Do I need to blip the throttle while downshifting?

Question

I have an '08 Volkswagen Rabbit with a manual transmission that I bought in December. It's my first manual car and I kind of taught myself how to drive it and I feel I'm pretty good at driving a manual now. However, when I was riding with a friend in her Dodge SRT-4, she wouldn't blip the throttle on a downshift and it was a little jerky (I didn't say anything to her though lol).

Anyway, when I downshift I almost always give it a little gas so I get a perfectly smooth shift. Is this something that I should be doing or am I just too complicated? Also, when passing on a highway, wouldn't the car shift really hard if I didn't rev-match since the RPM would be higher? Is this bad for a transmission/engine?

Answer 1

you shouldn't need to blip the throttle but it can help-

It helps by making the syncro disc spin faster ready for when it changes to the lower ration gear, as 30mph in 4th is eg 1000 rpm and 30mph in 3rd is 2300rmp.

Answer 2

You don't have to do that, not even with the Ford Model-T...