[Christ]

Several manuals (I've been told) have an inertia lockout on them. If you're going over a certain speed, something moves in the tranny to stop you from putting it into reverse, kind of like the 5th gear detent on older cars. (You can't go from 5 to R, you have to go to neutral (resting position) to release the detent.)

CFG83 - Yep, you can put it in reverse if your brakes fail. First, you'll spend more time fighting to get it in there at anything over 10 MPH than it would take you to jump... and second, you'll have to rev match your engine to the gear, as it's not synchronized.

Use your e-brake. That's what it's there for.

Generally, and I think in all electronically controlled transmissions that DON'T have a direct linkage to the internals of the transmission (some still do, for reverse and park), you can put the car in 1 or 2 on the shifter (whichever is lowest on your shifter) and floor it. You won't over rev the engine. In fact, you can drive around just plain and dandy, but you'll nearly redline every time the transmission shifts.

I do this periodically in my wife's GP (Granny), and have done it in several Chrysler 4 speeds, among others, including Saturns and Hondas.