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MG MGA - Heel Toe'ing

The big feet thread below got me thinking.

I've been attempting to learn to heel toe with dreadful results. All the video I've seen shoes the toe on the brake and the heel blipping the gas. For whatever reason I CANNOT get my heel over that far. I'm wondering if its a pedal positioning problem.

Any hints from you race car driver types? (or coordinated types)
T McCarthy

I have clown feet (11.5 EEEE) and besides spacing, my ankles just won't let me heel/toe. I added a Paddy Hopkirk pedal and can do it a little better. Could be an option.
Tom Baker

In my experience you don't need to use your heel, I just rock my foot over whilst on the brake so that the side of my foot hits the accelerator - so blipping the throttle and changing down whist still braking . It is well known that the MGA pedals are not ideally spaced for heel/toeing ( the MGB was better) and that accelerator extensions were available in the 60s/70s to allow this more easily.
Cam Cunningham

I use my toes on the brake and the side of my foot to blip the throttle.
Fuzz
Russ Carnes

Itīs much easier with the Paddy Hopkirk pedal.

http://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=37170

Tore



Tore

I found that playing with the throttle cable allowed me to lower the pedal a fraction giving it a better position to get the heel on to.
I also recommend rubber soled shoes as I have managed to slip off the brake a couple of times while practicing!!
Watched a piece on Walther Rohl driving one of the Audi Quattro's and his feet are playing the pedals like a church organ!! Mostly using both feet simultaneously, either brake and clutch, brake and accelerator or throttle and clutch. It was all much healthier before the sequential shift where no clutch pedal is needed to change.

Neil
Neil Purves

I recently received my competition license from Skip Barber and ran my first race (got a rookie of the race award). They require students to master heel/toe. School cars have NO synchros. The race cars are sequential with synchros. The technique they teach is to put the ball of your foot on the brake and roll the right edge of your foot to the throttle. Most racing shoes are designed to facilitate this. Pedal height is critical, as is shoe width. That's what racing shoes are about. Oh, you can shift up with sequential gearboxs without the clutch, but it is still preferred (but not absolutely required) when down shifting.
Cheers,
GTF
G T Foster

I always heel-and-toe my MGB, and as others have said you donīt have to literally use your heel. My MGA wonīt be ready for some years yet, so I donīt know about MGA pedals, but in the MGB I find a high brake pedal is a great help for comfortable heel-and-toeing.

Tore
Tore

You can certainly heel and toe using the side of your foot on an MGA.

In fact I spent so many years driving them on the street with dodgy synchros that I still automatically double clutch the shifts on my modern manual transmission vehicles.
Bill Spohn

Ditto the Paddy Hopkirk and the side of the foot, not the heel.
Paul Hanley

I thought the term heel and toe was developed for cars with organ type throttle pedals, doesn't work worth a darn for cars with pendulum type pedals, the side of the foot works much better there. The Paddy Hopkirk extension usually extends those low enough to get the heel involved though.
Bill Young

This thread was discussed between 06/09/2008 and 09/09/2008

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.