Interior 1st Gen Adjusting Pedals

Is there any way to even slightly adjust the brake pedal (or gas pedal)?

I'd like to raise the brake pedal (or lower the gas pedal) just a smidgeon for downshifting at the track purposes...

Man, a pedal box would be nice too...

 

Did that, with ultimate pedals. I'd like a little more though. My brake pedal takes a bit to engage--had it checked out at two different places, they don't feel it's too far off--it's fine around town, but on the track, it would match up better if it was just a little higher. I could add another ultimate pedal on top to stack it higher.

 

I though about that, but I don't know how stable it would be--I've got the Ferrari pedals on there, so they're pretty large; the spacer would have to follow the funky curve of the pedal. If the pedals aren't adjustable, I think I'll just throw another pedal on top. It'll be more expensive, but at least it'll be rock solid stable.

I was hoping there was SOME adjustment, doesn't look like there is. Oh well, thanks for the input!

 

I may go back to trying that, I agree it's a better method on the track. But the problem is my right ankle is shot--blew out all the ligaments on both sides in rec league basketball about 8 years ago, and the heel stab is difficult. I can roll my foot just fine, but getting the heel over is tough, especially since I lost a little bit of proprioception from the injury...

For most of the day, using the ball of my foot on the brake, and outside on the throttle works just fine--but toward the end of the day, when the brake pedal is going down a little further, it's a problem--as you say, brake is going down below the gas pedal, and it's tough to blip the throttle when this happens--if it goes too low, it's impossible.


May be time to try and work through that though. See what I can do with it this weekend out in the country.

 

Great day at Blackhawk--got my lap times down to 1:27, which blew me away--it's a 2 second improvement. Ran with the Northwoods Shelby club--great group, highly recommend them if anyone by chance wants to run with them in the Midwest. First time I've ran with them, but they're definitely on my short list.

Anyway, I worked on threshold braking out in the country using a true heel toe. The main reason I couldn't do it before turned out to be the steering wheel--after your post above awhile back, I figured I'd at least try one more time to switch my downshifting. I had the wheel fairly low, which I never really thought about before your post above, moved it up to the highest position, and now it's definitely doable. At Blackhawk, it's a two gear track for me (third and fourth), so it was kind of a good place to try it out after working the kinks out on the backroads--and I have to admit, it's MUCH better. It's still a work in progress--still plenty of room to improve, but my braking is so much better--I can get the downshift in so much earlier than by rolling my foot, despite braking later and harder, and everything is much more consistent. It's what got my times down, and the good news is there's still more time to be had with more seat time.

The pads looked great at the end of the day--a little bit wedged, but not bad, despite running faster. I think I was killing the pads and fluid with the "roll the foot" method--I was braking longer, but not as hard, heating things up more than they probably needed to be, not to mention getting the downshift in WAY late, as I had to be coming off the brake to match the pedals, whereas with a true heel toe, it's not an issue--there's much more of a margin where you can blip the throttle during the beginning or middle of threshold braking rather than toward the end. Getting the downshift done earlier made things indescribably easier; it's so much easier to consistently hit turn in and apexes at the right speed, getting the downshift in earlier made a huge difference.

Only downside is its hard to practice anywhere but at the track--for me at least, I really have to have the brake pedal down a ways before I can blip the throttle. But it's easier to rev match this way--I can get a nice consistent blip with the heel stab, much more reliable than the roll method, and with time I expect it'll only get better.

Can't wait for Road America, more downshifting there, I'll probably take it slower than usual to get it nice and smooth.

 

Down the road I may switch steering wheels. I'm 5'11", and with the wheel up, I just barely clear it with my foot/leg in line with the brake pedal (I also moved the seat back a smidgeon) Eventually it would be nice to get the wheel a little closer without worrying about hitting it, and get back to my original seat position. For now though, the tradeoff in a not quite ideal seat position is worth the improvement in braking and downshifting.

Thing is, I was fairly quick before at Blackhawk, and consistently have taken time off laps each time out there, but today was a pretty dramatic leap.

 

Only advice I'd give is it's actually easier to do smoothly at or near threshold than if the pedal is only part ways down. The rolling method made it easier to switch to the full heel method, but I practiced the true heel method, with the car turned on in neutral first, then took it out into the country, then the track. It's pretty hard to practice it if you're braking lightly. Stick with it; it's definitely a better and safer way to brake and downshift on the track, as btwdriver alluded to earlier in the thread.

I use the roll still under relatively light braking; it's better suited for this as the pedal isn't as far down (at least the way my pedals are set up). The heel stab works much better on the track though. And the farther the brake pedal is down, the easier it is to do the throttle blip seamlessly. On the track, it was obvious right away how much smoother it is. Around town, it would take some finesse, with the brake pedal only lightly pressed.

As for seat position, everyone's body is different--I know how to position the seat for the track to get the proper arm length, and my seat is to the floor. I'm a big 5'11 to 6'0 (not fat, but very big thighs), so I don't have a lot of clearance underneath the wheel. Seat is already pretty much straight up. Arm length is ok, but I'd like the seat a little closer--probably because of the wheel now being higher. If I could get the wheel back to where it was, I'd be back to where I started. It's really not a big deal; I can still dangle my wrists over the steering wheel, and engage all the pedals properly, it's just a different angle. Eventually I'm going to put in different seats; we'll see.