practice it in the caddy some times when i'm bored around town, but it definitely isn't easy. I seem to always let go of the brake pedal for some reason. Not completely releasing it, but my foot seems to lift a little as soon as i blipp the throttle. I reckon my feet are to small or the throttle pedal is to high next to the pressed brake pedal which in turn make me having to let go a little of the brake pedal before i can properly reach the throttle.. Guess i'll not try this in the Gti ones i start racing..

Hardly good enough for racing. Like I mentioned, I have enough going on when dicing in a Challenge race, you need to be able to do it instinctively, I can not so I don't. Things get a bit frantic in a race car

This is why people adjust the pedals so that it fits with what you wanna do. I can not seem to get the co-ord right so I rather leave it. And brake and downshift as normal.

Jip like @Howie said, 70% isn't nearly good enough, there is too much going on hey, but I only do it when I'm bored or wanna scare a tannie in her getz approaching the robots! hahaha.

I better get better at it though, 'cos the gymcarting is coming up, and I cannot for a fork get my car into 1st hear from 2nd gear speeds hey... Iirc the golfs dont have synchros between 1st and 2nd, getting the heel-toe right may get my time down quite a bit hey.

Thanks for the advice guys.
Glad to know it's not only me that finds it difficult
I only started racing 4 months ago, so i'm still tying to gain as much knowledge as i can from other drivers.

+ 1

On a gear box with syncro's toe and healing is not needed so I do not do it.
In the Shelby's it is needed, but I am usually so scared I just leave the thing in 3rd and hold on.

I blip the throttle on downshift all the time. I find it helps me not to snatch a wheel on the brakes while down shifting and I'm one that maintains it's lighter on the box and synchro's. FYI I don't even have a "pedal" per say, it's just the rod that comes down out of the pedal box and it's just fine ...

That's cause u have the time

I blip the throttle in my daily drives when downshifting.

I do it in slow motion though. I learned to do it myself in order to make for a smooth ride while keeping the car in gear on wet roads.

Neutral + wet roads + brakes = hospital!

I do don't I