Heel Toe & Rev Matched Shifts | Learn It!

You might think driving a car is simple. In this series, we provide DIY lessons on how to drive cars and trucks. In this video, we cover downshift and rev-match downshift. With the GM strike news, take some time to improve yourself. In our the following videos we will provide lessons on how to operate cars and trucks. The techniques can help drivers of all ages to gain a greater appreciation of driving. Many of these self-help videos can teach safety and excitement. We use an Ariel Atom 3S made by TMI. However, whether you own a BMW, Honda Accord, Veloster, Miata, Subaru or Ferrari these tips and tricks will work.

Driver Training Video:

#cars #help #driving

[BrokenKingpin]

One of the hardest things about heel-toe (at least on the street) is keeping consistent brake pressure. When cruising up to a stop on the street you are usually not too deep into the brake, so when you go to swivel your foot over to blip the throttle it can be hard not to jab the brake at first. So for me when first learning (out on some back roads) was to get deeper into the brakes when blipping the throttle, as it makes it easier to keep a more consistent pressure on the brake. It also made it easier to actually hit the throttle with the side of my foot when deeper into the brakes.

I also got into the habit when I was at a stop light was to just sit their practicing my throttle blips (like Mr. Goose showed at the beginning of the video). Just maybe don't do that if you are behind people as they may think you are a bit of an asshole revving your engine lol.

After about a month of actively practicing it starts to become instinct to heel-toe. That said, even after years of doing it I still don't nail it every time. The fact I can still improve after 15+ years of driving manual is what makes all this stuff so rewarding (even in my slow ass Mazda3).

[JPasdfjkl]

Rev-matching is the easy part. Its maintaining smooth braking while rev-matching that's hard, at least for me...

[russellhagy]

What I found helpful and also what I teach people who want to learn how to heel-toe is to first practice braking with your heel off the floor of the car. It really changes the braking process and feel without the leverage of your heel on the floor. After that it's easier to incorporate the rotation of the foot onto the throttle. Hopefully some people find this helpful.

[sarkology]

Recently taught myself. Here are my tips to add: consistent brake pressure is the hardest part. Practicing this while parked isn’t enough feedback on the brake pressure IMO. When coming to stops on the road I would put it in neutral and practice the footwork without actually shifting gears while I decelerate. Really helped get the feel down. For actual shifts, practicing at freeway speeds was the best for me. Top gear down to the next is the most forgiving. Brake pressure more forgiving when faster also. Get an idea of your gear ratios. 3rd to 2nd is a bigger change so takes much more throttle than 6 to 5 in my car. Another tip that helped me: we tend to be too slow and cautious letting the clutch pedal out. Get used to being more aggressive with the left foot. I also improved greatly when I didn’t try to do it all at once like people already good at it do . I started being very deliberate and focusing one step at a time. Helped a ton. Clutch in while braking, Rotate foot, carefully press throttle with heel while focusing on constant brake pressure, then shift the gear, then clutch out. I would be so deliberate that sometimes I would have to blip it twice because the revs fell too far while shifting. That’s fine. This deliberate practice helped with feel till I got faster and faster. Then tried taking a few corners aggressively to force myself to do it faster. Worked. This is the best vid I’ve seen on the topic by far. If you ever downshift to 1st make sure to double clutch I know my car doesn’t have a synchro to 1st. Some cars have aftermarket pedal adapters to change position to facilitate heel toe. Helped immensely in my car.

[viewerlogic]

Drivers don't be discouraged, this takes a ton of practice!

[tykszeto]

No point adding my experience, I think Mark covered most of it... All I can add is that when you nail that first ever perfectly smooth heel and toe... Man you're hooked for life ..

[revmotor]

Thanks. Going to practice on my fabulous CVT.

[jacobvilla]

I watched the entire video. I also drive a Prius.

[TheTkpham]

One other thing that isn't mentioned much that helped me, is to condition yourself to being used to braking with your foot in the air. I was so used to braking with my heel firmly planted in the floorboard, but braking with your heel in the air might take some getting used to, in order to get the brake pressure you thought you wanted. This will help later when you need to blip the throttle.

[Garage]

Excellent video! My only tip is that it will probably be easier to learn, and more noticeable when you do it wrong, if you learn in a car with a cable operated throttle.
I pretty much revmatch downshift and heel toe all the time during daily driving. The exception is when I am feeling lazy or tired, or I don't want to confuse a passenger.
It makes driving more fun and engaging, and it feels really rewarding when you nail it. Only way to become proficient is practice! That Atom looks like a total blast.

[Chandroth]

Savage Geese went thorough for the most part. I would like to add this too. In order to catch the revs on time, sequence it like this. First put in gear then blip and let go of the clutch. Blip should happen right before clutch is released. I made a mistake of bliping and pulling the stick at the same time when I started practicing. Most of the time it was jerky and I got successful every now and then. Then I started experimenting and found the sequence I mentioned to be way more accurate and consistent. When you get really used to it it will look from the eyes of anyone one other than the driver that everything happens at the same time. That is why many footcam videos gives the wrong impression of doing all at once and actually tends to create that intimidation. Throttle response and gear throws also plays an important role in determining how fast you can downshift.

[SeikenFreak]

I'd say he explained it pretty well. Something I would've touched on, and will be particularly helpful to a younger audience (pre-legal driving age), is using certain games/simulators. For the most part I learned the concept and rhythm of heel-toe downshifting while playing "Live for Speed" with some Logitech G25 pedals almost twenty years ago. The foot rhythm is way overwhelming at first but with time and practice, it becomes second nature. Then when I got my license and a real car and started trying it, it was again very overwhelming at first because obviously the feeling, weight, speed, shoes, car etc are all specific but I was able to get it down much quicker since I already had the general muscle memory.


I'll also say I find it much easier to do in race driving conditions: You usually don't brake nearly as hard on the street, even during spirited driving, compared to an event on a race track, and when you brake harder, it brings the pedal lower which then makes it easier to reach the throttle pedal. I actually modified the throttle pedal on my one Mustang to raise it higher i.e. more in-line with the brake pedal.


One last part I might've mentioned was how fast you let out the clutch. If you nail the rev match perfectly (not often), you should be able to let the clutch out immediately, but if you are even off by a couple hundred RPM, you still want to feather the clutch out a little. The closer you are to the correct RPM match, the faster you can let it out. What you'll see people do, and I still do when learning a car or just in the heat of hard driving, is rev out and get the RPM a bit off, but still let the clutch out without feathering, it'll lock up the rear wheels (assuming it's RWD) for a moment and can cause a spin on entry.


As he said, all sounds crazy complex but it becomes second nature and you don't really think about it during the act. Left foot braking still feels completely weird and unnatural, but I recently started doing it in racing sims on sequential gearbox race cars and started getting more comfortable with it. Still wouldn't do it in a real car lol Even just taping the brake pedal mid-corner or down a straight to set the pads feels so wrong.

[G]

Heal and toe done well and consistently actually reduces overall wear and tear.

[sagex]

Great video. If more people learn how to drive maybe the manual won’t completely disappear.

[yelapa]

This is one of the most satisfying skills you can learn as a driver. Er, used to be able to learn…when cars had manual transmissions.

[snowcat]

I started practicing H&T while I was still taking my driving lessons. Not to mention, my learning process featured a couple of scary jerky braking ! Thank you for sharing with all enthusiast drivers.

[cafned]

Really good overview. One comment I have for beginners is to remember that the harder you are braking the farther down the brake pedal will be (obviously). So if you practice to get throttle positions right under relatively light braking, you may find yourself bouncing off the rev limiter the first time you try to throw the car into a corner and really get on the brakes.

[zlbandit]

I can’t be the only one who loved that turbo flutter at 2nd gear

[The_Stick]

Thank you Mr. Goose, this is by far the best video on this topic that I have ever watched. I'm looking forward to rewatching this and practicing in my own car. I'll never be able to match the way Senna drives in the NSX video, but I would like to get comfortable in doing this.

[ChicagoAutoPros]

Perfect timing for this video. I so need this.