Downshifting?

[Jeff Torrey]

Looking for advice. Tonight I am going along at 80 mph on the freeway. Car pulls up beside me in the outside lane, tagging along. I get tired of it after a while, so I downshift to 3rd (instead of 4th). Let the clutch out, engine sputters a little then off I go. The sputter worried me a little. After about 10 miles I decide to do it again to see if the engine sputters. Not this time, power came on right away and stayed strong. The tack reads at about 4500 RPM when I downshift to 3rd at 80mph, I take it up to 6000 RPM and shift to 4th.

Is this kind of driving a bad idea? Could it damage the engine, tranny, etc?
Please don't poke fun at me, ok just a little. I have never raced the car and am working up to it. Thanks.

 

[Craig 201 MPH]

I dunno about damage but blipping the gas to bring the rev's of the engine up before you let the clutch out (like heel/toeing sorta) should make the downshift a little easier on the car. I can't see it beeing fatal to the car though, these cars get tracked with the stock transmissions and don't have any issues that I'm aware of.

I'm not too sure about the other stuff and I'm sure others will chime in.

Craig