I know this is an older thread, but here is my story.

I was driving my wife's 05 MCS MT in San Francisco and found myself in an embarrasing situation coming off a stop light on what seemed like a 45 degree incline. Now this all happened in a split second, but when the light turned green, I stepped on the gas but nothing happened. I ended up panicking and over-compensating burning rubber off the line.

A lot of it was probably my unfamiliarity with the Mini, coming from a Honda, but "dead spots" and "delays" in throtle response is not intuitive.

It is a $300 experiment, but if the SB gives me smoother throtle modulation, or gives me a feel closer to a mechanical throtle, I will consider it money well spent.

This is a link to the YouTube video that finally sold me on the SB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrBp...eature=related

 

What is the advantage of Heel toe downshifting when taking a turn at slow speeds?

I thought the only advantage of Heel toe shifting was in moving quickly through a turn. It allows you to make a smooth controlled turn under power without a jerk to the transmission. I know it will help gas mileage and clutch life but I would think if you were moving through a turn at a slow pace with little engine speed that the advantages are minimal.

Are you just wanting to make a heel toe downshift at slower speeds just for the fun of it?

 

It has nothing to do with the relative speed of the corner. Lacking newfangled technology like a dual clutch sequential gearbox/auto rev-matching, etc., it is the only way to brake late and hard into a corner on the limit and not upset the car while selecting the correct gear to be in before the apex so you can smoothly apply the maximum power that the adhesion will allow at the earliest possible moment.

DOC

 

Yeah, I understand what you are saying but if the engine speed is low "say sub 2000 RPM" and your vehicle speed is slow "say sub 25 mph".

Then who needs to brake hard and what real advantage do you have when you could just as easily take the curve at full speed (no brake) shift and accelerate as normal without mis-matching rpms and vehicle transmission speed coming out of the curve.

The only real advantage to Heel-toe shifting is coming in fast being able to brake hard take turn and down shift and match transmission speed to accelerate out of the curve.

No need if you never drop speed.

 

Sorry, but the tranny in these cars has really good synchros, I don't really see the need to heel and toe anyway...

And yes I've raced cars with dog gears, and cars with crappy transmissions that pretty much required double clutching...

The Mini has so little engine braking it's simply not an issue.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

 

If you're doing 25mph, sure no need to brake. But let say you're doing 40mph in 5th gear (I think it will give you around 2k rpm), and need to slow down to 30mph to take a corner (let say at 3rd gear), you can heel&toe. You don't have to brake hard to heel&toe. The idea is to be at the correct gear for the corner.

 

Heel&toe and double clutching are not the same things. Sure synchros are good and I do agree double clutching is not necessary. But on the other hand, heel&toe has its advantages.

 

Hey doc444, thanks for the story. That's useful information to me.

Nice to know there are other folks out there that do that 5th to 2nd thing and have the grace to spare the gearbox a little in the process.

A good downshift is better than... well... a lot of other stuff!

I come by that honestly though, by means of a clapped out '62 Midget and a '56 Jag.

I've about 125k miles on two wheels also - now THAT's throttle response!

You've got me thinking, but at the moment I'll pass on the SB. I've been autocrossing my R53 for so long now that I'd have to reprogram my brains and "un-adapt". Might wind up making me a little choppy with the throttle too, as that gas pedal is EASY to move as someone else has already noted.

But thanks for sharing in any event.

Cheers,

Charlie