BigRed

lol^

Throwdown

iTrader: (1)

Nice mod! I ended up buying new pedals to fix this, but you found a much cheaper alternative.

dmacleod

I have adopted this, finding it very helpful in allowing smooth revmatched downshifts during braking without ankle contortions. After the pedal mod, size 9 shoes can reliably bridge the pedals with little or no foot twist, and the heel can stay rested on the floor during the shift.

BLOTARY

http://www.pilotmall.com/category/shoes

anyone out there have a pair of these? wondering how they feel

daisuke

I did this mod and will never look back, anyone who does any performance driving should do this.

I will say, if you're going to do this make sure you have a socket and a short (3 inch) extension to hold the nut up behind the pedal, it's otherwise near on impossible to get the screws to thread into the bolts by holding them up by hand.

rx8thunder

^ thx for bumping this thread - didn't know about this clever mod

JantzenRX-8

iTrader: (9)

bump.

Found this searching for an alternative to careening off the track because my foot slipped off the brake. Seems like this will do nicely.

Pretty easy but kind of a pain to get in there.

FYI -- 3mm allen wrench and an 8mm socket is what you'll need.

heyarnold69

iTrader: (1)

very interesting... so this is what people with small feet do
+1 for creativity!

SPEEDfreakz60

When I downshift, I never "Heal-Toe" I find it simpler to break with the left side of your right foot and as you clutch and downshift, simply roll the right side of your foot onto the gas (of course all the time keeping the left side of your foot on the brake).

yiksing

I had trouble at heel toe-ing without modding the pedals at first but after I adjust my seating position through trial and error, it became possible and I'm only 5'7" with pretty small feet

Black Tire

Great mod and just what I was looking for after test driving an RX-8. I am a BMWCCA instructor and heel-toe downshift my 1999 M3 all the time. The pedals in the RX-8 were way to far apart for this and the slant piece on the left side of the accelerator pedal made it even worse. I wear a size 7.5 or 8 shoe so this doesn't help either.

Interesting that this is still called heel-toe. With a well set up pedal set (as in my M3) it is much more left side of the right foot on the brake (big toe) and right side of foot on the gas. If the brake pedal goes down too far under track conditions, you blip the throttle while releasing (easing off) the brake before the downshift into the corner. It should be one smooth transition from full brake to full gas under power. It can take a lot of practice to get it right. If you fail, you just keep on the brake longer and go slower through the corner until you learn more.

I learned this technique from watching a foot cam on a Formula 1 driver back when they still shifted manually and adapted it for use on my street car. I think the driver was either Jean Alesi or Rubens Barrichello. Probably Rubens as he was the last of the drivers to use just his right foot in an F1 car (still is???). All other F1 drivers now use left foot braking.

By the way, I have successfully done this with hiking boots on the track in the rain, but the results are somewhat inconsistent and/or slow. The lugs on the boots tend to get caught on the pedals and do not allow sliding when they do, resulting in failure of the technique. Driving shoes like Piloti are set up great for this, but if you are on a budget like me you can get by with any close-fitting shoe with a relatively smooth rubber (relatively sticky) sole. My current favorite is a pair of 70th anniversary Sperry Topsider lace up canvas tennis shoes.

Black Tire

Anyone know if this works on an S2? (I just read the sub-forum this post was in - found it by doing a search.)

ESBjiujitsu

FANTASTIC THREAD!!! This will be the first mod done to the rx8 once i snag mine. I love heal toe shifting in the MS6 so im sure with this mod and a rx8 Ill be heal toe crazy for a bit. I perosnally have the most fun heal toe shifting when im in my vibram five finger shoes, talk about awesome driving shoes and perfect for heal toe, pick up a pair of the bikila ls and you will just find heal toe driving is so much more easier.....atleast was for me.

ken-x8

Wow - that's way more recent than I would have thought. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

The movie Grand Prix has great foot cam shots in the Monaco sequence. I forget who the drivers were (old...senior moment) but I was astounded when I learned that they did those shots at Riverside, and the timing of the shifts matched a lap at Monaco because the drivers just knew the rhythm.

Don't remember just when and where I learned, but Piero Taruffi's book has a very good tutorial. Old enough to show actual heel and actual toe, and also foot position whether the gas pedal is on the right or in the middle.

Ken

wrightcomputing

iTrader: (5)

I did this on my Rx8 about a year ago and it is still working fine. It should work on the S2 if you have the same pedals. There is no drilling involved so just give it a try. Just unscrew the bolts and move them across a hole just screw them back up.

larsh

Thanks for the mod, have the same problem as OP before modding. Will try this soon.

And for Heel-Toe in general: I found this video helpful:

eyeguy

Just did this on my S2 after having difficulty with heel-toe at my last event. Drove the car to work today and so far it seems perfect. Fantastic free mod!!