Pointed heel technique

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The tip-heel technique is a foot movement with which motorists and especially racing drivers brake and at the same time shift down with double-declutching. Double-declutching was necessary when shifting down non-synchronized transmissions in order to accelerate the transmission shaft to the engine speed of the lower gear. The technique was mainly used to decelerate from high speed before cornering, when simply shifting down or down and braking one after the other would not have achieved the necessary effect quickly enough.

For vehicles with stationary pedals in the usual order of clutch, brake, accelerator, the sequence was as follows:

  • right foot or ball of the foot with a slight left turn on the brake pedal,
  • Disengage and shift to idle,
  • Engage the clutch and double-declutch your heel or heel,
  • Disengage and engage lower gear,
  • Engage the clutch, release the brake and accelerate.

With the appropriate practice, the process ran at lightning speed, especially when disengaging and engaging was omitted. The tip-hoe technique did not need and should not be used with foresighted driving style adapted to the situation. With hanging pedals it is hardly possible anyway. The journalist and racing driver Richard von Frankenberg wrote in his book Hohe Schule des Fahrens as early as 1960 : “The ideal case is that you only 'brake' on a curve by shifting down. But if my downshift is not enough, I also have to apply the brakes. ... "

In order to facilitate the tip-heel technique and to be able to brake more powerfully, racing and sports vehicles from the prewar period and the first years after the war partly had the accelerator pedal in the middle between the clutch and brake pedal. The driver put the heel on the brake pedal and accelerated with the tip of his foot.

In the introduction to his book chapter Das Spitze-Hoe-Spiel , Richard von Frankenberg wrote: “Those who dream of full automation will say: nonsense to speak of 'lace-hoe' when automation is coming our way; … “This automation has been around for a long time, and even in today's racing, nobody needs to master the tip-heel technique anymore.

source

Richard von Frankenberg: High school of driving . 6th edition, Motor-Presse-Verlag, Stuttgart 1961, pp. 193-197.