MZAVARIN wrote:I wonder if just: letting go of brake and tapping the throttle pedal before releasing clutch to get the revs up would work adequately enough (rev-match)...to substitute for the heel/toe (rev-match) deal...
Picking out this line to address. Yes, that does work, and it's what we teach our new drivers to do when they can't heel/toe. BUT, you NEED to get that downshift done before you turn. And that means braking earlier into the turn. If you don't you run the risk of upsetting the car in the event that you screw up the rev matching. If you try to rev match as you turn in and you miss (under rev, or over) you can easily send the car into a spin. The benefits to heel/toe are that you can do this downshifting while slowing down and pointing straight, but keep the braking point later. You'll have the downshift done and can still do a little trail braking into the turn.
Left foot braking and Heel/Toe take practice. You can't just try it once, realize you suck, and then push it off as impossible. The way I learned heel/toe was through street driving and years of practice. Start out with just rev matching. getting off the highway, driving around back roads, things like that, practice rev matching to downshift with no braking involved. Do it until you don't have to think about it anymore. You will get it wrong at first, a lot. But after a lot of practice you'll be able to perfectly nail downshifts just about all the time. When you are there start working in the heel/toe aspect.
First you need to figure out what method works for you. There's several ways to position your feet for heel/toe and it will come down to the size of your feet, your car, your pedal arrangement, and your seating position. This picture shows the two main methods. I use a hybrid somewhere in the middle. Basically my big toe of my right foot sits on the brake pedal, and then the edge of my foot just below the smallest toe hits the gas. My heel kind of stays around where it would be if I was fully on the gas. I then rock my foot to keep brake pressure even and hit the gas.
It's going to be weird and awkward for a while. Just keep at it. Best places are highway off ramps since you're slowing down a lot more aggressively than say a slight corner on a back road. But keep doing it until it's second nature. Last step is learning it on track. This will be different because of the aggressiveness of your braking on track. It will feel different because the brake will be depressed so much further, but it shouldn't take long to adapt at that point.
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