Reversing aid for drivers...

[spudfan]

The 1963 Peel P50 was the smallest car ever mass-produced. It featured three wheels and a single seat with a 49cc 4.2hp engine. It didn't have a reverse gear, but a handle at the back allowed it to be physically maneuvered as needed.

So the wife comes home and says "I passed my driving test. I had no bother with the reversing part of it."

Edited November 18, 2021 by spudfan

[Broithe]

3 hours ago, spudfan said:

 It didn't have a reverse gear

Some of the two-stroke bubble cars didn't have a reverse gear, but they had adjustable timing - this allowed the engine to be stopped, the timing altered, then restarted, running in the other direction.

This left you with the possibility of all the gears in reverse, not just one - 70mph backwards, for those that felt up to it...

[Westcorkrailway]

The Lanz Bulldog Tractor had an engine that could run both clockwise and anti-clockwise depending on which direction you wanted to go. It also had a 0 RPM engine (yes an engine can run at 0 RPM)

[murrayec]

I had a BSA years ago- sometimes at low tick-over one would hear a glunk which indicated that the crank is rotating in the opposite direction!! One then had reverse in all gears!!

Eoin

[Broithe]

6 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

The Lanz Bulldog Tractor had an engine that could run both clockwise and anti-clockwise depending on which direction you wanted to go. It also had a 0 RPM engine (yes an engine can run at 0 RPM)

Yeah, ticking 'over' at 2/3 of a rev in each direction.

1 minute ago, murrayec said:

I had a BSA years ago- sometimes at low tick-over one would hear a glunk which indicated that the crank is rotating in the opposite direction!! One then had reverse in all gears!!

Eoin

A friend of mine lovingly rebuilt a Suzuki 750 'kettle'.

 

We still laugh about how he took out the back wall of his shed when he first got it going...

[murrayec]

I had a 'kettle', I heard that they could go backwards if the HT leads were set up out of sequence! Lovely bike so never tried that......

A friend had a Suzuki GT though- when he switched the HT leads the bike ran backwards....

Eoin

[Broithe]

The Japanese chap I worked with had only ever driven Japanese cars, but 'work' insisted that he had a hire car for a job, no more 'expenses' - they really hated employees potentially 'winning', they preferred to give money to anybody else but us.

Anyway, he came back after a fortnight, rather unenamoured by the Vauxhall that he had been forced to use - "It not go to reverse!" - he had spent the fortnight parking it uphill and pushing it out of tight spots.

He could see from the 'map' on the gear knob where reverse should be, but just couldn't persuade it to go in. He had tried 'everything' - pulling it up, pushing it down, just ramming it in - all failed, so he just gave up.

He still had the car outside, so I showed him the secret GM trick of pulling the gaiter shroud up, to allow reverse to be selected.

He was apoplectic with rage - "Why they not tell you?!"

[Georgeconna]

You should see the back of my Car after the missus backed into a wall last week, FFS depending on Beeps n cameras.... Awareness is going....

[DiveController]

She was probably hoping your awareness had also gone 

[Georgeconna]

LOL! she was collecting me after spending a day on the river, could not loose the rag as I had to ask her the following week. Tis a 10 anyhow so not too bovered plus when it was me dads it had already had the attention of some pi$$ed up, Drugged up lout  put in a load of car windows in the middle of no where but proceeded to attack my dads car with some patio chair and dented the hell outa it  He got the mads as he got lost trying to find his way home from a neighbours party, Could it be proved...no but the cops picked this guy wandering around and dropped him into Mayfield...say now more...It bought the car from me dad as he has MS and it had low mileage...