Question on Heel Toe

[Car54]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

yeah thats an issue i have also. seems i forget too much about the braking portion when im trying to get the heel toe thing right.

It's just seat time to help with this. It doesn't have to be track $eat time.

I often advise students to find a highway cloverleaf...you know, where you can just keep going from entrance ramp right to exit ramp all in the same area. Keep going around and around and practice 4-3 downshifts. You may feel like an idiot, but no one notices because it's always new people on the cloverleaf. If you see someone else doing it with you, well then you just made a buddy.

[swartzentruber]

Originally Posted by Car54

With the DCT, can you leave it in auto mode and will it downshift to the lowest possible gear as you slow the car?

I've only done one track weekend in my M3, and I didn't think the auto mode was nearly aggressive enough in downshifting. It seems like it tends to want to wait until you actually start accelerating to downshift, not downshift through the braking zone. I went from "OMG these brakes are horrid" the first day to "they aren't great but can do okay" they next day with the help of a little engine braking in manual mode.

To answer the question of how do you drive on the track without heel toeing, I can answer that, since I've been doing it for 10 years. I've been trying to learn it for a while, just have had a lot of problems with consistent foot placement. Anyway, it's really driven exactly the same way as with heel toe, just without the rev (i.e. wait until the car has slowed, shift quick, go). Heel toe just helps maintain vehicle stability, and is easier on the transmission, particularly if the RPMs are a bit higher. After putting a new 6MT trans into my R32 last year (unrelated, I think, to my lack of heel toe), I'm very interested in making this one last, and hopefully this year I'll have finally mastered it enough on the street to start using it on the track.

[CanAutM3]

Originally Posted by M3 Esq.

I struggled to apply enough brake because I was concentrating too much on bliping the throttle. The result was that I came in way too fast into Big Bend a few times. It wasn't pretty. My instructors never broke it down for me to concentrating on getting my braking (or most of it) done first before executing the shift. Looking back on it I was trying to do everything together and it was messy. Thanks, this helps.

This reminds me to another element I need to work with a lot of students. Most novice/intermediate students tend to be light on the brakes early in the braking zone and then adjust their speed by applying more brakes when nearing the turn-in point. I teach the exact opposite. You should be hard on the brakes early on and then adjust your speed by releasing the brakes if needed.

This approach is much safer because you are doing your hardest braking when you brakes are the coolest (at the end of a straight). By being light on the brakes in the early section, you are still putting heat in the brakes. You are then counting on hotter brakes to slow you down more at the end. Good chance of getting brake fade. By braking hard early, you can brake much deeper. Further, by adjusting your speed by releasing brake pressure rather than increasing it, the transition to turn-in and to trail braking is much smoother.

[M3 Esq]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

This reminds me to another element I need to work with a lot of students. Most novice/intermediate students tend to be light on the brakes early in the braking zone and then adjust their speed by applying more brakes when nearing the turn-in point. I teach the exact opposite. You should be hard on the brakes early on and then adjust your speed by releasing the brakes if needed.

This approach is much safer because you are doing your hardest braking when you brakes are the coolest (at the end of a straight). By being light on the brakes in the early section, you are still putting heat in the brakes. You are then counting on hotter brakes to slow you down more at the end. Good chance of getting brake fade. By braking hard early, you can brake much deeper. Further, by adjusting your speed by releasing brake pressure rather than increasing it, the transition to turn-in and to trail braking is much smoother.

Makes total sense. This is something I will be working on this coming season.

[OC3]

^+1 (makes total sense)

[Car54]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

This reminds me to another element I need to work with a lot of students. Most novice/intermediate students tend to be light on the brakes early in the braking zone and then adjust their speed by applying more brakes when nearing the turn-in point. I teach the exact opposite. You should be hard on the brakes early on and then adjust your speed by releasing the brakes if needed.

This approach is much safer because you are doing your hardest braking when you brakes are the coolest (at the end of a straight). By being light on the brakes in the early section, you are still putting heat in the brakes. You are then counting on hotter brakes to slow you down more at the end. Good chance of getting brake fade. By braking hard early, you can brake much deeper. Further, by adjusting your speed by releasing brake pressure rather than increasing it, the transition to turn-in and to trail braking is much smoother.

I don't mind it when I'm yelling brakes, Brakes, BRAKES!

[CanAutM3]

Originally Posted by Car54

I don't mind it when I'm yelling brakes, Brakes, BRAKES!

very true!!