heel-and-toe position on a Civic

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bucky3 - 23 Jul 2009 10:56 GMT

I'm trying to learn heel-and-toe downshifting on my 2001 Civic. After
several attempts at rotating my foot 90 degrees in either direction to
accomplish this task, I learned that the term is sort of a misnomer,
and is more like inside of the foot and outside of the foot.
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/45792/article.html

Anyone have a good suggestion for foot position? I've tried doing
pointing straight up (12 o'clock) and using inner vs outer edges of
foot, but often, the pedals are too wide for my feet. Is there some
other optimal position like pointing my toes 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock
that works better?

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Dillon Pyron - 23 Jul 2009 23:49 GMT

>I'm trying to learn heel-and-toe downshifting on my 2001 Civic. After
>several attempts at rotating my foot 90 degrees in either direction to
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>other optimal position like pointing my toes 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock
>that works better?

Correct. It's actually toe & heel. I first learned it effectively at
Bondurant. It works very well in cars that are actually designed for
it. I was able to sort of do it in my 96 Civic, but not my wife's 96
Accord.

I'm now trying to figure out how to get left foot braking to work in
my Fit. Looks like it will take MAJOR physical modifications. For
the critics, I left foot every couple of weeks in my F500 racer, so I
know exactly what I'm doing.

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- dillon I am not invalid

"Jimmy, I'm sorry your girlfriend turned out
to be a cylon."
-Special Agent Tim McGee, "NCIS"

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APLer - 25 Jul 2009 02:48 GMT

> I'm trying to learn heel-and-toe downshifting on my 2001 Civic. After
> several attempts at rotating my foot 90 degrees in either direction to
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> other optimal position like pointing my toes 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock
> that works better?

If you want to see it done for real, watch the first 20 minutes or so of
"Grand Prix", the movie with James Garner. All the scenes happen in the
race at Monaco before the big crash.

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bucky3 - 29 Jul 2009 09:16 GMT

After some experimenting, I found that pointing toes at 10-11 o'clock
works good for me. Since the brake pedal is actually trapezoidal, that
allow me to operate the brakes with left side of the ball of the foot,
then the gas with the right/outer edge of the foot.

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