What would happen if a car was travelling at 70 mph and you put it into reverse?

Answer 1

You can't

Answer 2

The reverse gear on a car is a tiny cog that slots in between the first gear cog and the actual drive shaft, so it spins the first gear cog in the opposite direction.

As many people have said, newer cars have limiters and will prevent you from engaging the gear at that speed.

Anyway, if you even engage 1st gear the engine will over rev and likely explode, reverse will make the little cog spin way too fast, probably over heat and trash the gear box, and the wheels being forced to go the other way at such a high speed will 1:) explode the engine as it's in 1st gear anyway at 70MPH 2:) Bend and wreck all the drive shafts as they are being violently forced to spin in the opposite direction and 3:) a massive "clunk" as the wheels spin freely and all the transmission, gearbox is completely sheared apart and snapped and the engine is bellowing with smoke. You wouldn't spin out, the tranmission couldn't override the momentium, it'll just roll forward. In most cases, although some tough tranmissions could cause a spin, normal everyday ones wouldn't.

=)

Answer 3

With a standard, you'd get one hell of a grinding noise, but it would not let you put it in reverse. I've actually dropped into R by mistake on an automatic but was only going about 20 mph, The transmission clutch disengaged, stalled and the car rolled to a stop. Fortunately it worked fine after I restarted but I would not recommend doing it on purpose.

Answer 4

Most modern transmissions have a limiter which prevents the driver from being an idiot and trying to put their transmission in reverse while doing 70 mph.

Answer 5

Only tried this at 40mph so not sure what would happen at 70mph
But at 40 in a Nissan Urvan you get an almighty screeching grinding noise that makes pedestrians jump maybe, a foot or so into the air.
For some reason, no matter how much you pull on that gear lever you cannot fully engage reverse gear. :o(

Answer 6

If it is a manual transmission I think it depends if you use the clutch properly it will just slow down the car until it stops. I know this because my aunt did that at around 60mph on a highway next to her house and it was so funny, you could look at the smoke from the tires and after that she was so scared...

Answer 7

If you could even get it in reverse (I imagine newer models prevent that), the transmission would blow immediately. The car itself would keep moving in a forward motion, after the initial jerk. Eventually it would slow to a stop since it's no longer in any gear.

Answer 8

I doubt you would be able to put the car in reverse at that speed but if you did, I think you would have an accident and crash.

Answer 9

Most people are right with 'you can't'

..however we had one of our drivers drop his Fiat Kangoo from 5th to 2nd at 70 - gear box was fine, clutch was fine. Engine was not!! Bent valves & snapped a load of internal parts....that was the THIRD van he'd trashed through carelessness!!

Answer 10

cars now days are setup so that things like this couldn't happen. the transmission would simply go into a netural state until it would reach a certain speed then engage again and not hurt the transmission. older model cars were not setup this way, they would engage and blow the transmission.

Answer 11

if your racing an auto matic and u throw it in reverse most cars have a kill switch but ones that dont will cause ur tranny to drop out and ull run it over with back of car.