The techinque of heel-toe is used to downshift while simultaneously braking. If you drive a manual on a road course you'll suck if you don't do it well. In essence, your using the clutch, brake, and accelerator all at once but only with two feet. Usually, the right toe is used to brake and the right heel is used on the accelerator. It's pretty tricky and it takes a lot of practice to be good at.
Here's a good description:
http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving..._heeltoe.lasso
Veetec - The ideal pedal kit is one that has a high-friction surface on the brake and clutch and a smooth surface on the accelerator. That way you can reposition your heel on the accelerator but your toe won't ever slip off the brake (very important!) If you don't like the height, you can shim it up with just about anything - just make damn sure that it's on there
tight and won't come flying off and sticking under the brake pedal.
Mugen makes a good kit but it's
very expensive (of course)
You can do much better by buying cheaper mfg's individual pieces from different looking sets. For instance this:
plus this:
would probably be great.
One more thing - make sure your seat position is good and pull that seatbelt in [b]tight[/i] as you won't have a foot to brace you in the corner. I highly reccomend that you start practising on straight (and empty) stretches of road. Going a constant speed in 3rd gear, pick a landmark at the side of the road ahead of you, then brake hard, heel-toe down, and floor it. The object of the game is to get as close as you can to the landmark before braking, and to have sucessfully downshifted and back on the gas the moment you pass the landmark. Once you get comfortable with this, try a curve or two (but make sure to give yourself runout room!)
(all pics above from
http://www.shopresponse.com/pedals.html )
