Heel & Toe Is it worth it?

I've tried doing heel-toe, but I just can't do it. I still rev match, but brake before and after I downshift.

 

It is a good starting point. Once you get used to blipping the engine to match the rev to down shift smoothly, you can then start to practice by gently braking (keeping the same amount of pressure at all time) and H&T to down shift. I recommend you to practise using 4th to 3rd shift first as it is (mostly) a straight gear movement rather than a dog leg so you can concentrate more on your footwork. You can brake harder and shift faster as you gain confidence. If done correctly, you will not feel the downshift at all during braking which helps the car to maintain the good balance.

H&T is not easy and some people take a long time to master so be patient. The reward is worth it, in terms of driving speed and pleasure you get out from it.

Without H&T, you cannot trail brake (continue to brake after turn in until the apex) so your style of driving will not get the maximum out of the cars.

 

If you are really interested in learning "heel - toe", take one of the three day schools from Barber or Russell. They use cars that have Hewland transmissions which have straight cut gears and no syncronizers. You must "heel-toe" for any downshift. Plus you will learn to drive a real race car. For instance the Barber cars at Laguna Seca will lap that track faster than an F40 on slicks. By the way "heel-toe" is really a misnomer since you use the ball of your foot on the brake and the side of your foot to blip the throttle.

 

The non-synchroed trannies in race cars, aka dog boxes, generally work best when they are jammed into gear by either letting off the gas for a second or by using an ignition cut switch that cuts the ignition for a split second while the gear shift is under way. Similar technology is used on racing motorcycles. If thats not the case on the 550, sorry. A dog box transmission was just developed for the type of car I drive, and it operates as I said above. It will actually damage the transmission if you pansy the shifts and try to be gentle.

 

Yes, this is true for going up gears, not down...

 

Thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure on that part.