For the MT owners: how do you downshift?

[Lowrider]

^Someone is doing it with ease in a 15. Most production cars have the brake pedal higher than the gas pedal. But some people with skill heel - toe and rev match them perfectly. An example would be at a local track HPDE session...Even the last vid

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[OppoLock]

^Someone is doing it with ease in a 15. Most production cars have the brake pedal higher than the gas pedal. But some people with skill heel - toe and rev match them perfectly. An example would be at a local track HPDE session...Even the last vid

You're probably right. All I know is that I don't have a problem with it in other cars but this one's a son of a gun.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Lowrider]

Looks like he's doing what I do, which is coasting and throttle blipping. I might be wrong, but I didn't see him braking aggressively and heel-toeing.

If he was coasting the exhaust note would be more silent followed by a random rev. Observe carefully and listen... he is braking with easy and quickly rev matching. Actually the comments alone speak for his skills.

Most people say that at slow speeds the brakes are so sensitive... In this case he is showing it can be done. It doesn't have to be aggressive braking.

 

[Horse]

It is not difficult, its about practice -practice - practice ...here is someone doing it right.

Is it just me or what, the audio is not in sync with the video. (But yes, he is doing heel-toe there.)

 

[Charles147]

Looks like he's doing what I do, which is coasting and throttle blipping. I might be wrong, but I didn't see him braking aggressively and heel-toeing.

That's what I observed too. @1:45~ would of been a great demonstration. Instead he threw it in neutral and used all brakes.

@3:16 he threw it in 2nd blipped to rev-match and then slowly let out the clutch and the revs came up. To me that was making exhaust noise and downshifting without rev-matching and just using engine brake.

Towards the very end I saw some blipping downshifts and a little bit of brakes H/T but again I'm not sure if that was a simultaneous/fluid like action.

If this is all correct then I guess I'm good.

 

[Lowrider]

He has an external mic hooked to the gopro... so they could be some delay. But I find it synced.

 

[Horse]

It is hard for me to judge by the sound (out of sync for me, likely just my computer), and it is kind of dark there (even with the light there). Anyway (at least) at ~2:42, I think he is heel-toe shifting.

 

[Charles147]

It is hard for me to judge by the sound (out of sync for me, likely just my computer), and it is kind of dark there (even with the light there). Anyway (at least) at ~2:42, I think he is heel-toe shifting.

2:42 looks like acceleration in 2nd...threw it back into neutral, blipped, and then back into 2nd to engine brake, clutch out - rpm's went up slightly and back onto gas.

Pretty sure there was no brakes involved.

 

[Horse]

2:42 looks like acceleration in 2nd...threw it back into neutral, blipped, and then back into 2nd to engine brake, clutch out - rpm's went up slightly and back onto gas.

Pretty sure there was no brakes involved.

You are right. After examining the position of the shift knob, I see that he did not go up to 3rd gear. But he did use the brake at the moment, at least with foot over the brake pedal and then touching the gas (with a twist of knee, which made me think it heel-toe in the first place).

 

[GT Pony]

Christ ... how long can talk about shifting go on!? LoL ... j/k.

 

[Horse]

See Chris Harris heel-toeing (twice in a row) in 2015 GT (@6:50 in the video).

 

[Brice80]

Ahhh here we go, completely novice question but what is the easiest method to start learning?:shrug:

I've had a stick shift before but it was a jeep and it couldn't go 75mph. Regardless, I've not got a PP and have no idea how to downshift, I get a pretty big lurch forward, especially when I shifted into 4th to pass someone on the highway.:frusty: I'd like to get better, but I havent even tried real downshifting much, because I don't know how to approach it.

I've got a similar problem with heal-toe as the brembo brakes are so dang sensitive. So I'm asking some of the experienced MT drivers here, how did you learn? I can't watch vids at work, so I'll check them out this evening, but I'd love some advice. Not looking to race to 5k RPM's at a stop... but like I said, if I have to pass someone quickly at 70Mph, or if I'm coming to a turn, comfortably shifting down to something closer to 3500-4k rpms to get some speed coming out.

Thanks,

Brice

 

[Pootie_Stang]

when I downshift I just push the clutch in; hit the throttle, down shift a gear and let out; I can judge the rpms okay and when I let the clutch out its smooth and doesn't jerk or anything. it sounds cool rolling up to lights lol. Is that rev matching? I never really thought anything about it, its just how ive always driven.

 

[OppoLock]

See Chris Harris heel-toeing (twice in a row) in 2015 GT (@6:50 in the video).

4:35 - "I can't quite heel and toe because the brake and throttle aren't really related to each other." Glad to hear it from a guy that does it all the time. I'd imagine that when you're getting deep on the brakes on a track things are different, but for daily spirited drives, I can relate to him.

 

[OppoLock]

Ahhh here we go, completely novice question but what is the easiest method to start learning?:shrug:

I've had a stick shift before but it was a jeep and it couldn't go 75mph. Regardless, I've not got a PP and have no idea how to downshift, I get a pretty big lurch forward, especially when I shifted into 4th to pass someone on the highway.:frusty: I'd like to get better, but I havent even tried real downshifting much, because I don't know how to approach it.

I've got a similar problem with heal-toe as the brembo brakes are so dang sensitive. So I'm asking some of the experienced MT drivers here, how did you learn? I can't watch vids at work, so I'll check them out this evening, but I'd love some advice. Not looking to race to 5k RPM's at a stop... but like I said, if I have to pass someone quickly at 70Mph, or if I'm coming to a turn, comfortably shifting down to something closer to 3500-4k rpms to get some speed coming out.

Thanks,

Brice

You'd only be heel-toeing in a situation where you want to be in a proper gear coming out of a braking zone. If you're talking about a downshift and pass, just a throttle blip works. You just have to practice metering out your throttle stabs when estimating where the tach will land in a lower gear.

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