How To Heel Toe

What Is “Heel Toe Downshifting?”

To learn how to heel toe is not very hard, but it takes consistent practice, mistakes and a little bit of patience.

It is the most basic driving technique in racing and if you don’t learn this technique, you will never be ready to go racing or drifting.

“Learn How To Heel Toe

If You Don't Want To Be Slow”

If you learn how to heel toe you can become very smooth at shifting gears. The heel toe technique is meant to make shift transitions smoother, so as not to upset the car’s balance when cornering.

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Picture yourself driving...Normally if you’d like to shift down, you depress (disengage) the clutch, put it in the desired gear, and then release the clutch again. If you depress the clutch, the engine slows down right away. 

Try it for yourself: When you drive, hit the clutch... The RPMs drop instantly! Slowly bring the clutch up again, and it takes a while for the engine to get back up to speed. Notice the clutch slipping? When you’re releasing the clutch it is trying to engage with the gearbox, which is connected to the drive shaft and wheels.

Usually you’ll also feel some jolting of the vehicle, and it’s exactly this jolting that upsets the car’s balance. If you’re not sure what I mean here, try shifting down from second gear to first gear. You can’t miss the jolting here, there’s plenty of it!

Not only can it upset the balance, when you are going through a corner, and shift down to the higher RPM range, it can even momentarily lock up the wheels! If you learn how to heel toe you can overcome this drivetrain problem.

ANY JOLTING NOW CAN EASILY UPSET THE BALANCE!

Now how come the car is jolting?

If you depress the clutch, the engine speed slows down (as if it were in neutral). This is because the clutch disconnects the engine from the gearbox and driveshaft.

You probably knew that already, but I'm trying to make a point. The moving partsbefore the clutch (flywheel, crankshaft, engine, etc), and the moving parts behind the clutch (drive shaft, differential, etc) can operate at different speeds.

The moving parts behind the clutch are dependant on the speed of the vehicle (wheels). So if you release the clutch, by slipping the clutch the engine automatically adapts itself to speed of the wheels.

When you shift down you can help the synchronization of those parts. Using your throttle you can help the engine get back up to speed again and increase RPMs. If you learn how to heel toe you can brake, and give it some throttle at same time. When you're racing you constantly want to be in the high RPM range for maximum power. However if you brake hard and shift down without heel and toe (thus without helping synchronization) it would take too much time for the clutch to complete synchronizing. By the time the gears have a chance to properly engage you already need to be in a lower gear.

And I guess you don’t want to wear down your clutch like mad...

KNOWING CAR MECHANICS HELPS UNDERSTANDING HEEL TOE

There are several advantages to using the heel toe technique:

• Shifting goes faster and more precise
  
  
• It prevents the car’s balance to get upset by the downshifting. No sudden weight transfer occurs, which you really don’t want to happen when the car is exposed to forces working the car sideways. (Like in a corner)
  
  
• After you enter the corner you’re in the correct gear to pick up speed again. You constantly want to be in the torque band as much as possible.
  
  
• Engine braking is stronger in the higher range of RPMs.
  
  
• It reduces wear on the clutch, parts of the gearbox, etc.
  
  

When you learn how to heel toe your driving and shifting will be a lot smoother.

Racing Line

Before you proceed to learn the racing line, I'd like to recommended to first start with reading the basics of racing. You should also have a fundamental understanding of the basic differences between oversteer and understeer.

What Is “The Line”?

Simply put it's the fastest route (line) to clear a corner. It’s the best way to enter the corner, clear the apex, and then exit the corner with the highest possible exit speed.

On the racetrack you can usually identify the racing line by the trail of rubber left behind by previous drivers.

The tarmac is darker on the racing line, especially in the braking and cornering zones. Typically you’ll see the racing line starting on the outside of the track, near the edge. Then the line cuts into the corner, hitting the inside point (clipping point), after which it goes towards the corner exit, again completely on the outside.

Of course each corner is different, and each corner has its own best racing line. It is up to the driver to discover and learn this line- exactly why track knowledge is just as important as car control.

Oversteer & Understeer

There’s a good chance you already know what oversteer & understeer is, but for those of you who don’t, below is a simple, but thorough explanation of the two.

Oversteer & Understeer:

The Simple Explanation

• Understeer: Front-end comes out (help!)
• Oversteer: Rear-end comes out (drifting!)

That’s the simple explanation. To better understand the concept you will need to know a little more- read along...
 

Basics Of Racing

Learn The Basics Of Racing

This is where everyone in racing starts.
Learn fundamental background information, a must-read for anyone interested in car racing.

First of all:

Dangers & Safety

Worry about the safety before getting into the car!

Controlling the riscs starts with a proper safety inspection of your vehicle, required for almost any circuit event. They probably won’t allow you on the track without it. People on the track will inspect your vehicle for any leaking fluids, the security of your battery, seatbelts, etc.

Circuits each have their own rules and policies on safety. If you don’t get proper instructions, be sure to ask about safety procedures. Also it's not a bad idea to install a fire extinguisher for just in case. Always make sure to have made a good estimation of the dangers and take the necassery precautions.

Racing is a serious sport and serious accidents are no exception.

Motorsports are getting safer nowadays due to rules and technology, but still many great racing drivers died in the event of racing.

Racing drivers such as Aryton Senna, Dale Earnhardt, or Gilles Villeneuve all crashed and suffered fatal accidents, even though they were supreme masters in the art of racing.

Racing

Master The Driving Techniques

To learn racing and its driving techniques you'll need to have a certain amount of natural talent combined with an endless amount of dedication.

If you think you have what it takes, then you should start by learning the basics of racing, the driving techniques and how cars react when they are being pushed to the limit.

You don't have to be a pro racer to start drifting, but being a better racer can help you get better at drifting, and the other way around.

Compared to drifting, racing is even harder in my opinion. In racing the cars actually also drift. It might not seem like so, but just as in drifting, they have to deal with oversteer or understeer (losing the rear or front wheels).

The thing is, both racing and drifting share the same platform (the car), but the goals of each discipline are just so totally different! In racing you usually try to minimize oversteer going for maximum speed and the fastest time, while drifting is all about taking oversteer to the extreme to perform the most beautifull, outrageous drifts as possible. Two different concepts!

Learning the racing techniques will make drifting easier.

Articles on Racing

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Basics Of Racing
Start here by learning the basics of racing! Every racing driver started out by learning the basics of racing...

Oversteer & Understeer
Oversteer Understeer is what racing is all about! Go here now if you want to know more about the limits of your tires. Both terms and more are explained in detail.

Racing Line
The ideal racing line shows you the best way through a corner. What is there to know about cornering? Read all you need to know to clear corners!

Learn How To Heel Toe
To learn how to heel toe is exciting! It is a great racing technique to acquire. Downshifting with heel toe makes your driving smoother and you will become a much better shifter!

Double Clutch
The double clutch technique is an advanced follow-up on the heel toe technique. Double clutching asks for precision shifting, and is only meant to spin-up the gearbox.

Braking Technique
A good braking technique can make of break a great lap time. Learn how to use the brakes and all the special techniques to become faster.

Racing Techniques

The objective is to cover a certain distance in the fastest possible time. On the straightaway the maximum speed depends mostly on the engine power and aerodynamics. But in the corners, it's really up to the driver and his handling abilities to carry as much speed through the corner as possible.

To minimize the cornering time and cover corners in the fastest possible way, you make use of a path through the corner called the racing line.

But that is only if you know how to control the car. It's not just steering, braking and shifting – there's more to it than that! Here are some of the racing techniques.

RACING IS NOT JUST ABOUT FLOORING THE THROTTLE

The most basic driving technique is heel toe downshifting.

It's a technique that will give you great control over your gear selection and allows you to downshift before cornering. Once you have mastered heel toe you are also able to learn to double clutch, but that's optional and nessecary.

It's probably the next best step to begin with! Once you've mastered those driving techniques you are ready to learn racing or experiment with drifting. It's really essential that you can perform heel toe downshifting without thinking. Otherwise you just can't be in proper control of the car.

Braking is another facet of racing that takes a lot of time to master. After having learned the basics and the beginner techniques it's time to head out for the circuits and practice at getting faster.

The hardest part in racing is of course cornering. Slowing down for corners isn't simply just slamming on the brakes. Using the correct braking technique is required if you want to make the most out of each situation.

Dirt Drop Drifting Technique

Ditch The Rear!

The dirt drop drifting technique is not a technique for beginners. You are supposed to place your car in such a position so that when you flick the car sideways the rear wheels hit the dirt. Hence the name dirt drop.

Surface is usually gras, mud or slick, so the traction is lower on this surface. Drifters use this surfaces to gain more angle while keeping their speed up. Mind you though, not every surface is as slippery as it seems and it's quite a dangerous technique.

It's not applicable on the street and is only possible on some circuits. On some circuits it's even banned. It requires a great deal of practice and can easily go wrong, usually with devastating results.

Jump Drifting Technique

Drift The Kerb

The jump drifting technique is another expert drifting technique that, unless you know the other techniques really well, shouldn’t be tried.

In essence this technique is almost similar to the dirt drop drifting technique, but they’re not completely the same.

For this technique you use the rumble strip on the inside of the turn to shift the weight and to upset the car’s balance.

Usually in the short time the rear inside tire is airborne it starts spinning faster than the available traction. When it regains contact with the surface you should lose traction. In case it doesn't the abrupt weight shift will definitely cause the tires to lose traction.

Jump Drifting Technique
How To:

• Coming from the straight towards a corner


• Remain on the throttle and steer into the corner. Aim to drive your inside tires over the rumble strip


• While driving over the rumble strip remain on the throttle. In the short moment your rear wheels are from the ground they should start to spin, causing them to lose grip. And if that’s not the case the sudden change in weight distribution will cause them to lose grip anyway


• The rest of the drift is the same as the previous drifting techniques. Feel the tires lose traction and start to countersteer


• Wait until you see that the car is facing the direction of the corner exit. Then gently give it a little power to pick up the drift. Control the throttle throughout the drift towards the exit.

Basically you can drift because when the inside tires fly over the rumble strip they break loose and regain contact with the surface. This causes an abrupt weight shift that makes the car lose balance. Catching the drift would then be the hardest part, hence why it’s a medium speed drifting technique. High speed would just be too unpredictable and dangerous.