Comments by "John Luetjen" (@jehl1963) on "How To Drive A Manual Transmission + Rev Match + Heel Toe Downshift (POV Tutorial)" video.

  1. At about 11:00 when you're talking about going to 3rd, or other upper gears -- the thing that I have learned is to not try to over-control the gear shift lever. By this I mean a lot of people grasp the lever with their full hand and then try to feel 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th gears. Even worse, they grasp the knob with their palm over the top. This may work with Ferraris and other cars with exposed gates, but most cars have a boot, and you can't see, and may not be able to feel a gate -- because there may not even be one. The way around this is to use the palm of your open hand to move the lever. So from 2-3 in your car would be done by pushing with your palm straight forward. By not grasping the lever you won't apply any lateral force on the lever and potentially put it into the wrong gear. Instead you allow the spring to do it's job and gently move the shifter from the 1-2 plane to the 3-4 plane of the H. You shift from 3-4 by cupping your fingers around the lever (while NOT grasping it!) and pull the lever straight back. To shift from 4-5 you would use your palm (open hand) to push the lever toward 2:00 o'clock. To shift from 5-6 you backhand (open hand, thumb pointing down) the lever toward 4:00. To go from 6-5, you push the lever toward 2:00 again. From 5-4, you use the cupped fingers of your open hand to pull the lever straight back. From 4-3 you use your palm to push the lever straight forward. From 3-2, you use the cupped fingers of your open hand to pull the lever towards 7:00. To shift into 1st, use the palm of your open hand to push the lever towards 10:00. I learned this technique decades ago driving a Formula Ford, because they don't have gates on their shifters or anywhere else in the linkage. So you shift by pushing the lever in the direction of the gear that you want. It works every time in every car that I've ever driven.
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  2.  @username8644  True. Heel&toeing at mild levels of braking (as usually seen on the street) doesn't often work very well and is kind of pointless, especially since often braking is to a complete stop at stop lights and stop signs.
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  3. Depending on the car, I have found that one of two techniques will generally work. In my 911 that has a hard, un-boosted brake pedel and a well aligned throttle I will brake with the ball of my right foot and breath the throttle with the outer portion of my heel. In other more modern cars with soft, boosted brakes I may brake with the arch of my foot and use my outer toes to breath the throttle. In either case I don't "blip" the throttle. That spins the engine up and down too quickly. I've found the analogy that they used to use in Skip Barber works well. You want the engine to swell as you match rev's. You want a sort of "YOUnggggaaaa" sound from the engine that lasts 2 to 3 seconds, not a stab that spikes the revs (a Zoom!).
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