We've talked about why the Heel-Toe method is important for high performance driving, as a way to use one foot to both blip the throttle to rev up the engine and simultaneously apply the brakes to scrub off speed.
What do you do if your feet don't seem to reach both pedals properly? The first car I practiced heel-toe downshifts on was my S13 hatchback. I found that car's pedals very well suited to heel-toe, as I could easily apply the brakes and felt that the accelerator pedal was within reach for the same foot to apply a throttle blip.
With the S2000, however, that has not been the case for me. Even while I owned the S13, I drove Sam's S2000 and found myself struggling to reach the throttle pedal for a proper heel-toe downshift. The situation was no different with my AP2, until I discovered the Sullivan Racing Products accelerator pedal, designed specifically for the S2000. SRP sells a 4-piece kit for those who are interested, which includes gas, brake, clutch, and dead pedals made of aluminum.
I opted for the accelerator pedal only which can be purchased separately from the full kit.
Install
In order to install these, the OEM pedal faces are removed by drilling into the rivets that hold them in place. I was quite nervous about doing this, as anyone might be while drilling into their vehicle.
After drilling through the rivets, the pedal faces pop right off. Although they appear to have nice depth and thickness to them, it turns out the stock pedal is really just a thin sheet of metal that is curved at the edges to give the perception of some thickness. Economical Honda Engineering at its finest.
Once the stock pedal face is removed, now comes the even more exciting part: Drilling into the accelerator pedal backing plate. The space was tight, as the pre-drilled holes on the SRP pedals don't offer a huge amount of clearance from the edges of the OEM backing plate. These holes need to be spot-on, in order to allow:
a) The new pedal to line up properly
b) Sufficient metal thickness on the edges to hold the screws
The remainder of the install happened later that night, and I've not yet gotten around to getting some proper pictures of the pedals. This will have to do for now:
Reflections:
I'm truly impressed by the difference this pedal has made with heel-toeing on the S. Immediately, I noticed that I could now execute a heel-toe downshift with minimal effort. I can do it the way I feel most comfortable, that is using the ball of my foot on the brake pedal, and simply rolling over my heel to blip the accelerator pedal.
A major advantage of heel-toeing in this manner is that there is much less movement of the foot needed, which means my foot can now be much more stable while braking. Whereas before, I would have to distinctly lift up my foot and think more about where I was placing my heel, now I feel like I can execute the downshifts effortlessly.
I love the sound of an engine blipping up through the gears as the car slows down. Perhaps an exhaust system is needed, to bring the sound out even better.
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