Pedal re-alignment for heel -and-toe

Was wondering if anyone has considered a modification to the pedal assembly to allow for heel and toe braking / shifting? Given the orgins of our chassis, I'm not surprised that the pedals do not lend themselves to this type of driving, but I for one am constsntly frustated in attempting this maneuver. I think the angle of the accelerator pedal needs to be raised a bit so as to get it closer to the plane of the brake pedal. The roller obviously creates a problem. Please, no wood blocks taped to the pedal solutions. Any creative designers visited this idea yet? If not if goes on my list of summer projects.

In the 1950's I had the oppotunity to test drive a Frua bodied A6GCS Maserati roadster that had the classic clutch-left, throttle-center, brake-right pedal arrangement. For heel-and-toe this is optimal but you'd better not forget which is which in a panic situation or you may hit the throttle instead of the brake...

Well George I know a friend who went off a mountain in Baja Calif because his Bultaco dirt bike had the shift on the "opposite" side and instead of down shifting he ended up braking with his left foot, locked up the rear wheel and that was the end of that. He came home in an ambulnce. He says the bike is still there.

I was hink of something a bit more civilized, that by aligning the pedals I might increase my driving pleasure, it harkens back to when fast driving was considered an art form, conservation of forward momentum and all that(thank you Dennis Jenkinsen).

David, check out my files for a close up picture of my heel & toe pedal solution. CARUMBA 356. Eddie PS. click on "view as file list"

(Message Edited 5/29/2003 8:25:14 PM)

I use the ball of my right foot on the brake and the heel on the gas. Seems to work ok but that's the way I've allways done it since the 60s. I know some people prefer vica-versa. Foot is size 10 1/2; I can see that a bigger foot could cause problems.
ed

I tried viewing the Carumba356 photos, but all I get is a screen full of print.

Is there something special that needs to be done to view these pictures?

Thanks

David: The standard bug pedal cluster is adjustable. The clutch has a stop to limit forward motion and the brake clevis can be used to adjust the brake pedal height. It

I use the same technique as Ed. Heal on gas, toe on brake. I can heal blip the gas while under full braking with toe. The roller pedal does not work with this method.

David, most of my early M/C's (BSA, James, Ducati) had right shift levers and left rear brake pedals. Ducati even continued that on their single cylinder OHC bikes right up through the early 1970's. The left-shift/right-brake standardization took a while to catch on.

I've had the same problem when I had a "senior moment" and forgotten that I was riding an older Duck - makes for an exciting moment when no braking occurs...

Robert, first click on "regestered owner" under my name in the left margin, then on "photos of car" on the regestry card, then click on "view as file list" at the top right corner. That should get you there, let me know if it fails. Eddie

Eddie: I have viewed jpegs before on this site, but all of them are just being displayed now as 'hieroglyphics'. I thought it was my computer, but other web sites are working fine.

Robert

Robert, It's not only you. Same thing started here yesterday also. Pics
wouldn't work on my compuserve browser, but when I went to the site with
Microsoft Explorer the pics came up right???
BD

David, what did you decided to do about your pedals for heel and toeing? Eddie

How's this for a bummer? I had a stoke last month an I can't even drive a clutch yet (but soon I hope). My normal daily commuter vehicle being a Honda 750 CD makes this a double bummer. Luckily, I have one other vehicle with an automatic. So what did I decide to do about heel and toeing? Well, I am relagated to thinking about it for now! Thanks to all for the various options, I WILL do something, including a left foot dead pedal foot brace.

David, sorry to hear of your set back. Hope you get back to heel & toeing soon. Eddie

David - hope you get back to normal soon. One of my best friends had polio when he was 18 and as a result his left leg is not what it should be. It's a real experience to go for a rapid ride with him in his '56 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing - he uses his left hand to assist his left leg with the clutch while shifting with his right hand...:o)

George, sounds like shades of Archie Scott Brown driving his Lister, " I don't need no stinking hands just to drive my race car!"

At Fisher Body - General Motors, back in the sixties, we had a draftsman with literaly no fingers on either hand. He was a decent drafter, but nearly every night he laid two dark stripes of rubber leaving the parking lot in his SS396 Chevelle. MOst of us just gave him room. Handicapped people can raise their skills to remarkable levels, but I've always felt they operated closer to the limit than you or I, and have wondered what their capacity to absorb an unexpected incident would be. Perhaps Alex Zanardi showed us a few weeks ago in Germany.

The "Donut Man" lives! Eddie

On this one I say a welder and cutting totch work. This is not an 'original' so we are not 'restoring'. Go for it and have FUN!!

Eddie,
I dig your file pictures on Carumba. About the heel and toe issue, I can see you added a tab to the go pedal at the top. My problem is the top of my pedal is waaaaay below he plane of the brake and clutch pedals. I was wondering how to change the angle of the pedal to bring it into the same plane as the other pedals? I dig your dead padal also. Simple and creative.

Interesting, I just found pix of my own car under members files under Carrera JPS ! Someone was obviously in John's shop during construction, took the pix and posted them without my knowledge. I guess that is cool, I got no digital camera anywho.

Dave, the pedal height is adjustable. Unfortunatly I've never done this, but I'm sure someone else has.Eddie

David,

Very nice car!

Karl

All great. The nice thing here is we can do what we want. So ????? do what you want, or need. I got's big wide feet, so I have ta 'customize' for the optimum. .............Allways been that whay with cloths and shoes, so whats new??