Heel Toe Forum
 

I wanted to start a thread to trade tips and tricks with other owners of the 370Z with a manual transmission without synchorev. I've just got the heel toe thing down :driving:, and generally downshift around 2000RPM and blip the throttle when doing normal driving. Its still pretty new so I haven't really put the car through its paces (i figure I'll start after 1000miles)

Anyone have some input on shifting techniques in the Z for normal driving or racing?

I dont heel toe at all during daily driving, its kinda pointless. When downshifting, ya kinda gotta have a feel how high you need to rev before the downshift, the throttle lags a bit, so sometimes I have to blip it twice to match revs. I find that heel toeing in our cars is kinda difficult because the throttle pedal is so damn huge and the brake sits a bit higher, I can do it, but its not smooth at all.

My drag technique is pretty much the norm I suppose, the ass end brakes loose pretty easy so dropping the clutch is a no no unless you wanna spin in the pit through 2nd. Clutch is best feathered at around 2-2.5k, once you grip, mash pedal, kick clutch and shift simultaneously at 7-7.5k and just bang the gears from there.

Without aftermarket aluminum pedals, I had issues with h/t. Now that I have the aftermarket, it is so much easier.

Of course, we should just buy the s/r model and be done with it!!! :)

where did you buy your pedals from?

Difficulty Heel Toe-ing
 

I hear ya on the pedal position. What I found is that if you place the left side of your foot on the brake and tilt your right side on the accelerator it makes it pretty smooth. Its a different take on the classic technique, but it works well in the Z

Ive noticed that it gets squirelly dropping the clutch as well. Stomp on it in, and the traction control comes on. (of course no tranction control when racing:)

Being a performance driver and racing my whole life I just sort of rev match (heal & toe) automatically without realizing it, sometimes even while daily driving, or whenever I feel I need to I guess. :confused: Although I think I do it on the street more so to make the shift transitions more smooth. I personally don't really like the rev-matching feature on the 370's, but I can see why others might like it.

I agree that heel toe in the 370 seems easier with the heel on the gas and the toes on the brake.

Op- for heel and toe you have to be able to blip and dowshift at much higher rpm like 5K+ range (up to redline) naturally if you "got it down."

I think you need to back and practice much more.

Read Before you Speak
 

"Op- for heel and toe you have to be able to blip and dowshift at much higher rpm like 5K+ range (up to redline) naturally if you "got it down."

I think you need to back and practice much more. "

Kenchan, I think you need to read my post before you act like a jack***

you dont shift at 5000RPM for normal street driving.

Heel-toe is easy at low RPMs, during 'slow' driving, and only changing one gear. It's much much more difficult when you're diving into a corner, hard on the brakes and heel-toeing from 5th to 2nd. Enter SRM... :)

I do some times, so go practice. You need to be able to downshift a all rpm's.

These guys make some nice stuff. I helped with the patterning and fitment for the 370 pedals:
SRP Racing - Custom Aluminum Racing Pedals

Grip is awesome, and the gas pedal extension on the left helps with heel and toeing...

http://images46.fotki.com/v400/photo...MG_2093-vi.jpg

More pics and details here: Heel plate and pedals.. album | Ttschwing | Fotki.com There's a DIY on this also..

ooh those are fancy, thanks for the link

Right on. Its seems to me that the same procedures would apply going from 5th to 2nd, clutch, take it out of gear, match RPM's clutch shift while on the brake. I can see how it would be more demanding though. Anyway coming up on 1000 miles so I'll be more be putting the car through the paces soon (I want to break her in easy).

SRM though... Not for me. I want to learn the art of racing. I don't like computers getting in the way in machines. Bad in airplanes, bad in cars. I like the old school gearbox and shifter.

Nice!!!
 

Nice!!! I like that the accelerator is nearly parallel with the brake. They look pretty sharp too.:tiphat:

I drove my 09 370 for nearly two years with SRM on and it fooled me into thinking I was a better driver than I was. I learned how to drive a manual in this car and it was my first manual car. I had gotten very comfortable with the car and was feeling confident in my abilities. But the day I finally turned off SRM was the day I discovered I had much more to learn.

I basically had to relearn everything. Even the timing for regular upshifts was different for me with SRM off as the car was no longer holding the revs where they needed to be in between upshifts. I have to say though, turning off SRM was the best thing I ever did. I now utilize heel/toe downshifts in everyday driving and it's brought a whole new pleasure to driving my car.

I honestly don't get how people say they don't do it in everyday driving. I mean how else do you rev match while hitting the brakes? It also kills me how many people drive a manual car and then dog on others for driving an automatic when they themselves have never even heard of heel/toe...So many people fall into this category. I've always at least know what it was..Even if I was relying on SRM to do it for me.

Practicing heel blipping during both mild brake pressure (street driving) and hard brake pressure (track driving) was helpful for me with my other cars. I found that getting my technique down for gentle street driving didn't translate very well to harder braking at the track.

Thankfully the street I live on is right off of a 75mph highway. So I do get to practice it with late aggressive braking at least once a day. For me it was much more tricky with light braking! I use the big toe/little toe technique than the actual heel/toe technique. Feet are too big to be moving my feet like the rally drivers do lol.

Agreed. Heel/toe during light braking is noticeably different from doing it on track and before corner entry but does help you get the basic order of operations down. Doing it on track introduces a whole other mental element having to time it and just takes practice.

I recently got a standalone abs system installed to cure my f&*&ing ice mode for good. Only "bad" side effect is that now I have to do my own heel/toe as it stole the rear wheel speed sensor outputs.

With that now being the case and me still having an organic based clutch in there, I might have to upgrade the material. I'm not as perfect as the computer.
Side note: the characteristics of our engine make low rpm rev-matching more challenging imo, due to the increased amount of "lag" down there.

What abs system did you buy?

Tevis MK60, with proportioning valve installed also.


BTW to dispell a myth: If you look up how these valves work they are indeed pressure regulating valves, not simple flow limiting devices.