I don't actually think that you could put any manual trans car in 1st @ that wheel speed. I don't care how awesome the synchros are, it just ain't happening. I'll bet he grabbed third, (and still zinged it). He pulled the shifter straight rearwards when he let out the clutch and realised what was happening, so how would he really know? Might not be as bad as we're thinking here.

That's my official guess: bent valves but no damage to bottom-end and engine is completely fixable.

what speeder says

I had an ex girlfriend take the Toyota 4A 16 valve in my AE92 north of 8,000 once after wanting to go from 3rd to 4th and instead going 3rd to 2nd, while on an on ramp. I was trying to teach her to drive a manual, she was doing good, so I egged her on and told her to wrap it out. Bad idea.

Clutch held, tach needle pegged past 8. Tires didn't really break traction, but it was as if she slammed on the brakes.

She didn't clutch-in as fast as most people would have, and the engine spun it's way down to 6 or so before she did.

We switched spots, I drove it home, carefully listening for anything odd. It's ran another 50,000 miles since then and because of that incident, I take it out past 7,400 every now and then knowing it handles it well.


16 valve toyota 4A's... can't kill them.

Toyota 4a is a non-interference engine which makes slight overrev conditions less likely to cause severe damage, imo.

True. Floating valves or breaking/slipping the timing belt on a interference engine will obviously have far worse effects. Non-interference engines would really only permanently be affected by oiling loss, bearing failure, or some form of grenading in the rotating assembly.

It's all ball bearings these days guys....

I'm gonna say he bent valves - maybe even all of them. I seriously doubt he made it to first gear. A fourth headed to redline to third feels like first - especially when the engine is screaming...

No kidding..... 4th redline in my lowly little 944 is 115 as per the Manual......

I money shifted my old M3. Must have hit 8500-9000 rpm. It felt like the back wheels came off the ground. No damage though, the car was fine. One must have a quick clutch foot.

Updates? Pics of carnage or lack of?

It should buff out.

I managed to get it into the shop yesterday afternoon. It took me about an hour to rack the damn thing, it has some cheesy aftermarket bumpers and rocker panels on it and it sits about an inch off the ground.
I am hoping to have it apart mid week, You have to pull the motor to remove the heads. I have a buch of **** work I have to knock out early in the week beore I can start on this one.
Even if this guy gets lucky, and only bent a buch of valves, 5 valve head v-8. 40 oem valves are gonna be a killer all by themselves.
I promise pics.

Do you have to do anything stupid to get the engine out, or does it drop from the bottom? I've seen pics a while back from someone that did a water pump change in their Audi and they had to take all kinds of stuff apart.

This thread is why my S4 Avant is a tip. I money shifted the old 911 on track and that was expensive enough, these V8s are way more $$$$. Keep us updated, I'd love to see pics too :)

Really? You avoid manual transmissions in sports/performance cars because you are overly concerned about missed shifts @ redline?

I've honestly never taken that into consideration in 35 years of driving and riding motorcycles. Just a non-issue.

You do know that all cars in the last ~30 years have some type of rev-limiter, right? :cool:

I'll bet absolutely anything right now that it does not have 40 bent valves. probably not even close. :cool:

Well not entirely, but it was part of the decision. Plus rev limiters are of course not going to help on a mis-shift...

I'd have to drive one of the new tiptronic-type cars to see what it's all about. Maybe they're awesome. I've just always liked a slick-shifting manual in a sports-type car w/ a sweet revving engine.

The problem is the Audi trannies are not the most reliable, especially when the manual specifies things like "lifetime" oil and the fact that is a pain in back to change the oil.. -been there, done that...

My suggestion is that you look after your tranny.

if you want to see what a Tiptronic type car is like, just borrow any of your neighbors' automatic cars, put the slushbox "shifter" into first gear, and "shift" your way up and down. That's what it's like, except sometimes instead of using the "shift" lever to tell the automatic transmission electronics what to do, some cars also have push buttons.

Is an '07 S4 a tiptronic? Or one of the DSG gearboxes?

I'm with speeder on the manual tranny choice for a sporting car. Unless I raced the car competitively a la Ferrari Challenge, I'd rather lose a couple tenths per shift and do it myself. Isn't that one of the things sporting driving is all about: the perfect heel-toe downshift?