What is the purpose of "heel-toe" downshifting

[bloodstriker]

I've searched around and found two answers:
- stop the car lurching forward when you downshift
- maintaining optimal rpm in new gear

 

[GTI_mkV]

Those are your basic answers. The benefits of the technique (in game) aren't as obvious as they are when implemented in real life, but it's worth practicing. It really helps control the weight transfer of cars under hard braking and downshifting (especially MR cars with heavy rears).

 

[Johnnypenso]

I've searched around and found two answers:
- stop the car lurching forward when you downshift
- maintaining optimal rpm in new gear

You've pretty much got it. Speedwise though, nothing matches a modern transmission with paddle shifters in real life or in the game.

 

[VBR]

The benefits of it become very clear in FR & MR cars when driving without ABS. Keeps the car really stable under braking when done right, try it & see for yourself.

👍

 

[Mpumi]

Bloodstriker is right on the money. Keep the revs on the powerband

 

[PawnBoy]

As VBR said, stability is the main advantage over other techniques. I don't have my pedals set up for heel and toe at the moment, but without heel and toe you can still put the car in the correct gear during braking and then get back on the accelerator and let out the clutch at the same time when you need power again. The trouble with this method is that it's far easier to make a mistake and unseat the car, again especially with ABS 0, and it's also slightly slower since there's a period of time after braking where your clutch is still not out and you need to bring the engine up to speed.

That's what I think anyway... I really need to change my pedal setup...

 

[Jaywalker]

Bloodstriker is right on the money. Keep the revs on the powerband

Welcome to lol!

 

[TwistyDrift]

I don't know much about this but from my understanding (can't remember much) there is two parts the engine and the things that connects to the drive shaft. You heel toe to keep the power band and to reduce the wear and tear. Imagine this when your at 4th gear you would want to downshift to 3rd right? To get more power? When you shift down you will feel your car move forward because your not revving and your drive shaft is not matched up with the engine speed. So you heel toe to match the drive shaft speed and engine speed so that you get a smoother feel. You can also try doing double clutch it's very similar but different way of doing it.

 

[KinLM]

I know this sounds stupid, but which foot is the one that you use both the heel and toe on? And which pedals?

 

[gogatrs]

I know this sounds stupid, but which foot is the one that you use both the heel and toe on? And which pedals?

"Toes of your right foot on the brake, "heel" of the right foot on the throttle.
I use quotations because it's usually not the actually heel and toe of your foot but rather the left and right sides of your right foot. If ya catch ma drift.

 

[sik180sx]

I don't know much about this but from my understanding (can't remember much) there is two parts the engine and the things that connects to the drive shaft. You heel toe to keep the power band and to reduce the wear and tear. Imagine this when your at 4th gear you would want to downshift to 3rd right? To get more power? When you shift down you will feel your car move forward because your not revving and your drive shaft is not matched up with the engine speed. So you heel toe to match the drive shaft speed and engine speed so that you get a smoother feel. You can also try doing double clutch it's very similar but different way of doing it.

Heel toe shifting is used to eliminate compression lock-up of the tyres when downshifting quickly,also double clutching is for trucks and other gearboxes that have no synchro's,to help the gears mesh.
Double clutching is pretty much useless on a race transmission as they have straight cut gears,that is also the reason they whine loudly.

 

[PawnBoy]

Double clutching is pretty much useless on a race transmission as they have straight cut gears,that is also the reason they whine loudly.

Double clutching and the presence synchromesh has nothing to do with with whether the gears are helical or straight cut.

All modern transmissions have pre-meshed gears, the gear selector engages and disengages (dog)clutches to choose which pre-meshed gearset to use. In a non-syncro transmission if the the gearset side of the clutch is travelling faster than the selector side of the clutch, you'll hear grinding as you try and engage.

Synchromesh is a friction cone that gradually engages the two halfs of the clutch in an attempt to bring the selector clutch half to the same speed as the gearset clutch half. If the speeds of the two halves are not closely matched it can take great effort on the gear selector to engage the desired gearset as the synchromesh cones are required to do more work. This is often encountered when trying to select first gear while the vehicle is moving, or if while at speed the engine was allowed to idle with the clutch out in neutral before selecting another gear. In these cases and others, it is still beneficial to double clutch with a synchro mesh transmission, to ease the effort required to select the gear, and to reduce wear on the synchromesh cones.

Synchromesh can also wear out, not that it matters in GT5.

 

[Starscream94]

Is this when you brake and you somewhat also hit the throttle pedal Simultaneously?

Edit: NVM, ended up finding out

 

[sik180sx]

Double clutching and the presence synchromesh has nothing to do with with whether the gears are helical or straight cut.

All modern transmissions have pre-meshed gears, the gear selector engages and disengages (dog)clutches to choose which pre-meshed gearset to use. In a non-syncro transmission if the the gearset side of the clutch is travelling faster than the selector side of the clutch, you'll hear grinding as you try and engage.

Synchromesh is a friction cone that gradually engages the two halfs of the clutch in an attempt to bring the selector clutch half to the same speed as the gearset clutch half. If the speeds of the two halves are not closely matched it can take great effort on the gear selector to engage the desired gearset as the synchromesh cones are required to do more work. This is often encountered when trying to select first gear while the vehicle is moving, or if while at speed the engine was allowed to idle with the clutch out in neutral before selecting another gear. In these cases and others, it is still beneficial to double clutch with a synchro mesh transmission, to ease the effort required to select the gear, and to reduce wear on the synchromesh cones.

Synchromesh can also wear out, not that it matters in GT5.

Umm,i never said double clutching or synchromesh had anything to do with the gear cut.I did say double clutching is used for gearboxes without synchro's.
I also said double clutching is useless on a race transmissions,it just so happens that all dedicated race gearboxes use straight cut gears for reliability and cost reduction at the expense of noise,the reason double clutching is useless is due to the dog engagement of the gear.

And modern synchromesh gearboxes eliminate the need for double clutching,unless your synchro's are ruined from wear as they are usually made from brass.i should add too,modern road cars don't use dog clutches,they use synchromesh,they are two different things.

 

[LeadFootLiam]

If you don't heel toe you can lock up the back tires and the car become very un stable, heel toeing will rev match everything up so the downshift is much quicker and smooth.

 

[Morgoth_666]

If you don't heel toe you can lock up the back tires and the car become very un stable, heel toeing will rev match everything up so the downshift is much quicker and smooth.

Heel-and-toe is not in any way necessary for that however. It's just one of the methods used to achieve that, which has the advantage of being a more time-effiecient way of doing it than moving your feet around from pedal to pedal and only using one at a time. And of course heel-toe does not eliminate the possibility of driver error, meaning it won't prevent you from engaging a gear with the RPM too low or high.

 

[Johnnypenso]

In other words it's fun to do, a challenging skill, enjoy it if you want, but the paddle shifters are still the fastest way around a track, if speed is your only concern.

 

[nangu]

In other words it's fun to do, a challenging skill, enjoy it if you want, but the paddle shifters are still the fastest way around a track, if speed is your only concern.

I agree.

In regards heel & toe, learn from the genius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ekbvjyr0g

By the way, on some race cars, the only way to downshift properly is by heel & toe.