The Peddles are close enough on the Lancer...Downshifting is perfectly fine for the car as long as its done properly. You can skip a gear when down shifting no problem all you have to do is match the rpm's (no not double clutching...what you think you have a 18 wheeler)...you put your foot on the break (lightly) when you go on to the clutch you cover the gas as well as the break and give it a bit of gas to get the rev's up....some people call this heal toe but its miss leading. With the lancer (what you should do is: ) Use the left side of your tight foot to cover the break and the left side over the gas. This way you can push one of the peddles down further then the other (sometimes more gas some times more break...depends on the situation)
The reason why it didnt make that noise when you speeded up to pass someone is because you had problaby matched your rpm's to the gear your are droping into. (thats good, your not going to kill your car)....
Practice using your right foot on both the break and gas when stopping, its wierd at first but when you get it it make your driving really smooth and saves a lot of wear on your car.
Also when you get good at it you can use this technique in tight fast conoring (pressing both gas and break) this will eliminate the understear and you will be able to corner at faster speeds. (good for short on ramps)

 

Thanks for the insight I like new driving techniques I'll be sure to use the heel toe when in a tight spot and downshifting. thanks

 

It may be a waste of time, but have you ever noticed how smooth downshifting is when double clutching is engaged?

I double clutch just daily driving just because if it's done correctly, it's so smooth. There is no jerking that you get sometimes when shifting regularly.

 

I highly dought it caused any problems downshifting to second at 40 miles per hour...My 03 Lancer OZ easily can break 50 in 2nd, and can reach about 60 mph before hitting the redline...you couldn't have been past 4000 rpm when you downshifted, but damn you wanna talk about a painful downshift, about a month after i got my OZ, I was drunk so a friend was driving and he downshifted to 2nd at 60 mph........it was over-revin like crazy I was freaking out. He has never touched my car since then. I would drive wasted off my *** before i would ever let him drive my car again

 

i used to love that whine on my civic si. it was like the engine winding down. didn't do much damage to the tranny in the long run, but i never shifted from high rpm's that much.

 

Whats double clutching?

And whenever I downshift I usually blip the throttal with the clutch engaged and switch gears.

 

Double clutching = to shift gears, you follow this pattern

Clutch, put car in neutral
Gas, try to match the rpm you'll be going into
Clutch, put car in new gear

Hence, double clutch.

 

I get a whinning in my car as i'm letting off the clutch to downshift.. thoiught it was bad but I drove my friends EVO the other night and it did the exact same thing so i'm not concered with it.

 

I don't know, but its just a feeling that I get whenever I hear that whinning is that the Clutch isn't fully off the flywheel so it spins excessivly while the fluid inbetween the two disks are whirrled around so quickly that it makes that sound...

And I only get the faint whinning from downshifting to 1st gear, dunno why though.

 

Dem, it sounds as though you're double clutching. At least compared to the way Blacksheep explained it. Then again, I put my car in drive, let off the brake and push on the peddle.