NA Miata pedals

We all know Miatas aren't made for folks with big feet, but with the stock pedals in the Manic Miata, I've got a problem. I don't get reliable grip on the brake pedal without relocating my whole foot every time, and heel/toeing is very difficult to do well. By contrast, my E46 is much easier.

I know FM among others sell pedal kits, but they all extend the throttle pedal to the left. What I really need is to move or extend the brake pedal about 3/4"-1" to the right so I can get more than the edge of my big toe on it without picking up my heel and moving my whole foot.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

For our lemons car we solved this problem with a cheap 'pedal kit' from the neighborhood parts store "performance" section. We only used the brake and we used sheet metal screws to secure it to the brake pedal. Since it was bigger than the miata brake, we offset it toward the gas pedal. Worked great.

I'm sure just a square piece of flat metal could do the same thing.

Or, can you take the pedal itself out and bend the "shaft"?

Im having the same problem in my nb. So, watching with interest.

I suppose relearning you pedal attack at this point would be silly but this is what I did:

I Toe-n-Heel rather than Heel-n-Toe. I kept the ball of my foot on the brake pedal and used my gorilla like toes to swat at the gas pedal. And it kind of makes more sense to me that way, since you have way more strength in your ball of your foot for braking than the tip of your big toe. You need basically no force for the throttle however. My comfortable position in my old NA was with my heel out in front of the brake pedal and my foot almost laying on the floor/center hump leading up to the throttle, then my foot was already in position for my unique Toe-n-Heel maneuver. Floppy shoes or coughbarefootcough.

In reply to RossD:

Unfortunately, between my bulk, inseam, seat type and location, and the Momo wheel, I have effectively 1 place I can put my foot and knee. It's really best if I can keep my heel on the floor about halfway between gas and brake, rotating as needed. In the E46 I typically leave the left ball of my foot solidly on the brake and roll my ankle to the inside to blip the throttle with the outside edge of my foot.

Duke wrote: Unfortunately, between my bulk, inseam, seat type and location, and the (stock) wheel, I have effectively 1 place I can put my foot and knee.

Same here. I fixed it. By not rev-matching during braking in a Miata.

On the street I just move my foot between gas and brake. On an autocross course if I need to rev match it is only going down one gear anyway so I brake, engage gear while braking, then smash the gas just before dumping the clutch and away we go. I don't track the car.

Well, it's not even a matter of the inconvenience of heel-and-toe, though I prefer to rev match if I can. But basically, with my leg/foot in the only comfortable / feasible position, I can get about half of my big toe on the brake pedal even during normal street braking. Not good.

I guess I'll have to look into an offset pedal cover or picking up a spare brake set and seeing if my nephew can weld me up something. Thanks for everybody's input so far!

I've got feet like trucksasaurus, I don't heel-toe as much as I big toe-little toe.
(Roll the foot side to side instead of forward and back)
Pedal pushing was one of the few parts of miata driving that wasn't a problem for someone my size.

Ah, i see now, foot is restricted to one position. Thats no good. For me i had no room to twist my knee but can move foot from gas to brake, more or less.

Hey there's one more SJR event you know.

Yeah, what's the date? Thanks!

11/13.

bookface

I own a NA miata and I've wondered the same thing...for a sports car its hard to heel and toe...

Hot tip: relocating the Miata throttle pedal is as complicated as grabbing the pedal and bending it. It's on a pretty weedy rod.

A generic pedal kit would probably work to increase the size of the brake pedal.

Keith Tanner wrote: Hot tip: relocating the Miata throttle pedal is as complicated as grabbing the pedal and bending it. It's on a pretty weedy rod. A generic pedal kit would probably work to increase the size of the brake pedal.

OK, thanks. I definitely do not want to relocate the throttle; it's in a good place. But the brake pedal, at least in my seating configuration, is about 1" - 1 1/2" too far left of center to be comfortable or easy to have good control over. Making heel-toe easier is just a secondary benefit of improving the safety of every day driving.

Right, which is the last part of my post.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Especially if it's for an automatic, the pedal pad is generally much larger. Paint it with black bedliner and very few would really notice it.

The other option? Remove the brake pedal arm and modify it to move the pedal laterally the distance desired. A bit more involved and harder to change back.

Loads are much higher on a brake arm, and failures have bad consequences. Not my favorite option. A welder would be required.

Keith Tanner wrote: Loads are much higher on a brake arm, and failures have bad consequences. Not my favorite option. A welder would be required.

Yeah, I would pretty much refuse to cut or bend the existing pedal assembly at all. I would have my nephew Ross414 weld a 'sidecar' onto the bottom and then attach an aftermarket cover over the whole thing.

Thanks, everybody!