Driving tips needed
 

hey 8ters,

finally getting pretty proficient at the 6spd for normal driving. wanted some insight and how to REALLY drive the car. i'm over the handbooks 600 miles "break in" period and am ready to start having some fun with it. i know like to get more accel you should downshift, but haven't really put my car to the limit yet. per say, if i'm cruising on the freeway at about 60MPH in 5th and someone decides to start messing with me, would it be safe to skip 4th and drop it into 3rd for even more pull in the high RPM range? i have downshifted more than 1 gear at a time yet for fear of jacking something up in my car. haha but any tips would be great. anything really, even how to get the car to really hug those curves. i'd like to start scaring some passengers hehe.

Assuming you redline...
1st: 39 mph
2nd:65
3rd: 89
4th: 124
5th: 147
6th: 148

First you need to master downshift rev-match then go heel toe, left foot braking, etc.

Get some track days!!
Or auto X
There you can make all the mistakes you want and not end up damaging your car ( I learned that the hard way, just not with this car :-)
Rev match on down shifts (blip the accelerator while the clutch is engaged on a down shift) If you get it right the transition upon releasing the clutch should be verry smoth.
Heal and toe, (Same thing as rev matching, just that you are pressing the brake pedall with your toes while pressing the accel with your heal) you do this to rev match while entering a curve. Again practice slow first. If you over do it you maight end up spinning out and crashing.
Left foor breaking??? WTF on a FR car??? wouldn't use it.
BE SMOOTH WITH THE STEERING WHEEL. Jerking the steering wheel into a corner might make the tires slip (Drift if you want to call it that) but it wont make you go faster. Also learn hou to pick a racing line (hugging the inside of a curve from start to finish is not always the best way to go around it)

And again, I cant say this enogh. Be safe on public roads.

hmm... i've never done left foot braking. gotta go try.

i say go take a performance driving class.

Know how to rev-match....it's handy in daily driving and prolonging clutch life.

left foot brake is very useful, say you are in third going 80 and there is a little curve which you know you could do make it at 75, so you just left foot brake and keep the momentum through the turn. smooth and fast.

^or you could just use your right foot...? I don't see the point.

What exactly is heel toe shifting? Excuse my ignorance..

Search/google, ya rly

Basically, braking with your right foot and using the heel of your right food to rev match at the same time to downshift. Notice the shape of the gas pedal in your rx8.

There is a video of Tsuchiya (? i think it was him) doing some left foot breaking. Though for amateur drivers/racers, I'm sure it's not needed.

Toe-and-heel is only useful if you are doing full out breaking. You can do plenty of rough driving without it. Its only if you want to squeeze out the last of the car you would have use it. I have been driving plenty of wild runs (on safe twisties of course) without using Toe-and-heel.

Heel and toe is basically doing braking and rev-match downshifting at the same time so you are in the right gear to accelerate out of a corner.

Go to: www.turnfast.com

You dont have to be at threshold braking for H&T to be useful. As a matter of fact, all my practicing comes on regular driving around town and I am certainly not wringing my car out. The benefits of not upsetting the car on downshift are useful in many places.

Oh and to the original poster, yeah, take some high performance driving instruction. You can learn a whole lot more about this car than "messing with" people on the highway. Safer, too.

You have to excuse him on this one, he meant at the threshold of sanity he would use his Toe and Heel to break his 8 apart.

Now that I read this: http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving..._heeltoe.shtml I have a much better understanding of the purpose of the heel-toe downshift !

OH that's what heel-toe is! This whole time I've been doing that but with just my ball of my foot, because its soo wide.

When I first started going to the track that's what I did too. But after much practice, I am much faster when heel-toeing the real way. Not to mention you don't run the risk of the side of your foot slipping off of the brake.

My feet are too big or something. I tried this when I went to pick up some lunch.

It did not work out so well =/

I use left foot braking in the middle of a turn to correct for understeer. As I maintain constant throttle and notice understeer (front tires pushing out of the corner) I correct by lightly applying the brakes with my left foot to increase the normal force imparted on the front tires thus aiding in traction. I could also use lift off throttle steer to correct understeer but typically this manouver has less control and can often end up in oversteer. Lifting off the throttle suddenly can be pretty dangerous mid corner as it's hard to control how much gas you are giving or not giving the car but typically people can gauge how much brake pressure they are applying.

Heel toeing is really useful to set yourself up for a fast entry into a corner and a quick exit. I drive fast and hard into the corner but braking late into the corner means being hard on the brakes. So the balls of my right foot covers the brake and applies the brakes. But in order to exit the corner with plenty of power I'll need to downshift. So as I am braking, I depress the clutch midcorner and kind of roll my right foot to blip the throttle 1000 rpms before re-engaing the clutch into the lower gear. A smooth downshift results just in time for the exit. Not heel toeing would make this process too slow. Beat your friends in a street race learn this technique! :)

Thanks guys. I now know what heel toe shifting is.

You just need more practice unless you have a foot like Shaq does

I'm no racecar driver, but I think that the downshift should be done before turn in. You shouldn't depress the clutch petal mid-corner.

I wear Puma Speed Cats when I drive and do a true heel/toe (actually use my heal instead of just rolling my foot). I think it just depends on the size of your foot and what shoe you are wearing.

^^ Yes you are right