Pedal Setup for Heel/Toe

[sf4018]

For the track rats on here does anyone have a good pedal setup to make a heel/toe work? I have the throttle pedal with the weird circular disc on the end.

Thanks!

Simon

[Dave W]

Probably the easiest solution is to just weld or rivet a arced plate on to the current pedal. If you are good at fabrication, look at re-designing the pedal setup, that would allow you to adjust fore/aft, up/down, pedal angle, and cross car. A heel rest will also help. Last your shoes makes a big difference. I'm big believer of pedal adjustment. All my pedals are adjustable. If you like, I can post a photo of the throttle pedal and heel rest.

Dave W

[Anker]

The pedals don't work with rolling your foot. The weird plate is for your heel. You press the brake with the ball of your foot and the throttle pedal with your heel.

[sf4018]

Probably the easiest solution is to just weld or rivet a arced plate on to the current pedal. If you are good at fabrication, look at re-designing the pedal setup, that would allow you to adjust fore/aft, up/down, pedal angle, and cross car. A heel rest will also help. Last your shoes makes a big difference. I'm big believer of pedal adjustment. All my pedals are adjustable. If you like, I can post a photo of the throttle pedal and heel rest.

Dave W

Yes please!

[Dave W]

Here some photos of my gas pedal and heel rest. The heel rest is not attached to the floor, but is just wedged into the foot well. I would mock up the heel rest location before fab'ing, because it needs to be located correctly within a 1/2" F/A. The gas pedal has an arched surface with the attaching gusset off centered on the back side, which allows you to flip the pedal to change the cross car location, plus you can use spacer between the pedal arm for added off set. The gusset also has three attaching holes for up/down adjustment. Plus you can pivot the pedal angle. I also have adjustable pedal stops, but they are attached to the frame that sets F/A. The design even has an adjustable cable eye, that allows some lever ratio changes by screw the eye up/down to change the cable travel. The "J" hook on the upper section is for the return spring. Note that my brake pedal is also adjustable, up/down and screws in and out to help position the pedal relative to the gas pedal. Dave W

[sf4018]

Really impressive Dave, thanks for posting that!

[sf4018]

Dave, I don't have a throttle return spring attached to the pedal like you do, should there have been one to begin with or is that something to add later? It would make sense having it, the spring on the actual manifold actuator seems pretty weak and it's hard to know if I'm even touching the pedal with my foot right now even with thin race boots.

[Nick OTeen]

You definitely should have a second throttle return spring, both as a safety measure and to give you more tactile feedback than what you are getting now from the single, existing spring.

[Nick OTeen]

Regarding pedal setup to facilitate heel and toe work here's what I did. The first picture shows my Caterham's original pedal configuration. First off, the clutch and brake pedals were simply too small. You need more surface area than that provided by the little rubber pads, particularly on the brake pedal, to get a good feel and to be able to provide sufficient force.

 

The other problem was the brake and throttle pedals being too far apart to allow heel and toe work. Additionally, the throttle pedal was a rather oddly-shaped thing.

 

The solution was twofold. First was the addition of pedal "overlays" to address the lack of surface area. Second was to remove the brake pedal and, using a hydraulic press, redo the bends to bring it close to the throttle pedal. I should mention that, at least for me, "heel and toe" is something of a misnomer as I work the brake pedal with the ball of my left foot and the throttle pedal with the (right) side of the foot while my heel remains on the floor.

 

The other, very important, element is to adjust the pedals such that when you are pressing hard on the brake pedal ends up on the same plane as the throttle pedal. This means under hard braking the ball of your foot is firmly on the brake while you blip the throttle with the outer edge of the foot.

 

 

[sf4018]

Nick, that looks like something I could do, I'm not really a fabricator, so attaching some pedal surfaces and bending stuff is is probably the extent of my abilities. Do you have a part number for those pedal surfaces? I guess they were bolted on after drilling some holes in the existing pedals?

[Anker]

They look like pedal pads from one of the sim racing kit suppliers.

[Nick OTeen]

Nick, that looks like something I could do, I'm not really a fabricator, so attaching some pedal surfaces and bending stuff is is probably the extent of my abilities. Do you have a part number for those pedal surfaces? I guess they were bolted on after drilling some holes in the existing pedals?

As I recall, I found those pedal overlays on eBay and they were relatively inexpensive. As you surmised, they are held in place by countersunk Allen screws.

 

Reconturing the bends in the brake pedal required removing it and using a hydraulic press (along with using some metal bar stock scraps as dies) in a friend's auto repair shop. In all about a simple thirty minute process.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Nick O'Teen

[JeffersonRaley]

That is how I heel & toe as well. The extra sensitivity of the side of my foot helps me be much more accurate with the throttle blip. And keeping the ball of my foot firmly on the brake helps me keep consistent brake pressure. But I guess "ball and side" doesn't sound as racy as "heel and toe".

[sf4018]

So from my novice metalworking tools and skills I've made a Frankenstein pedal from a Lokar throttle pedal set (it's ugly but works quite well so far). I have to add a spring return somewhere - should it attach above or below the pivot point? Where on the chassis should the other end of the spring attach to??