Redline limiter (300E m103)

[KNanthrup]

Ok, so I admit I've been having too much fun lately with locking my car in first and just letting it scream up and then kick 2nd gear, but it just brought a concern to myself. I noticed on my '86 300E that if you don't have the gas punched pretty much all the way down, it will just hang in first and then hit redline limiter, drop a few hundred rpms, then back up again. Now this has happened to me twice (I learned to keep the pedal down now if im doing the 1st gear launch), but I'm just wondering how bad this is for my car. My assumption is that since it stops it pretty close to redline, it probably isn't hurting it much, maybe speeding up engine wear though. Oh, and while I'm at it, I might as well bring up a few other thoughts that come to mind. As far as the 1st to 2nd gear change goes, does this only happen when the pedal is down far enough to push the little switch on the floor? And my last thought is about redlines in general... what sets the redline? I mean, how do they determine the redline of an engine, and what exactly are the effects of going over it? Does it just overheat? does it cause quick engine wear? when you add mods on to your car, does this redline change or is this only when doing major work like cams or crankshafts? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just a curious guy