D.e among all the techniques that you can put into practice to feel like a master of piloting like Fernando Alonsoeither as Ayrton Sennamaybe the one with the call “toe-heel” be the most complex. More of course than learning to look for the vertices in the curves or to ‘open’ the address when the car ‘goes nose down’. And maybe even more complex too than correct a crusade with an accurate contravolante, in which the most difficult thing is to be devilishly fast.
The toe-heel consists of step on the brake first with the right foot, without letting go of this pull the clutch with the left and, then, keeping the brake and clutch depressed, also sink the accelerator with the right while downshifting. Yes, we know that you only have two legs and that for a moment you have to step on three pedalsbut if you learn to do it well you will have made a huge leap in your piloting ability.
With only half of the foot
Because the real difficulty of this technique, which helps to differentiate a good pilot from another who is not so good, is that you are able to step on the brake with half side of your right footwhile using the other half to give a gas stroke that makes the engine rev up.
And so much complication at a time when you also have to reduce up to two gears and make sure you keep the line… for what?you ask. The answer is to do that the car does not get out of control when you do extreme braking before a corner.
that does not destabilize
To better explain its advantages, let’s say that by stepping on the accelerator with the clutch pedal depressed we make the engine suddenly revs. And in this way the mechanics the reduction fits better And it doesn’t lock the wheels. Because if it does, if suddenly the wheels brake, the suspensions will also sink and we will take the destabilized curveso we will have many ballots to end up going off on a tangent.
Ayrton Senna squeezes the Honda NSX by driving in loafers
We may think that great drivers do not need to put this technique into practice with the sequential changes that we find in Formula 1, Indy or Endurance Championship cars. But everyone needed to master her even if it was in the first promotion formulas that they went through and in which of course they stood out.
The lesson that Senna gave us
The example of the greatest mastery with this technique that we have known is that of Ayrton senna with the Honda NSX generation, a model that he helped develop when he was a driver for the team Marlboro McLaren Honda. It is incredible how the Brazilian puts this technique into practice in the Japanese circuit of suzuki. She does it without flinching, dressed as a wealthy landlord to walk around the marina where he has the yacht, wearing his sunglasses and completely unconcerned about some white socks that combine fatally with dark loafers. But the result is a master piloting lesson.
In cars with automatic transmission or automatic and sequential this trick cannot be put into practice. But it is so advantageous with manual cars, that brands like Porsche already make their manual cars give a gas hit automatic before each reduction, so that we only have to step on the clutch and brake before a curve.
If you don’t have a car with this technology (for example, a Cayman GT4) we invite you to try practice this technique. But we also warn you: at first it is very complicated, so try it when you do not go fast, nor are there other vehicles around you.
