Yep, that's right. From the first time I got behind the wheel I HATED the design of the pedals.

My wide feet just weren't made for the close nature of my 87 and its 3 pedals. I would move my foot to use the clutch for shifting, and WHAM I would get jerked forward as my foot would BARELY catch the brake pedal.

This had never happened to me in any vehicle. I started to worry I wouldn't be able to wear boots while driving. It was so annoying I considered modifying the setup to space things out a bit.



However, that all changed while I was on my way to work the other day.

I was late and in a hurry, so I was pushing the limits of the lifted XJ, ALL WHILE STAYING WELL WITHIN THE LEGAL SPEED LIMITS AND SUCH.

Anyway, My background is in auto-x, so I'm more used to race style driving than off road style...without thinking I made a heel-toe down shift.

AND IT WAS AWESOME.

I never figured I would need to in my truck, but holy crap this could be a fun trick when out on the trails!

 

Man, autocross, that's cool. I've always wanted to try it. What did you drive?

 

1993 Eclipse GSX.

I think I can heel toe shift better in.the XJ though. Lmao

 

maybe im just slow but what exactly is a heel-toe downshift? ive heard it used before but i have no idea what it means

 

Basically your working 3 pedals with two feet.

In my case I was running the clutch with my left foot, running both gas and brake at the same time with my right.

I was at higher RPMs, and didn't wanna force my truck into the lower gear with out RPM matching. I wanted to keep using the brakes, so I had to blip the throttle while still keeping the brake pedal pressed.

 

ooo okay that makes sense thanks

 

Fair warning, though, this is not something to practice on the road. And be very careful as you can easily mis-shift and potentially break something if you don't know what your doing.

 

Were you any good? Be honest.

 

Too good for my own good.

The car was too much for me and my maturity level at the time. And I built it.

 

How long ago was it? And maybe you've had enough learnin' to try again? I know it sounds a little dumb, but I've always wanted to build my '74 VW Beetle for autocross.

 

The car was sold a little over 5 years ago. And believe me, I want another go. I'm just a bit too deep into the XJ right now, and my vehicle space is limited.

A beetle would be interesting.

 

When you do get back to it, what are you going to go with (vehicle)?

 

i was skeptical when i first got her, but since i got to know her there wasent a time i remember that i wasen't in love with her!

 

I have to be really careful shifting my XJ.

In big trucks, we never use the clutch, except to take off. It's a habit I catch myself doing all the time in my XJ. It's actually pretty easy for me to float the gears in the XJ without grinding them, but I don't know if it was really made to do it. If I knew for certain that I wasn't hurting anything, I doubt I'd ever use the clutch in the XJ, once I got it rolling. I've always heard, however, that you're not supposed to float the gears in automotive transmissions.

 

I think your correct. Eats up syncros.