I saw an amazing video a couple of years ago. It showed the driver's feet at work on a rally course. Would love to see it again. Anybody?

Do you mean this:






This one is more fun. Plus sounds a hell of a lot better to boot:

Old school. Heel & toe no longer used by the elite with all the semi automatic sequential (paddle shift) transmissions being used in the top racing formats. Which is not a loss at all IMO.

Paddle shifts and left foot braking allow for much better and total control of the car by modulating both braking and throttle simultaneously. Speed around a track is all about front/rear balance.

Michael Schumacher's greatness was due to that.

FYI The last of the right foot brakers in F1 was Rubens Barrichello. He retired a few years ago.

Thanks, guys. The one I remember showed bits of the course, dirt with lots of very tight turns. The foot work made a tap dancer look slow. My brief foray into racing, 50+ years ago, was in boats. No gears, no brakes. Just go fast and turn left. We had paddles for when the motor puked.

Yep, the automatic dual clutch transmission can make shifts in fractious of a second.

If you're using a manual clutch today, you're losing.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
Yep, the automatic dual clutch transmission can make shifts in fractious of a second.

If you're using a manual clutch today, you're losing.

Losing in terms of track time for sure. Not losing in terms of car / driver engagement / enjoyment.

I've got a 3 pedal stick shift Viper and a paddle shift Ferrari. While the Ferrari will eat the Viper's lunch on the track, the Viper is much more engaging to drive. Personal opinion of course.

quote:

Originally posted by Brice:
Thanks, guys. The one I remember showed bits of the course, dirt with lots of very tight turns. The foot work made a tap dancer look slow. My brief foray into racing, 50+ years ago, was in boats. No gears, no brakes. Just go fast and turn left. We had paddles for when the motor puked.

Brice, if you want to experience that performance on some level, go test drive a Nissan 370Z or a new Corvette with the synchro-rev match feature. I drove a 370Z a few years back with this feature, and it matches revs with every downshift automatically. A lot of "purists" (quotes on purpose) claim it as blasphemy and that they can do it better themselves. No way. It works EVERY....TIME. Perfectly. 4th to 2nd downshift at 50mph? Yep! Go try it out.

I tend to agree. If it is good enough for F1 it is good enough for me.
Peter

When I bought my 911, I actually thought about going back to a stick a few years ago and drove the 7 sp manual 911 Carrera S. It was fun to drive, but glad I didn't.

Speaking of boats and F1. My cousin's father in law was a world champion boat racer in Lago di Garda (Italy) back in the 70s. Back then during the Monza race, the F1 guys would go hang there and fart around. My cousin's wife as a little girl would sit on Andretti, Fittipaldi, et al laps while they all partied with her dad. He turned me on to a Gina Rossa which is equal parts Campari and Gin.

There does seem to be a close relationship between F1 drivers and speedboat racing. Didn't Ayrton Senna have one? Perhaps just the speed!
Peter