Now that I've been driving the Type R for awhile, I've found that on a
number of courses, you can keep it in 2nd gear and not hurt yourself.
However, to be driven as quickly as the car can be driven, you will have to
downshift occasionally. Heel and Toe is THE only way to make sure that this
is done without upsetting the car. If you "he-man" the downshift, you'll
lose more time from the car being out of balance than you will gain from the
power advantage.
My suggestion is to learn how to do it and practice it all the time. Any
stickshift I drive in an autocross or on the street, is driven with heel and
toe downshifts. I do this regardless of whether it's aggressive driving or
not. The more you can practice things in a real world environment, the
better prepared you'll be at the autocross.
Ron Bauer
'98 Acura Integra Type R
Team Butt Heat
ronbauer@aa.net
-----Original Message-----
From: SpeedPak@aol.com <SpeedPak@aol.com>
To: autox@autox.team.net <autox@autox.team.net>
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 6:32 AM
Subject: Integra AutoXing
>All good advice..Heel and Toe is good...Unfortunatly Im not all that good
at
>it yet...Regardless to give you some ideas for alignments, I am running 1/8
>inch toe out in the front zero in the rear, and the stock <non adjustable>
>camber. When I ran Pirelli Pzero Street tyres last year I was running
>44front and 48 rear. Hope that gives you a few data points.
>
>Faisal
>#62 SpeedPak Racing
>Integra R 98-0062
>
>The He-Man technique does come in handy once in while. However, proper heel
>and toe downshifting will really help you out with the Integra.
>
>I have been practicing for about a year and am finally comfortable using it
>during competition runs. If you can find it, fellow team.netter Phil Ethier
>has written a very good article on the technique. (You usually can find it
>posted somewhere, use altavista or another search engine.) Another good
>source is the book called "Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving." The
>technique is explained in words and pictures.
>
>Tim Malzahn
>97 Integra GS-R
>
>>>> "Chris McCann" <cjmccan@ilstu.edu> 04/23/99 01:05AM >>>
>I have a '95 GS-R and am just a beginner as of now...just did a McKamey
>school....
>...and myself (and a much more seasoned driver with a '98 GS-R) were
>reccomended by many just to leave it in 2nd ... i suppose it would depend
on
>the course, but in 2nd gear i was hitting the fat part of the powerband
just
>when i was coming to a brake point...though it IS a royal pain to get it in
>1st... is there trick to that shift? (Besides the He-Man technique...) It
>seems really tough to do, especially without upsetting the car...
>
>I also want to start messing with tire pressure and alignment later in the
>season but am looking for some (street tires) starting points (so I'm not
>screwing around with that too much when i should be learning to drive...)
>
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