This was a post on the Tracquest website by Todd Serotta ( the organizer of Tracquest and a very accomplished driver who sponsers great track events. I hope it is of value to those who wish to become better drivers. - Robert
Todd writes;
Here's the best way to learn, and the good news is, it's on the street, not
the track. So, by the time you get to a track event, you should have it down
pretty well if you practice.
First, you need to learn the timing of the blip. The easiest way to do this
is to do it while downshifting without braking, so you can use your left
foot on the clutch and your right foot to blip the throttle. This is also
referred to as "matching revs." Every time you downshift, try it. The only
difference between this and regular downshifting is that after you've put
the shifter in the the lower gear, just before you release your foot off of
the clutch, you blip the throttle with your right foot to bring your rpms up
to at least where they'll be in the lower gear. For example, if you're at
4000 rpms and you're going to downshift from 4th to 3rd, which will (I'm
making a rough guess) bring your rpms up to 5000 when you let off of the
clutch, you need to blip the throttle to get your rpms to at least 5000.
6000 is fine too, as they'll just drop right away to 5000, where your
gearing will put them. The critical thing is timing: you need to blip and
let your foot off of the clutch before your rpms fall below where they'll be
in the lower gear - in the example, 5000.
Once you have that down, you can add the complexity of the heel-toe
maneuver. You're doing the same thing, except you're braking at the same
time, so your right foot isn't available to blip. Therefore, you need to use
your right foot to do both, which means leaving part of it on the brake,
pressing hard, and part of it on the gas pedal, doing the blip. There are
two basic techniques, and you need to do what's most comfortable for you
based on your pedal set up. One is to twist your ankle counter-clockwise and
blip with your heel (which I always do if the pedal set up allows it) or
roll your foot over so that the left half is still applying the brake and
the right half is blipping (which I only do if I can't do the twist
maneuver). Just make sure you're very comfortable with the timing of the
blip from the first exercise before you try this, or you won't be able to do
it.
One additional piece of advice if you use the ankle twist (heel) method.
With most pedal set ups, if you brake as you always do, with the ball of
your foot on the center of the brake pedal, the distance between the portion
of your foot on the brake pedal and your heel is too great, and your heel
winds up on the very bottom of the gas pedal, making it very difficult, or
even impossible, to blip. In this case, put the center of your foot, below
the ball, on the center of the brake pedal. This will put the heel of your
foot in the center of the gas pedal, making it very easy to blip. I had an
instructional lunch several months ago with Pat Overell to help her with her
heel-toeing. She was twisting her heel, but wasn't aware of this tip. Once
she tried it, it made things a lot easier for her.
The really good news is that aside from making your shifts smoother at the
track, matching revs while downshifting (whether just blipping or
heel-toeing) is easier on your drivetrain and will make it last longer. It
also sounds really cool if you have a nifty exhaust! :-)
Finally, don't confuse heel-toeing with double clutching. Double clutching
involves first putting the car in neutral when you downshift, taking your
foot off of the clutch, putting it back on the clutch and then putting the
car into the lower gear. This was done many years ago when synchros weren't
so great. There's no need to do this on any modern street car, and it will
slow your shifts if you try, even if you become fairly adept at doing it. "
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