S550 Heel-toe struggles

[steveespo]

I've been watching this thread with interest as to me it appears to be an American thing to use "artificial" heel/toe addons. I've never known they were even a thing till this forum. My guess was the propensity for automatic transmissions and big lazy v8s. Manual gearboxes weren't the norm. In reality it may just be an age thing. Learning to drive manual back in the dark ages was more the norm and as @Bill Pemberton mentioned, a right of passage getting heel/toe working properly.
I still remember my track driving instructor yelling in my ear "BIG REV" on down changes 30+ years later.
Now what worked for me and what i've noticed teaching young ones.

1. Can't do it on the road to save myself. The speed differences aren't sufficient to warrant the "BIG REV". There is no subtlety required on track. Whack that throttle. On the road smacking the tacho into the high 6's results in the engine rpm being way to high for the road speed being matched. Clunky results.
2. Gears are for going and brakes are for stopping. Sounds obvious. Back in the day when brakes were crap and overheated in no time, "race driver" went down through the gears. Is this necessary today? I don't believe so and it is a reference to a question above about double downshifts. Stand on the brakes, 2 hands on the wheel all the way in, smacked my friend on that one. Would hit the brakes and hand would instantly go for the gearshifter and he would be one handed into the braking zone. Not good when it was on one of the worst surfaces in Australia. At the appropriate point drop 2 gears in one go. 5th to 3rd is an easier shift than 5th to 4th then 4th to 3rd.
3. This one kinda aligns with No.2. and i'll use my friend again. Would hits the brakes and instantly be trying to downshift. Mate, give the brakes a chance to do some work and not try buzz the engine because you need 8500 rpm to match your current speed. Don't be rushed. Allow the process to go through each stage. Another reason to drop double gears so you don't feel like you don't have enough time to do all the processes in the ever reducing space to the apex.
4. Short gear knobs are a problem. They require too much force for your arm and become a brain overload making sure you got it in the right spot. Extend the length and the leverage allows finger tip control. Just extended mine a while back by 3' and the difference was amazing. What i wanted as i was fighting to get it pushed across to 2nd at the end of a big stop from 120mph. Yes i went 5th to 3rd, and just before the hairpin would then grab 2nd. Way too much concentration went into that 2nd gear shift that i would loose concentration on the rest of the world around me.
5. Does most of this have anything to do with the actual heel/toe? Not directly but i think that a lot of the issues come back to not being comfortable to concentrate on the process till it becomes muscle memory. I honestly can't tell you exactly how i do it. Ball of foot on edge of brake and i think i slightly roll my ankle and hit the throttle with the outside of my heel. Could i swear in court that true, not a chance. Can i practice on the road, not a hope. So don't feel discouraged, it takes time to work out what works. Or come out of the dark ages and embrace technology and use a blipper. I'd love to be closer to be able to ride along and experience the difference.

When you watch Cayman GT4 and 991GT3s walk away on the ups and downshifts, you can understand the need to put the pride away and use the available tech to compete. All the props for those who can do the "heel/toe dance". But I will say this, there is a switch in the Dark Horse R to turn off rev match, and the driver can choose not to use flat shift on the ups. You know who doesn't turn those switches off? Sam Paley, Robert Noaker, Zach Lee, Alex Bachoura, Cole Loftsgard, Devin Anderson and pretty much every other winning or championship driver in the series, and believe me they all can heel toe, 1000% better than me and I will go out on a limb to say 100% better than anyone on the forum with exception of maybe AJ Aquilante. No shade intended but if you are driving competitively this tech is a very welcome addition to any generation of Mustang it is available to.

 

[stevbd]

When you watch Cayman GT4 and 991GT3s walk away on the ups and downshifts, you can understand the need to put the pride away and use the available tech to compete. All the props for those who can do the "heel/toe dance". But I will say this, there is a switch in the Dark Horse R to turn off rev match, and the driver can choose not to use flat shift on the ups. You know who doesn't turn those switches off? Sam Paley, Robert Noaker, Zach Lee, Alex Bachoura, Cole Loftsgard, Devin Anderson and pretty much every other winning or championship driver in the series, and believe me they all can heel toe, 1000% better than me and I will go out on a limb to say 100% better than anyone on the forum with exception of maybe AJ Aquilante. No shade intended but if you are driving competitively this tech is a very welcome addition to any generation of Mustang it is available to.

Fair points but are the aftermarket modules really as seamless and dialed in as the modern oem auto blip features? I don’t have any personal experience but how do the modules know when you want a big blip versus a small brush of the gas etc? I could be mistaken but don’t you have to preprogram that stuff?

I dunno, sometimes I think it’s just easier to learn heel toe in the first place. Particularly at an amateur hpde level like myself with an older car it’s fun, satisfying, and it works. These aftermarket modules don’t look totally seamless either. But I also totally agree with you, at the sharp end of the racing spear I have zero doubt that the oem computers can do it better.

 

[Bedouin]

..and it’s an invaluable skill if you’re driving a manual car/truck down an icy mountain pass & can’t break traction with a mismatched downshift.

 

[Mike_FL]

The Autoblip is one of my favorite modifications on my S197.
I did think about getting the Xineering blip module and they are based a couple of miles away and could have installed it but I decided against it. The need for an android phone or laptop to adjust the module didn’t make sense when you can easily adjust the Autoblip with two dials.

 

[steveespo]

Fair points but are the aftermarket modules really as seamless and dialed in as the modern oem auto blip features? I don’t have any personal experience but how do the modules know when you want a big blip versus a small brush of the gas etc? I could be mistaken but don’t you have to preprogram that stuff?

I dunno, sometimes I think it’s just easier to learn heel toe in the first place. Particularly at an amateur hpde level like myself with an older car it’s fun, satisfying, and it works. These aftermarket modules don’t look totally seamless either. But I also totally agree with you, at the sharp end of the racing spear I have zero doubt that the oem computers can do it better.

Are they as good as the DarkHorse or DHR? No. But are they good and better than me twisting my right leg and ankle around while braking for Turn 7 at Sebring. Yes very much so. And if you watch the video you see me trick the system in Turn 10 going 5-4-3.