Is it true a automatic car can go as fast in reverse as forwards?

Question

Dont worry i have no plans on finding out! but i mean like 60mph kinda fast..

Answer 1

No

Answer 2

No. Reverse gear in a normal auto has about the same ratio as 2nd. You might get to 60mph, but that's it. Theoretically, a car with a CVT box ( The old DAFs mentioned, but a few newer cars have them too), can go backwards almost as fast as forwards, the only difference being in aerodynamics.
You would very quickly cook the engine doing this, however, as there would be almost no air getting into the radiator going backwards at speed.

Answer 3

Look at it as if it was a stick shift (the basic gears are the same, the difference is that it shifts for you in a really complex way). You have five or so forward gears, and one reverse gear. Chances are you won't go faster in reverse than you would in first gear going forward.

Answer 4

Not usually. It depends on the type of transmission.

Most automatic cars have the same sort of gearbox as manual cars, it just changes gear for you. Reverse still has to be selected manually and it's slow.

Cars with fluid transmission (notably Jeeps) simply swap the drive over for reverse. They can go just as fast backwards. Bear in mind that Jeeps were originally designed for the battlefield and sometimes it's handy to be able to do 80 in reverse.

Answer 5

Del Piero and Colin M have got it spot on. The old DAF was notorious for it`s ability to go as fast backwards as forwards. Strange thing is though, it never caught on as an "excutive" car, would have been great in a hijack situation, no need to do a reverse flick, just stick it in "R" and floor it !

Answer 6

absolutely not!!! impossible... when you are going forward the "automatic" transmission has gears the shifts automatically! so the speed is getting grader and grader as you are accelarating. when you go reverse... the reverse gear does not have gears within it to shift again and again to boost the speed up!!! so you can listen to all the miths you can but it is not true.... and if you dont believe me ... go to an open field and try it ... once you go and try it.. youll log back in here and realize that i gave you the best answer!

Answer 7

no auto cars only have 1 reverse gear and up to 6 forward. auto means it changes through the gears automatically

Answer 8

Depends on the gearbox. With a standard Borg Warner auto transmission then the answer is no. If however you have the belt drive auto as was used in the Daf 1100 then yes you can go as fast forwards as backwards.

Answer 9

There's only one reverse "gear" and it's lower than "low" or 1st. Re the dear old DAF rubber-band transmission, we had a nasty accident near here years ago where some daft old biddy managed to put hers in reverse, stuck her foot down and, they reckon, was up to 50mph backwards before she drove off the end of the ferry. Ferryman got an award for diving in and getting her out .
I won't name her for obvious reasons, she was a famous author, now gone, who seldom knew what day it was . . .

Answer 10

It *might* be able to go that fast if you were willing to "red-line" your engine going in reverse-gear. It's a single gear (similar to 1st gear) - and you could, in theory - just tear up your engine / transmission by pushing it into really high rev's to get it going pretty fast in reverse... but I wouldn't recommend that with most street-legal vehicles.

Answer 11

No it would have to have the gear ratio of "overdrive". Try it and let us know.You might be able to squeeze 60 mph out of a performance vehicle that will allow high RPMs.