You know the the turn, I’m sure you have seen it a thousand times in the movies. Where the car is racing backwards down the road and suddenly whips around and straightens out and moves in the opposite direction going forward…
I was watching a special on the secret service and they explained that they train for this move, but they made it apparent that they were not going to show us how it is done. Does anyone know?
I’m thinking - when at speed say 35 mph or more going backwards, you turn the wheel from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock counter clockwise, then back to 12 really fast…
Anyone done it and want to share?
** this is for empty parking lot fun of course… not for evading the authorities.
You need a car with reinforced tires, especially strong glue holding said tires to the rims, and a parking brake that only affects the rear wheels. You back up to a good clip, start to turn, hit the brakes (which locks up the rear wheels), the car spins around said wheels, and when it’s pointed the direction you want it to go, you release the brake, shift into drive and hit the gas.
Not having the vehicular requirements makes it a bit more tricky, possibly involving extensive body work and building repair, depending on the circumstances.
Yes, or a bootleg turn. It can be done w/ any car, but it’s tricky. The e-brake on the
rear wheels makes it easier, but not simple by any measure. I wouldn’t recommend
trying it in a high profile vehicle. It’s probably not something an amateur should
attempt. You can roll very easily and it’s hard on tires, wheels, trannys and the car in
general, not to mention the driver if you screw up. If you really have to try it, I’d
suggest doing it on a slick surface, such as an icy parking lot.
I haven’t done it since I was young and stupid.
I know of something I heard of as a “moonshine U-turn,” but it does not involve going backwards first. You are going forward, and spin the car 180 degrees, and when you’re facing the way you came you put the pedal back to the metal.
Agree with the above posts, though. Either way, it’s not something you’d want to attempt in a box-stock automobile.
I dunno. I did plenty ‘reverse bootlegger’ turns in my dad’s '84 Tempo. Didn’t hurt anything that I recall. Well, except I broke the transmission. But I think that was because I was fond of mashing the throttle to the floor while in neutral and then slamming it into drive.
The maneuver you saw is documented in the bootlegger turn section of a Wikipedia [1] article on the topic.
I’ll point out that the evasive drivers in question did the EXACT procedure at the link below, except while driving in reverse.
In general, it’s easier to do the turn if you’re going in reverse, because the weight of the engine helps swing the front end around. This is assuming your engine is in the front, of course.
Yes, it most certainly is. BUT…how many bootleggers do you know that start OFF trying to outrun the revenooers IN REVERSE?
Talk about calling attention to one’s self…
The bootleg U-turn (versus the J-turn or whatever) always starts with the car going forawrd. Yes, more difficult, but the whole point of it is that basically you have the BATFuckers on your tail, you are not outrunning them in any significant way, and your car is a LOT better handling than whatever POS they are driving…so you do the reverse, relying on suspension & skill, and flash by them going in the opposite direction while they either, brake, & do a 3 point turn, or wreck their sorry asses trying to duplicate the maneuver.
Anyway, that’s how my Uncle Ralph explained it to me.
(and just for full disclosure, he also said that no one outside of Hollywood did this shit, if the BATFuckers were on your tail, you were already screwed, as they already knew who you were, where you were, where your still was, and would just quit the chase and wait at your home until you returned…after blowing up your still and taking lots of pictures. FWIW)
Dunno about that. A lot of front-engine rear-wheel drive cars actually have a weight balance approximating 50/50. Classic bootlegger iron.
Most vehicles you see with a serious weight bias towards one end or the other are pickups or front-wheel-drive cars.
I’ve done them either way (forward and backwards) when I was younger in my Datsun 510 (known as a 1600 here in Oz).
I only ever did it on dirt roads.
It takes practice to stop the turn at 180.
If you’re doing it from forwards with the aim of turning and then going back the way you’ve come, the hard thing (if you’re trying to be smooth and look cool) is not rolling back after you’ve completed the swing around.
I’ve only ever done it in a manual car, I have no idea how you do it in an auto.
Analyize that again carefully…
You are going backwards, e.g. moving east, turn the car 180 deg. and moves in the forward facing direction of the car, i.e. east. :rolleyes:
Don’t get arrested for trespassing, let along having a wreck and/or ending up in the hospital (or a casket).
Back when I was in college, I worked as a night security guard to pay for school. I used to do “flying J” turns in the security car. We pretty much did what you said, although we may have touched the brakes, I don’t remember exactly. Anyway, the car never comes to a complete stop. My fellow guards used to freak out when I would do it, and I didn’t understand until I was the passenger once. The centrifugal force is much higher on the passenger. It really screeches the tires.
We had a good size parking lot by the security building and we would practice there (at 3 am, with nothing else to do). There were two trees a little more than a width apart that I would drive through first and then do the turn. And, since I was young and stupid, it graduated into doing the turn first and then going through the trees, seeing how close we could cut it. Fortunately, we never did hit the car, although it apparently required a new transmission after I left.
When I was a child, I had a “behind the scenes of Knight Rider” book (what? shut up!) that explained in great detail how the bootleg U-turn stunt was performed on the show. Basically, exactly what’s been described here: jam the wheel in one direction, yank on the emergency brake, release it all when you’re facing the direction you want to be going.
Even at the time, I found it strange that they were basically giving teenagers and soon-to-be-teenagers this information.
So true. A lot of drivers don’t realise this. They don’t realise that they have two advantages over a passenger. Firstly, they know what they’re about to do, so they can anticipate. Secondly, they have the steering wheel as an additional bracing point.
When you’re alone, you just have to drive safely. When you’re with a passenger, treat them like a brittle-boned elderly nun in a neck brace. This doesn’t mean driving slowly. Just watch the in-cabin forces.
Sorry, quoting yourself is a bit tacky, but I forgot the main reason: The passenger has to travel through a longer arc, at greater speed than the driver.
