I've had my 99 GXE 5-speed for about 5 months now. When going from a higher speed to a lower speed in preparation for a turn, I typically double-clutch to downshift, and blip the throttle in between to rev-match. The result is smooth and I'm pretty sure I'm doing a good job of minimizing wear on the syncros.

But I know that this isn't the quickest way to downshift when cornering, because while I'm blipping the throttle, my foot is off the brake pedal. I would like to be able to do both at the same time. In other words, I need to learn to heel-toe.

I've never been good at heel-toe downshifting but I did do it in another car I drove. The problem I've had with the Maxima is that the pedal spacing is a little awkward for me for heel-toeing. I feel that the brake pedal's vertical height is a bit high, and the distance between the brake pedal and the gas pedal is a bit large for optimal heel-toe shifts.

Does anyone have any advice to offer about this? I know others have posted that they heel-toe downshift their Maximas all the time, but I also feel that some others have not bothered to learn because the pedal spacing makes it too difficult. Thanks in advance.

 

Yea the pedal spacing is weird in Maximas. If you try to heel-toe the conventional way, right foot facing to the left, your knee will bump into the steering wheel. The only way that I've been able to do it is pressing the brakes with the ball of my right foot, while pressing the gas with the outer edge of my foot. It can work. Hope that helps.

 

Yeah, that is the best way to heel/toe anyway. I have never heard of people heel/toeing with the toe pointed toward the left, but whatever.

Don't feel bad, I have had trouble with this in the past. I mean, the space inbetween the gas and the brake is ridiculous. However, I have a large foot, so it can be accomplished with not much difficulty.

There are a few keys:
Shoes that are shaped correctly. I had some of those Wallaby's from Clark's and they are so narrow that I can hardly heel/toe with them on.
Also, I am good at it, and I would not recommend trying this barefoot. I have a large foot, and I still cannot reach both pedals without a shoe or flip flop of some kind.

The other issue is with the flip flops. I don't wear these too often, but once you start heel/toeing, you don't want to quit. It just makes driving so much easier and more fun. I would recommend taking off your left flip flop, but leaving on the right one. (NOTE: do only when you are good at it.....kind of difficult.) Leaving the right one on will give you a little more surface area that is needed over just the bare foot.

Steps: (if you already double clutch, heel/toe should be easy)
1. with the car not moving, act like you are going to brake normally. Hold you foot there but turn the toe of your right foot to the right at about 45 degrees and brake with only the ball of your right foot. (NOTE: at first, you will not think that you have enough control of the brake with just that much of your foot. keep practicing though.)
2. with the car on, but in neutral and with parking brake on, practice this position with the brake.
3. Keep practicing but with the pinky side of your right foot, rev on the accellerator. Remember, you still want constant pressure on the brake while you are doing this.
4. Now, when you think you have this down.....get out in the road that you know there will not be a lot of people around and go at it. Get somewhere that you can get up to about 3rd gear, because it is very hard to heel/toe down into 1st gear.
5. Get going up into 3rd gear, and do the steps listed above with the brake, but rev the accellerator with your pinky toe/that side of your foot that rev-match the 2nd gear downshift.
6. Let the clutch out and that is it. You have now learned how to Heel/toe.

If you get this down, I will be proud. There are not many people, even those that have been driving manuals for a while that can do this. It is very beneficial for driving, and esp while cornering like you said.

If you have any other questions.....just let me know.
Hope this helps....
Sorry for the lengthiness.

 

good advice. I see that heel-toeing with your right foot pointed toward the left won't work (not to mention it's a contortionist's act). I'll try your suggestions.

roflmao about your flip-flops, Brudaddy.

 

That's why it's called heel-toe in the first place. Toes pressing the brakes, and heel pressing the gas. For this your foot must be pointed slightly to the left. It's impossible to TRULY heel-toe any other way. What we both described isn't really heel-toeing cus we aren't using our heels. It's just the only way to rev-match downshifts while braking in Maximas.

 

okay i tried both methods, conventional heel-toeing, and reverse heel-toeing, and both seem to work.

in practice, I think that using the ball of your feet on the brake, with your toe on the gas, would be easier, but neither feels that much fun because of the spacing of the pedals.

oh well. those are the breaks (no pun intended). guess we have to settle with having a kick-*** engine with gobs and gobs of power in a straight line.

 

I don't have a 5spd yet and don't know that much about all the manual tricks but I thought that synchros were put into manual trannies to eliminate the need for double clutching.

 

It still helps for a smooth shift, just not absolutely necessary.

 

the way I do it is i keep the inner arch of my foot on the brake, and use the outer edge and small toe of my foot to hit the gas.

Flip flops are sketchy cuz if you slip off the brake you can get stuck between the pedals, it hapened to me once. I cut some bacon of my foot pulling it out quickly.

The only other thing you can to is buy some pedal covers which will reduce the gap. Some pedals are adjustable to make the wider/longer.
Those are the best.

 

I'm pretty sure double-clutching is not necessary because of the synchros you mentioned, Big D.

However, blipping the throttle will ensure a smooth downshift and extent the life of your synchros.

If you downshift one gear without blipping the throttle, the synchros will force the engine to rev about 500-750 RPMs faster than what the speed was in the previous gear. Add to that the fact that your revs drop a little bit while shifting, and that's about a 1000 RPM gap that the synchro has to match up. If you downshift without blipping the throttle (a.k.a. rev matching), the result is a very jerky downshift. You can feel the whole car being pulled a little bit while the synchros are working.

Question for others: i noticed that you can blip the throttle with or without double-clutching. Is there any advantage to double-clutching? I noticed that sometimes double-clutching enables me to put the car in the desired gear a little easier, particularly when I want to get into 1st at around 3-5 mph. Any other reasons for double-clutching?

 

Double-clutching will spin up the input shaft making a smoother shift. If you don't do this, your syncros spin it up as you put it into gear.

It's better to double-clutch, just not needed. If you're **** about stretching the life of the syncros, double-clutch when downshifting.

As for the heel/toe technique, I use the left side of my foot on the brake and the right side on the gas pedal. It works great for me (I guess I have wide feet ).

 

From people I have seen do it, even in other cars, I have never seen them use their heel on the gas and their toe on the brake. That just doesn't make sense. You cannot be as accurate with your heel as you can with you toe, and the accellerator is what needs the higher accuracy for this to go smoothly. If you use the heel area of your foot on the brake and your toe on the gas, that is the best way possible.
I just don't like to turn my foot that far and it is harder. For me, it is easier the way that I described it using the side of my foot like sryth said. I guess technically, you are supposed to use a little more of your heel. However, I think this is one of those things that is not meant to draw its meaning literally, except for maybe in autos while power braking for a strong launch.

 

Yes heel-toe is to be meant literally. If you've watched any of the Best Motoring videos those japanese drivers brake with their toes and blip the throttle with their heels. The cameras show very clearly the footwork that goes on. It is a very quick and fluid motion. The most important thing when rev-matching isn't being precise with the gas as much as knowing exactly when to release the clutch pedal.

http://www.ferrariclub.com/faq/heeltoe.html

Read the 1-6 sequence. That is exactly what i was describing.

 

It never actually says that your heel is what is "bliping" the throttle.
Here is #4 from the sequence:
# Rotate your right foot counter-clockwise by pushing your heel away from you, then "blip" the throttle with the right edge of your right foot by rolling your foot down and to the right, while still applying even pressure to the brake pedal.

It just says the right edge of your right foot.
So, your foot is pointed in a different direction that I described, but you are still practicing the same principle....using the ball of your foot on your right foot to brake and the right side of your right foot to blip the gas.

 

Nah man. You're not understanding. I have seen this technique in use. The technique that we have to use in the Maxima due to the poor pedal spacing is braking with the ball of our right foot and pressing the gas with the right side of our foot with the foot pointing straight up. This is the easier way, but not the true-to-form procedure.

It says rotate the foot counter clockwise. The only place the you can hit the gas with is the lower heel area when your foot is pointed to the left more or less. If you can't see it, I don't know what else to tell you. It's call HEEL-TOE for a reason buddy. Alot of people think it's not to be taken literally, like yourself. But I've seen it done the traditional way, and I know it's possible.

 

Well, all I know is that because of the spacing on the pedals in the Maxima, like you said, the way I explained is easiest.
I still have my doubts about the other way, but whatever.

 

the best motoring drivers are friggen crazy. :O isnt it possible to buy pedals better suited to heeltoe-ing?

 

yeah the best motoring drivers are awesome and ballsy! Heart in throat while watching most of the video! BTW, they do use their heel on the gas and toes/ball of foot on the break. Great coordination!

 

Ive seen a nice set of aftermarket pedals that have moveable sliding surfaces that come out of the gas pedal and brake pad that make the distance between the two much less. I don't have em though, they are on the expensive side (like $50 at least on... you guessed it... ebay). I think the brand was Razo...

Anyway, this is a good thread. Personally, not having done any research and trying the technique myself to minimize clutch wear (BTW whats the deal I dont know enough about synchros- isnt this just the clutch????????????), I have been using my toes on the brake and heel to bop the accelerator up. Only because I feel more control using toes on the brake (seems more important to me to brake as controlled as possible than well, a wake up call to the engine RPM). So what yall think?

 

bump it up to the top