I once had something similar happen in my brothers car.
My brother had a really sweet 68’ Camaro. It was bright yellow with a 396 and was pretty damned quick. My brother put a lot of money into that car.
Anyway, at one point he had a new 3 speed transmission put in. The transmission was, I think, called a slap shifter. You could put it in gear and drive like it was an automatic. At the same time if you wanted speed you could shift gears by slapping the gear shift knob like it was a manual while keeping the gas pedal pegged.
The day after my brother had the new transmission installed he took me and my friend for a ride. We stopped at a red light. When it turned green my brother hit the gas. The tires spun and we started moving. My brother slapped the gear lever to go into second. We were really moving at this point. My brother then slapped the gear shift to go into third. But instead of going into third the transmission went into reverse. The car locked up, spun around and the engine died. Thankfully we were on a pretty deserted street and we all had our seatbelts on. (Though I did have a big old bruse around my waist the next day)
After we stopped we all had a “HOLY SCHOINKIES” moment. Then my brother started the car and gently drove it home.
Amzaingly nothing on the car was damaged though the guy who put in the transmission got a stern verbal thrashing.
The only thing that had to be fixed was the transmission linkage that the original mechanic screwed up. My brother had the car for 5 years after that and never replaced the transmission.
Slee