As long as the car doesn't jerk around and the RPM's don't shoot sky high, there's no trouble at all.
Therein lies the point, methinks: If you just slam the clutch on mismatched revs, you're slowing the car by burning the clutch and shaking the drive train -- and giving your drive wheels a good jolt on the contact patch. Not good. If you rev match on downshifts, then let off the throttle to let the drive wheels pump the engine, you're still adding bias to the friction circle and using the drive train to make the engine an air pump, but you're not abusing the hardware as much. But you're still not slowing as much as the brakes will manage. And you're only braking with the drive wheels. Consider brake balance, as Kevin (KKRace) mentioned, above. You've probably heard commentators talk about the lack of traction control under braking in an F1 car this year -- the drivers now have to manage the throttle themselves to adjust the engine braking on the rear of the machine. There's no automatic system to keep a downshift from over-braking the rear of the car. Remember how many drivers were having the tails go walkabout on them, earlier in the year?
maybe he's just going for ice cream me thinks .. . we're all responding like the guy asked "I'm loosing time in turn 1 . . what am I doing wrong" little mismatch from 3200-3000 won't hurt sponsored by coors cheers
Most of the time, sure: you can pick any number of lines through a turn or techniques, and at low speed on dry pavement, you'll get away with it. But then winter comes to Boston. I find it best to practice good technique all the time. Then when ice makes the daily commute into an exercise at the limits of traction, I'm not counting on a surplus that is no longer there. (Yes, I know: Who goes for ice cream in winter? But the point stands.) Besides: Slopping around a corner in the 328 just feels wrong. But letting the clutch try to "synch" the engine to the drive train is hard on the clutch plates, even when just going for ice cream.
