jimbo said:
FWIW, heel and toe downshifting is somthing I don't think I will ever do or need to do. In the old days when transmission gear were unsynchronized, I think it was necessary to downshift. With synchronized gears, I think it is just use in racing to save wear on the clutch.
On the street, you will never ever need it. You may want to do it, to feel like a race car driver. Of course you can wear a helmet to. But until someone corrects me, I don't believe I will ever need to heel and toe during downshifts, even in very spirited driving.
It all depends on how well you want to combine braking, handling.
You can always brake first, then coast while you shift, then get into your corner... but you will never be smooth enough to squeeze that last bit of time out of the car.
I do it all the time in "spirited" driving, even.
Heel-toe downshifting gets the downshift done without interfering with cornering and in the minimum amount of time. Kinda like killing two birds with one stone.
Do you HAVE to do it? No, and if you never intend to increase your driving skillz past on-the-street spirited driving, you prolly will never see a need for it. You don't have to finish above last place, either.
If you are even contemplating competition of any sort (autocrossing, time trials, club racing, track days where you are keeping track of time...) you are either a) not serious about competing, or b) have learned how to heel-toe downshift.
Even in today's cars with synchros - all synchros do is synch up the clutch disc with the speed of the transmission for the chosen gear. Heel-toe downshifting is matching the ENGINE RPMS to the SPEED OF THE CAR.
If you put a car into a lower gear without blipping the throttle, and just let out the clutch (engage the clutch to the engine) and your engine isn't matched, you might as well have pulled the parking brake - as the engine desperately tries to rev up to match the vehicle speed. Doing this in a corner is disasterous. Doing this in a corner on the side of a mountain... well, nice knowin' ya....