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By Product Expert | Posted in How to on Monday, January 30th, 2017 at 6:54 pmWhat Is Heel-Toe Braking?
Speed will get you ahead, but it is patience, precision, and planning that wins races. To be able to push a vehicle to its full potential, you must first understand how the vehicle works in entirety. This is where heel-toe braking comes into play. If you don’t know the transmission and clutch in and out, you wouldn’t even think of this as a possibility. Luckily for all of us, however, we have the internet!
Rev Matching
When your wheels spin, your transmission spins. At any given speed, each gear will be spinning at a different RPM, just like on a bicycle. To properly engage a gear, engine speed must be matched with transmission speed for a seamless shift. When you are accelerating, rev matching happens automatically because engine speed slows down when you take your foot off of the accelerator. When you are decelerating, however, engine speed must rise to match the speed of the lower gear. Heel-toe braking is a means of rev matching while decelerating.
How To Do It
As you are braking into a corner, you will need to shift down as quickly as possible without disrupting the momentum of the wheels. To do this, you use the toes of your right foot to apply the brake while using your heel from the same foot to punch the gas to get the RPMs up to speed. Your left foot operates the clutch as normal. This takes years of practice to master and is slightly different for every car. If you have any questions about what heel-toe braking is, leave a comment below!