Here is a poll for all the 5th gen and 5.5 gen owners that have MT. Do you use the heel and toe technique when you downshift? (Or any variation of the heel and toe, use one side of your foot on the gas and the other side on the brake etc…)

I know the Maxima doesn’t have a good pedal placement and it makes it hard to do on our cars, especially if you have small feet...

 

When I had my 6MT, I never heel-toed, but I did rev-match any time I made a downshift while the car was moving in order to put less stress on the syncros...

 

I wear a size 8.5 and I find it virtually impossible to heel toe in a maxima. But at the same time, I've never found a reason to. I rev match all the time though.

 

i tried it once, almost went through the window, safe to say i havent tried since

 

With previous MT vehicles I have tried it without much success, my feet are too big. (Sz 14W)

 

I wear size 10.5 and found a pair of Clark's shoes with a large sole that work perfectly. I heel-toe all the time when I wear them. When I wear different shoes with narrower sole, I find it a lot more difficult, but still do it. It's easier on the transmission, and I think it should also help the clutch live longer?

 

Sz 13 shoe doesn't work, either. Pedals are too close together haha.

Driving normally there's not much reason to do anything except blip the throttle to downshift. Upshifting requires no effort b/c you just let the revs fall into place (aka shift slow).

 

Heel and toe whenever possible.

Been doing it for 30 years. It's almost second nature and I don't even realize I'm doing it.

Also rev match when appropriate.

 

Difficult as hell with the pedal placement but if I'm on the highway I do...takes way to much focus off the road when I'm on regular streets..guess i need to get better at it

 

at the track i never let off the gas when i shift, but i give it some gas between downshifts when im slowing down and i shift at like 1700rpm 90% of the time cause i dont like the maximas manners with "spirited shifting" lol

 

Poll?

 

my feet are too big for these pedals(i'm nearly 6'5"- the pedals are my only comfort complaint on the car), and no need since I don't race or autoX

 

Second nature to me as well, it just makes downshifting+braking so much smoother during regular driving.

I think some people are misguided on the term "heel-toe".

You don't necessarily have to twist your whole foot and use you heel to tap the gas, you can use the side of your foot (what I do). It works. I know people are gonna be like "but this drifter guy did it this way on youtube" and I'm not talking about fully adjusted race cars. Its definitely doable in almost any manual car using the other side of your foot, it just takes some getting used to. I encourage everyone to try it, it really helps when you're ripping your car too and showing off - much less jerking and less stress on the tranny like already mentioned.

I should do a tutorial one of these days, hmmm...


EDIT:

This is what most people think its like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuoZeuSgEj4

This is whats good to do under everyday driving (scroll to about 3:10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPj9XXW25GA

 

synchro rev please

 

Rev. match.

 

elaborate on rev match plz...thats when you dont use teh clutch amirite...shifting at the right RPMs where just shifts into gear

 

WHEN DOWNSHIFTING YOU TAP THE GAS TO MATCH THE HIGHER REVS OF THE LOWER GEAR THAT YOU ARE SHIFTING IN TO


NO HEEL TOE, BUT I REV MATCH


sorry, caps was on

watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8pZJSXIvZQ

 

Rev-matching on the downshift... well, duh. That's how you down-shift a manual transmission.

Wait... are there people who simply slam it into a lower gear and pop the clutch? That's nuts. If you don't make an effort to rev-match when downshifting, then you shouldn't be allowed to drive a MT. Maybe you shouldn't be allowed to drive at all.

 

 

I know, this was my first time trying to post a Poll. When I put my 3 options for the poll, I got some kind of error message...

 

Question: I have the 6spd HLSD, and I'm wondering if other than the looks of the pedals, are there any other differences b/w the HLSD and non-HLSD pedals? (arrangement, spacing, size of the pedals etc...)

Even if it's not the ideal pedal setup, I don't find it that hard on my car to heel-toe. Maybe b/c of HLSD pedals?

 

I Rev-Match my downshifts. Of course, you kind of have too or it makes for one Jerky *** drive.

No Heel/Toe for me.

 

I don't heel-toe because I think it's too difficult with our cars' pedal layout and space. I do rev-match just about every single downshift though.

 

I do rev match to downshift as well.

 

No Heal toe... Just rev match as well.

 

I found it nearly impossible in the 5th gen under normal braking conditions, under extreme "OH ****" conditions when the brake pedal has to become more depressed, it's actually very easy for me to do, same goes in my 4th gen.

 

No reason to in street driving in my opinion, rev matching to downshift whenever possible though.

It is perfectly acceptable to downshift without rev matching, the 6 speed in the Maxima truly needs it to be smooth but I've owned a few vehicles that didn't "require" it.

 

Im a size 13/14 shoe and I do it...not often but I do

 

I do rev-match on a regular basis, and sometimes heel-toe using the side foot method, but I have to have the brake pedal pressed down quite a bit in order to pivot my size 12 shoe over far enough. Skate shoes work really well.