I just got a clutch pedal and i've been practicing my heel toe and I can do it pretty good on the turbo cars. I like to race the GTR cars alot but I was wondering. In real life to GTR cars have a clutch and do they heel toe downshift? I was wondering because I was having a real hard time doing it with the GTR cars.
As far as I've understood at least FIA GT2 class cars has to use clutch and heel & toe. No idea about the GT1 class but I would guess they don't use as they have all straight-cut gearboxes.
But then again our GTR cars are more like DTM or Super GT (former JGTC) variants.
Best Motoring videos of Japanese GT Series show, they do use heel&toe..
don't know about FIA GT, though, but I guess, they don't need to kick the clutch for shifting...
I know the aussie V8s have a clutch but you do not need to use it to change gear as they run trick sequential boxes. Some drivers use the clutch and others do not. Mark Scaife is one of the top drivers in the series and he uses the clutch at all times and does not heel toe, left foot brake or other similar techniques his right foot is on the brake or the gas not both.
In the 'JGTC Official Guide' DVD it looked to me like they don't heel&toe, but do rather left foot braking and blip the throttle with the right foot... In some in car footage you see the driver's right leg move up and down while downshifting (must be the blipping) but the left doesn't move (so they seem to not disengage-engage the clutch but rather seem to press the brake pedal the whole time).
But on the main topic: I do heel&toe in the GTR's (and I use the clutch). But it would be very nice if LFS finally implements different styles of gearboxes: the already available synchromesh for the road cars, a dog box for the GTR's and a semiautomatic dogbox for the single-seaters. I hope this makes it into S2 final...
Since most GT cars are based on Real production cars, it all depends on the car. I know that when the McLaren was being used in the GT1 class here I say a video showing the driver's footwork, and he was deffinatly heel-toe. He also had the stock 6-speed transmission, not a sequential.
Basically you press the accelerator to get the revs to what they'll be in the new gear when you downshift. AFAIK it's better for the drivetrain to rev up relatively slowly than to just suddenly go up lots of revs.
I've downloaded complete SuperGT races by MotorsTV and too bad that those don't have incar footage at all. Interesting in SuperGT is that it's a victory for driving skill - TC, ABS, carbon brakes and Stability control are all completely banned (even if the production models had them).
Gearbox/clutch improvements might come sooner than we expect:
Pretty much. The main reason is to match the revs for the gear your are downshifting to. This keeps the rear wheels from locking up because you are also hard on the brakes at this point. It is almost the same thing as blipping the throttle for downshifts in LFS. The difference is that you have the ball of your right foot (the "toe" part in Heal/Toe) on the brake and you use your heal to blip the throttle. You use your left foot to work the clutch. It is a tricky maneuver to learn and perfect.
I have a clutch pedal but I don't try to heal/toe much. When I depress the brake enough to get the desired stopping power, I have a hard time getting my heal up onto the gas pedal. It is almost as if the gas pedal needs to be set back further, but there is no adjustment for that.
I think that different racing series and different cars have different ways of shifting. In ALMS for example, the Porsche GT2 cars will heal/toe for downshifts, but not clutch for up shifts. They do use a sequential gearbox though.