How to do Heel and Toe Downshifting

Today we’re talking about something called ‘heel and toe downshifting’ - clarifying how and why it’s done as well as what’s actually taking place inside the transmission itself when you doing the ‘heel and toe’. First the ‘heel & toe’ is used to downshift while you’re on the break. For example, imagine that you’re coming into a corner and have to downshift to exit it and accelerate out on a better gear so that you have a smooth transmission.

What you do is first press the break and then keep your foot on it during the entire process. Then you press the clutch, while you’re meanwhile downshifting from say 4th to 3rd gear, rolling your foot over to the throttle. If the pedals are really close to each other you can simply roll onto the throttle, and if there is too much space between them – you might end up rotating and using your heel so that you roll over and tap the accelerator with your heel.

No wonder where the name comes from right? When you have raised the engine speed, you release the clutch and there it is - perfectly smooth transmission.

But what’s taking place inside the vehicle, you probably wonder? Everything from the engine & flywheel, pressure plate, gear, lay shaft & wheels rotates synchronized together. However, all of them can also rotate individually. So if you’re in 4 gear, by pressing the clutch, you’re basically detaching the engine from everything else.

The moment you go from 4th to 3rd gear the clutch starts rotating faster than the engine. To match both speeds you have to roll on the throttle and bring the engine speed up to the clutch speed and only then release the clutch.

Why do we do that? Because this process will save your clutch and ensure that there’s no speed differential between the flywheel and clutch while they’re working. Further you’re going to achieve smoother transition without in any way upsetting the balance of the car.

If you decide to skip the ‘heel and toe’ in a FWD car and just release the clutch without using the throttle, then you’ll be placing a breaking force which will pass onto your driven wheels, hence increasing the slip angle of your front wheels and the tendency to understeer.

The same would happen in a RWD, only that the force will passed onto the rear wheels, breaking them and increasing the slip angle and tendency to understeer. If you fail to match the engine to the clutch speed in an AWD, the breaking force will simply go to all four wheels, and enhance the likelihood for the car to slide or understeer/oversteer depending one where most of the force speed is applied.

So if you ask us – learning how to ‘heel and toe’ and can save you a lot of trouble and money, of course. Let us know what you think once you’ve tried it.