Originally Posted by MasterAv

Your syncros are actually wearing down alot faster if you do what chilibowl explained in a 4-2 downshift...To stop wear in syncros, you not only have to revmatch, but you also have to double clutch. Most people don't double clutch because in today's modern cars, the syncros are rhobust enough to handle it. Revmatching and double clutching are two different things, a lot of people think they're the same. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission to really learn how a manual tranny works. Pay special attention to the internals->shafts and synchromesh sections to get the lowdown on syncro shiz. I also thought they were the same thing until one of my friends enlighened me

Originally Posted by chilibowl

Rev-matching isnt NECESSARY, its just a more aggressive and sportier way to drive. You can brake if you want to and then put it into lower gear, its all upto your own way of driving.

Originally Posted by Woblin_Goblin

Whenever double clutching is mentioned I love to refer people to this video of Gary Sheehan doing some really slick double clutch downshifting:

http://www.teamsmr.com/movies/Footbox%20Small.wmv

Talk about talent!

Originally Posted by usual_suspect

He's rev-matching (and doing a fine job of it), but he's definitely not double-clutching. He never depresses the clutch more than once for each downshift. He goes straight from gear to gear with a blip in between - textbook rev-match.

Originally Posted by Woblin_Goblin

I haven't got the video in front of me right now but from memory, if you watch it carefully, you'll see that he's double clutching. As in Clutch in, neutral, clutch out, rev, clutch in, choose gear, clutch out. Notice the clutch is out when the he blips the throttle.

Edit: Got the video. Notice he pushs the clutch in six times to downshift
three gears.