At 02:10 PM 9/24/2012, Ed Lloyd wrote:
>A quick shift back into “Drive” and all 
>becomes normal again, but at what future cost?

It will be lost in the statistical noise.  Your 
engine will wear out a quarter of a mile sooner.

>Will this dumb mistake cause any lasting harm to a 2.1L waterboxer?

If it had been measurable they would have put the 
redline lower.  You weren't even up to the orange.

I bet I'm not the only WBX driver who's merged 
onto a highway on a long hill and wondered why 
the beast suddenly didn't want to go any faster 
as the hill eased.  Oh yeah, still in third, been 
bouncing off the rev limiter for the last few hundred yards.  OOPS.

High revs (below redline) will wear it, but they 
won't break it.  Too-low revs, though (can't 
really do it with an auto) can break it because 
cylinder pressures go way up.  I'm looking at you, Mr. A... ;-)

Yrs,
David