Is anyone else having difficulty 'heel & toeing' your MINI? I did a three day SCCA training session with my 2006 MCS, and I had a devil of a time heel & toeing. I started off wearing my narrow Pumas, which work great in my Miata, but are too narrow for my MINI. I ended up using a pair of very wide sandals, so I could work the brakes hard and still be able to blip the throttle on downshifts. Is there a pedal kit for this problem?

 

I've been toe/heeling for decades. The stock pedals on the MINI are the most challenging I've encountered. The pedals on my full size GMC pickup are easy to use by comparison. I too am still looking for a decent pedal kit.

 

These seem nice. Would like a review if anyone has tried this:

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...rs_manual.html

 

These are just pedal pads. What is needed is a whole new pedal mechanism kit to get the throttle higher and the brake pedal lower (and the 2 pedals a bit closer) so you don't have to be a contortionist to toe and heel.

 

Ah you are right. I thought the angled piece on the throttle would be more help with the heel/toe but I just checked and its on my stock pedal.

 

Yea the pumas are a little too narrow for me, too. I have some old running shoes that work perfectly.

mb

 

Just practice......been doing it for more than 25 years and the MINI wasn't any harder than any of the others.

 

A wider gas pedal (in the direction of the brake pedal) would help.

 

I have these. They work well for me. I've used them in several track events. The gas pedal is just enough wider to enable me to fit my foot comfortably between the gas and the brake even with narrow driving shoes on.

I'm slightly confused about the other comment about the relative heights of the gas & brake. They seem to be at the right relative heights when I need them to be, i.e. when I've got my foot depressing the brake and I need to blip the throttle to downshift...

How far is your brake pedal depressed when you try to heel-and-toe?

 

When I'm on the brakes, the brake pedal is still a couple of inches out from the throttle. Not really an issue with the stock brakes, but the JCW brakes require far less pedal depression to throw out the anchor.

 

I have had really good luck with my Ultimate Pedals:



Much better grip when wet and 100% better "heal/toe" action because of the modified shape from stock. Here is a shot showing how much wider the gas pedal is:



Added to this, the gas pedal is bowed in the center bringing it closer to the same height as the brake pedal when engaged. Just a roll of the foot and there is the gas. Very nice.

 

I always have trouble heel-toe shifting because my feet are long and wide. I can never get my heel over to the accelerator and still feel like I have good control of the brake pedal.

I do something that woudl be better called 'ball-toe' shifting... keeping the ball of the my right foot on the brake and tapping the top of the accelerator with my pinky toe to blip the throttle.

When I wore driving shoes, they were just barely too narrow for me to reach over and blip the throttle, so I was still stuck.

I bought a new pedal set from Ultimate Pedals... the gas and dead-pedal are from the MINI set and the brake/clutch combo is sourced from a Ferrari Mod 1 design. This allows me to slide the brake pedal around a notch or two, depending on if I'm in 'street' mode for my nice dress shoes or in 'track' mode when I'm wearing driving shoes and needing to limit brake and blip the throttle.



If you look closely at the screw locations on the brake, you can see that it is in the 'far left' position right now, for street driving. When I get ready for a DE, I slide the pedal one notch over to the right, giving me a bit more room to leave my right foot firmly on the brake while still being able to reach over and tap the gas if needed.

 

i, too, have a set of ultimate pedals http://www.ultimatepedals.com/home.htm

i like them a lot while on the track.....in my work boots, they are a bit of a pain, but i will gladly put up w/ it on the street for the sake of better track performance.

 

I must have fat feet, I have no problem - like some of the others, I use the ball of my foot on the brake pedal, and the right edge on the gas - works a treat..............here are my pedals........

 

not sure if you guys are into RAZO, but they have a set of pedals that has an adjustable arm form heel-toe'ing

 

agranger, your pedal setup looks great. Is the Ferrari Mod 1 design brake and clutch pedals also from Ultimapedals?

 

Thanks for all the feedback. The UP looks like it may be the solution, especially given the ability to adjust the location of the brake pedal laterally.

 

Give Aaron a call at Outmotoring.

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...rs_manual.html

 

Thx.

 

Yep! They are all from ultimate pedals. I just picked pedals from a differerent car for the brake and clutch pedals.

 

My size 11 foot doesn't have a hard time heel toeing my R53, and I've uesd the gammut from puma & adidas driving shoes to full on race boots (relatively inexpensive store brands from Driving Impression's, they were like $100). You
kinda have to (well this works for me) use the big toe side of your foot on the break and reach over to blip the throtle. Also the harder you're using your brakes the easier this gets b/c the brake pedal is more inline with the gas for an easier blip.

I'm using stock pedals btw

 

i dont have much problem heel towing in regular shoes...or barefoot even!!
only thing i have troubles with is in basketball shoes...

 

How did you pull that off...call them direct? which car is the brake/gas pedal from? Did they mix the set for the same price?

Thanks

Edit: Ohhhhh, you can order the pedals separately! OK, still need to know which car the brake/clutch pedal are from...

 

I have no problem at all heel and toe-ing the mini unless I am on a race track where I can't seem to dependably hit both pedals. This was totally not a problem with my m coupe. Since track-heel-toe isn't consistent for me, I stopped trying, on the track. I do use the big-toe-little-toe method. There are people who literally heel-toe minis, but my knee doesn't seem to allow that.

I noticed that different years of mini have different covers. Many people sell replacements for '02-'03. I haven't seen anyone specifically admit to selling pedal replacements for '06, but I'll check with ultimate.

I'd certainly be happier with a more stable car under braking/downshift.

 

I don't seem to have an issue with getting my foot over in my mini. I seem to have to stab it much harder than I do on my M Roadster. The mini seems a little slow to respond.

I also and go with the heel because of knee room,l but can turn somewhat and rock my foot to make it work.