Ask most people, and they’ll tell you that it simply isn’t likely you’ll ever manage to get a manual transmission to shift into reverse while the vehicle is at speed. Try it, and you’ll be met with a whole bunch of nasty grinding. If you do manage to overcome the transmission’s immense resistance to such a blunder, well, then it’s bye-bye gearbox.
Or so says conventional wisdom.
However, the folks over at Jalopnik recently managed to find video of a Ford Ranger that directly contradicts such notions. Cruising along at what the title claims is 40 miles-per-hour, the driver suddenly thrusts the shifter into reverse, and rather than being met with a loud “bang” and a downpour of gears, synchros, and bits of transmission housing, he’s met with wheelspin. Playful, non-threatening wheelspin.
Despite the rosy outcome of this video, we recommend never, ever doing this to your own Ford Ranger unless it’s already on its way out.
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