I'm not too different than many of the opinions already stated. Don't go much (if any) above 3000 til she's warmed up, then do so as circumstances warrant. Once well-warmed, I don't hesitate to approach redline---I, like most here, love that intoxicating roar accelerating in the higher rpm range.
But I rarely actually hit redline. It's
not that I believe it's likely to be a problem---I have no reason
not to believe
thstone's claims on the matter. To me, though, I just don't see that much to be gained in that last couple hundred rpm, so I don't bother with it.
And, at the other end, I aggressively work to avoid lugging the engine. But that doesn't mean I'm virtually always above 3K. Depending on circumstances, I'll cruise between 2.5K and 3K at times. Long as I'm not attempting to accelerate, driving up much of a hill, etc, I don't really see it as a problem. It's a matter of maintaining one's speed in a (basically) "no load" situation, and I just don't think that's particularly hard on any part of the drive train even in the slightly sub-3K rpm range. In that setting, it's just not a lot of stress on the system. As Ray (of Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the "Tappet Brothers") once explained it: Once a car is up to speed, it takes very little effort to keep it there. In fact (he explains) you could probably just about do it yourself pushing---if you could run that fast.
