I wonder if anyone's tried driving around famous circuits in the reverse direction?
Thinking of some famous circuits I wonder how some sections would drive?
1) Clay Hill - Oulton Park 2) Eau Rouge - Spa 3) Lowes - Monaco (yes I know it's been renamed) 4) The Corkscrew- Laguna Seca 5) Druids to Paddock Hill - Brands Hatch 6) Hammerhead - Top Gear.
Immediate reaction is you'd lose the RHD advantage. Some or a lot of cars were built this way because of R/H circuits, eg Porsche 917, there may be more. Ive got a LHD-only car and on a track like Goodwood it's a pain in the rear as there's only one (I think) left hander.
Last edited by gruntie; 14th Aug 2012 at 22:04.
Reason: speeling
I'm sure there used to be a race meeting every year at Brandersnatch where every race was wrong way; could have been motor bikes but I remember seeing ads for 'wrong way round at Brands'.
When Indianapolis added the infield part of the track for F1 the part of the oval that was used for the circuit was ran backwards (clockwise) in relation to Indycar and Nascar which run anti-clockwise.
Eau Rouge at Spa was part of the road network so , yes you could drive it the other way. I remember watching a Belgian roll an Opel Kadett trying it - complete with Granny and the family dog in the back. Recent road improvements have taken the fun out of it. It's frightenng enough the right way round, even at HRC speeds. The sensation was there every lap that I was going into the crowd.
Eau Rouge certainly (in the old format) was a formidable combination and unfortunately killed Stefan Belhof...(although there are those who claim that it was either Belhof's impatience or Ickz's tactics that caused this terrible accident at Eau Rouge).
Last edited by Cacophonix; 15th Aug 2012 at 06:10.
I'm sure there used to be a race meeting every year at Brandersnatch where every race was wrong way; could have been motor bikes but I remember seeing ads for 'wrong way round at Brands'.
I believe that that was 'stock cars' or banger racing rather than formula cars.
Surely the speed wouldn't be there..... Do any cars have more than one gear in reverse?
The DAF Variomatic's top speed in "reverse mode" was the same as forwards. Whether or not one would wish to race such a vehicle at Brands Hatch etc is another matter!
However, in the former Dutch annual backward driving world championship, the DAFs had to be put in a separate competition because no other car could keep up.
Some two-stroke powered cars from the 50s and 60s weren't fitted with a separate reverse gear, but an integral Siba Dynastart unit enabled the engine to run backwards, effectively giving an equal number of reverse gears.
Last edited by spekesoftly; 15th Aug 2012 at 09:52.
Olivers Mount at Scarborough was primarily a bike circuit but was used (full lap) as a car rally stage as well*. The rally cars did the circuit clockwise, the bikes anti-clockwise. Remember it well after a mate of mine put his car through the wooden hut, used as a cafe, at the top of the hill.
(* Apparently there were also a couple of car races there in the mid 50s but I don't know which way the car races went).
Way back in the mists of time when Moley was playing Formula Ford at the Brands Hatch racing school, one of the final tests used to be driving the track in the opposite sense...to see if you could learn a different track on your own, without actually going anywhere else!
Surely the speed wouldn't be there..... Do any cars have more than one gear in reverse?
An electric car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed did the whole hill climb in reverse, in a respectable time.
the LEAF can go just as fast in reverse as it can forwards. The company aimed to set a record for the fastest mile in reverse at Goodwood last year, but officials deemed it too dangerous given a lack of testing. Clearly their requirements have now been met as stunt driver Terry Grant is on backward-driving duties. Nissan points out that as the LEAF’s batteries are under-floor, it has a low centre of gravity, making it “very stable at speed with little body roll under cornering. And with fewer moving parts than a conventional car, there’s less likelihood of mechanical issues thwarting the attempt.” Indeed.
in both directions and prefer the latter.
