4 years ago when my 96 TA had 55,000 I missed the 2-3 shift and put it in 1st. When I let the clutch out it locked up the tires and started shacking. I thought forshure I had broke something. But it ran fine. Last winter I checked the pushrods and valvetrain while putting on some 1.6rr's and everything was fine. I think my car went to about 7,000 rpm (and thats an LT1). It now has 100,000 miles and runs fine. It sounds like your car is fine, just don't make a habbit of it

 

Thats true, you can easily float the valves that way. A rev limiter is designed to keep you from over revving in gear, you can probably get away with it with no load, but like I said, computers cant stop physics. Then again hopefully GM stupid proofed these cars and either made the engine beefier or the rev limiter lower..