Howdy everyone!
I'm trying to learn heel'n toe and am having a bit of difficulty comfortably twisting my foot to hit the brake and gas. I have stock pedals in my 2002.5 P5. I know there's a potential that new pedals make this easier, but I'm wondering if it's worth it, or I just need more practice (okay, I can ALWAYS use more practice!).

Does anyone here heel'n toe with stock pedals, or do people here who heel'n toe recommend new pedals to close the gap between the brake and gas? If the latter, can anyone here recommend any good pedals specifically for heel and toeing (I won't consider the tab/glue kind, only drilled)? It seems the Mazdaspeed doesn't come with a dead pedal??

Thanks for any advice!!
Josh

 

it might be a problem if you have small feet. mine fit over the gap just fine. what shoe size u wear??


jeremy

 

Just takes practice and making your foot learn the position to stay at.
like | \ kinda.

Make sure you focus on the braking though, have the ball of your foot solidly on the brake pedal. And if your feet are big enough, you can keep the heel of your foot on the floor then rotate between gas and brake.

If you really feel the need for new pedals, from what I've seen SRR and OMP have some of the most optimally designed for heel-toe. And they use bolts/screws.

 

No wonder I'm walking funny all the time.

Seriously, I put in aftermarket pedal covers which increase the surface areas of the brake and gas pedals. This makes the "gap" narrower and easier to heel and toe for me.

 

Installation on bolt on pedals took longer than i expected. Bought sparco reflex', the bolts are along the center. Clutch pedal was fine, but the "arm" for the brake pedal joins along the center, so i had to make some room for the bolt to fit behind the pedal.

 

When I used to do the toe-heel thing in my Miata, the pedals were close enough to just have my right foot on both at the same time, and kinda "wobble" my foot back and forth from one to the other.

I did have a slight angle to my foot (heel toward gas, toe toward brake), but it was not a "true" toe-heel manuever. However, it worked the same.

A good way to practice is to just do it during normal downshifting - no turns = less to concentrate on. You are not trying to stand on the gas and brake - you're trying to brake, while giving the gas a "blip" to bring the revs up to match your speed, and create a smooth downshift with no engine braking. Done propery, you'll barely feel the downshift, if at all - no "jerking" forward.

I miss the Miata so much for this - there was no better feeling than approaching a nice corner at like 50 mph, braking slightly to about 35, sliding the foot over, and popping it into second to blast the turn and kick the *** out all in one smooth motion.

Dammmit dammit dammit. My P5 is an auto. I miss the manual - but I must admit it is all sooooo much more fun in a rear-drive car. Breaking the rear loose on a FWD car is a completely different skill - one I have yet to really try to learn.

Just keep practicing - you'll get it.

And Edwin: stop shouting at me on AIM. Fucktard!

~HH

 

Practice, practice, blah blah blah. Just do it until you don't even notice you've changed gears. You're going to wind up lurching for the first few times, but stick with it.

You shouldn't need pedal covers, but if you'd like to spend the money, go right ahead.

 

I have very big feet (heh heh.... not corresponding to anything of course) so do it all the time.

 

i am a first time maual driver too... and a first time driver too...
you can learn heel and toe yourself....
don't learn from movies and cartoons (ie initial D) cause you get the wrong impression of how to do heel & toe...

heel and toe in stock pedals is basically all toe and no heel.... because it is really difficult to twist your foot around at that angle and use it properly on the stock pedals....

what you want to do is have the left side say about 1inch of your right foot on the brake pedal and bridge the gap between the gas and brake pedal so your right side of the foot is on the gas pedal.... then it is much easier to control the heel and toe movement..... so what it means is your left part of the foot controls the brake and right part controls the gas during a downshift.. have fun

 

Thanks for the advice! Right now I find it easier to use the
left-side of my right foot for the brake and the right-side of my right foot for the gas, rather than toe and heel but hopefully practice will solve this. I tend to push on the brake too hard
when blipping the gas which causes the car to jerk.

And thanks hihoslva, I came to the same conclusion after a few
horribly jerky movements around streetcorners. Removing the
corner from the equation helps.

Josh

 

Maybe I am stupid, WTF is heel and toe? I have only driven a 5spd and have never heard that term before.

 

If you're not up to speed on heel-toe'ing, here's a great article on all sorts of shifting techniques. It's pretty lengthy, but then the concepts it covers aren't all that easy:

http://www.happytogether.com/318ti/n...ing/index.html

By the way, I do all my heel-toe shifting on my P5 with just the toe. I wear size 10 1/2 shoes and I have no problem bridging the gap between the pedals.