The gas pedal is WAY too low for easy heel-toeing flicking the gas then getting back to the brake is somehow easier...and as to what heel-toe driving is: I couldn't write it better so I stole this from a post on Supraforums though I didn't copy the author so if you know who wrote it let me know so I can assign ownership..
Let's start off with what NOT to say. I've heard some really disturbing comments around here in the past year. Some favorites that stuck out were - "Heel & Toe'ing helps you stop quicker, that's all dude, not much to it." and my personal favorite - something about "I was at the track, doing good, hell & toe'ing through the turns yada yada ya etc ...". Bad, very bad. If you want to sound like you know what you're doing the next time you're at cruise night .. say things like "Heel & Toeing is simply smoothing out your downshifts under braking ... no big deal." or "Acura/Honda puts the brake and throttle too far apart, can't heel & toe very well at all in anything except the S2000 and NSX." "Took me a while to get it down, but now I heel & toe going to the supermarket, it's second nature at this point."
Heel & Toe'ing in concept, is very simple. We'll create a scenario ... you are at Limerock, you've just gotten a great drive off the Downhill and are running down the front straight. You come up on your braking marker for Big Bend ... there are a couple of things you need to do right now:
First thing is you have to brake. (Please see Braking 101 for that) Now, in the mere seconds you spend slowing down, you also need to shift. The act of shifting involves depressing the clutch pedal, blipping the throttle (more on this later), moving your shift lever, and releasing the clutch pedal. If you were keeping track, you realize that you have to actuate all 3 pedals (brake, clutch, throttle) at exactly the same time ... this is where God screwed up, he only gave you two feet unless you are part of some weird circus act, and if you are, this information doesn't apply to you so stop reading now.
So, your right foot is on the binders (brakes), your left foot is actuating the clutch and you are downshifting as you approach Big Bend. The key to smooth downshifting and keeping your clutch intact for longer than one track day, is matching your revs with your transmission/engine speed. Down the front straight, you topped out at 5700RPM in fifth gear before you had to throw out the anchor. You get on the brakes hard and since you've had some time at this track, you know that you're going to need to get down to third gear and ~65mph for Big Bend. For examples sake .. we'll say that 65mph in third gear is around 3500rpm.
As you depress the clutch pedal, the engine hastily loses speed, getting down to idle so fast your tach can't keep up in real time ... you've moved the shifter into third gear and you're almost done with your braking (for those unaware, we're in slow motion right now). Now you need to release the clutch pedal, the problem is that, as we devised before, your engine speed in this gear and at this MPH ... is going to shoot up to 3500rpm from the 800rpm (idle) it's at now. Your engine is not about to just spinup 2700rpm without some resistance ... and if you are at the limit of traction already since you are threshhold braking, this extra strain will transmit itself from the clutch, through the tranmission, to the drive wheels. In the case of a real wheel drive car, this will in 9 out of 10 cases, lock the rear tires until the engine speed can get to where its supposed to be, which will be too late since you just spun around and are heading toward the retaining wall.
If anyone watched the Viper track-day crash video posted here and at ViperClub.org recently ... that is EXACTLY what happened in his case. The student didn't match what his revs properly (or at all I imagine) and as he let out the clutch, the heavy rotating mass of that V10 locked the rear tires .... it would've unlocked them in a second or so once the engine caught up, but by that time he was already sideways and heading towards the wall.
Back to the lesson ... what you need to do to prevent swapping ends like that, is match the revs ahead of time. Both feet are already preoccupied, so you use the ball of your right foot to brake, and the heel to "blip" the throttle to get the revs up into the vicinity they need to be for this maneuver. If you have big feet like me and stock or "poser" aftermarket pedals, you probably will just end up hitting the carpet in front of the throttle with your heel, in these cases, use the side of your right foot to blip, not the heel.
Practicing is tough .. if you try it while only using a little or medium braking .... you're almost definately going to jerk the brake pedal as you try to blip the throttle. You're going to be very unsmooth at first ... don't worry, everyone was at some point, just make sure no one's watching It helps to be at full braking while practicing because the binders are less sensitive and it's just easier to manipulate your foot while exherting the extra pressure for some reason .... but then you end up concentrating on not ripping the seat belts ... it's a pain the arse.
Just keep in mind your goal, to keep everything as smooth as possible. Ideally, under braking, a passenger should not be able to tell you even shifted ... although if it takes you years of practive to get to that point, don't be alarmed, that's about average. You'll pick up the basics quick however. Try not to get stuck in a 1-gear-down habit either, or if so, work on making it fast, so you can do 1-gear downshifts in repetition very quickly. What I had a bad tendency of doing when I first started practicing was I would concentrate so hard on what my right foot was doing, I'd forget about my left and sometimes release the clutch at "less than optimal" times. For this reason alone I suggest you practice with no one else around and plenty of room, lock up the rears by releasing the clutch at the wrong time and you WILL swap ends.
Let me know if you have any questions, I'll answer anything I can.
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