You can stop a car in reverse. I've done it. 3 main things help. *older car *auto trans *rear wheel drive. The proper trans saving method.
Downshift to slow the car down as much as possible, if there is time.
Throw the car into reverse and GIVE IT GAS at the same time.

Us old farts know how to do it -- and we don't need an automatic and we don't care if its got a reverse lockout. All you need is rear wheel drive: 1) Get 'er up to fifty or so. 2)Step on the clutch and yank/stomp on the hand brake so the rear wheels AND THE DRIVE SHAFT locks up. With the drive shaft stopped, the transmission thinks the car is already stopped so 3) Gently shift the transmission into reverse. 4) Rev the engine a little, let the clutch out, and release the hand brake all at the same time. By now you will be going about 40 and the tires will begin screaming and there will be so much smoke that it will engulf the entire car and you will gently slow to a stop. It's groovy man! It doesn't hurt the car much, but of course the tires take a serious hit. Works with an automatic too. I'm sure the show's producers know it, but have chosen self-censorship because it is just too d&%* much fun!

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2)Step on the clutch and yank/stomp on the hand brake so the rear wheels AND THE DRIVE SHAFT locks up.

The myth was, if your brakes fail, including the hand brake, will reverse alone stop the car.

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Originally posted by bsflag:

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2)Step on the clutch and yank/stomp on the hand brake so the rear wheels AND THE DRIVE SHAFT locks up.

The myth was, if your brakes fail, including the hand brake, will reverse alone stop the car.

Oh - it works. Worked at AAMCO trans for 10 years and you can bet some of your cars were used for testing! lol

As pointed out, shoving a manual trans into rewind, is all but impossible until you lock the wheels. Very true!

I'd say Grant needs to do a retake on this. Front engine rear drive is my choice and you can do this to Auto's or sticks.

Try a 1968 Chrysler Imperial with a 470 C.I. engine at 80mph. LOTS of smoke! The 727 torqeflight trans can handle it. The big blog engine has plenty of torque to make it happen. One real world example. Gutless 4 bangers of 100hp or less could never do it, so keep that in mind.

IF ANYONE does this stuff with a stick-shift (front engine/rear drive), be ready for the clutch to come apart if done wrong and this CAN TAKE YOUR LEGS CLEAN OFF!

I know the myth is 'you have no brakes', so in the abcense of brakes an automatic will do it if you mash the throttle down.

Example at idle: it will kill the engine and no damage.

At 1/4 throttle, prolly the same thing. Kill the engine.
At 1/2 throttle, no the trans is going to take some heat (abuse) and something is going to break. If wet out, it may break the tires loose.
3/4 to full throttle, a good possibility the tires will break free and actually slow you down if you don't crash first.

If it goes to a re-myth, use a front engine/rear drive car with 200hp or more and HAMMER the gas! It will work!

Final Impact

i have put both a 1984 chev half ton 4x4 and a 1997 chev 1 ton 4x4 into reverse when sliding on ice into an intersection. Slam on the brakes put in the clutch and put it in reverse no problem, it doesn't help, you still slide until you hit roadway with traction then it's hard on your drivetrain.

This myth bugged me a little when they talked about automatics having a reverse lockout. I have a 2001 ford mustang and it doesn't have a reverse lockout, and if it does its seemingly broken because I've accidentally set my car into reverse while driving before. When it happened my transmission took a very loud #$@%.

You can do this on a manual car without the handbrake if you have a transmission with sychronized reverse. Many Getrag brand transmissions have that, I have owned two BMWs with that kind of tranny. In slow speeds you can just shift to reverse normally while driving forward. Releasing the clutch brings you to stop and eventually reversing. In high speeds something probably breaks, at least you get some clutch-smoke!

Cars with that kind of transmission include:

-E34 BMWs, 1988-1996 5-series, the same kind used in the 4000 feet car drop (I had one, tested)
-E28 BMWs, early 80's 5-series (my father had one, tested)
-some E21 BMWs, early 80's 3-series (I had one, tested)
-at least some Opel Omegas

and probably many other German cars as well that I don't know of.

I am disappointed by the lack of technical insight here, technical stuff is the heart and soul of Mythbusters!

I have to bring up a couple of technicalities, first of manual transmissions:

1. (Replying to a comment from page 1 or 2) There is no such thing as a manual trans with synchronized reverse, at least not that I ever heard of

2. Remember that the reverse gear is very low, often lower than 1st gear. Example: 1st is 3:1, 4th is 1:1, rev is 3,5:1. On this car, say you have 3000 rpm in 50mph in 4th gear. When you try to shift into reverse now, your clutch, output shaft and most of the transmission gears are turning 3000 rpms FORWARD. What you are trying to do is to have the little teeth on the reverse gear (which is lubed by thick gear oil) bring down the speed of the clutch and shafts and gears from 3000 rpms - to zero - then to 10,500 RPMs in the opposite direction! The sheer rotational inertia of the rotating parts will just say no to this, then you can add bearing friction (remember - the clutch have a bearing into the crankshaft, here we will have a 13500 RPM difference for a bearing that is made for about 1000 rpm difference - plus the actual release bearing that is stationary, but some cars don't even have a ball bearing, just a friction/sliding bearing), clutch friction (most clutches will drag quite a bit even when depressed), air resistance - and the fact that any stock car clutch spinning 10 000 rpms will quite likely disintegrate and in the best case not work at all. Add to that - the reverse gear is made for engaging at a RPM difference of 0-900 rpms - now you're trying at 10 grand. This will work for lower speeds, mythbusters should test how high speeds a reverse shift can be completed, that would be interesting!

Once reverse is engaged you need to feather the clutch and mash the throttle to keep the engine alive, that will stop the car.

Auto transmissions:
Every automatic I've ever driven will engage reverse while the car is rolling forward. I can certainly state that both Jeep Cherokee 87-97 4.0 auto will do this, also 2008 Isuzu D-max (the latter I haven't tried destroying yet, so only at low speeds)

Again we have the rotational mass/inertia problem, a torque converter is a lot heavier than a clutch but an auto will physically be able to shift into reverse at speed, it is just clutches and brake bands, not teeth like in a manual. The auto car in your episode stalled it's engine, the torque converter will induse a hefty jerk onto the crankshaft in the wrong direction that will stall the engine. Now if you first shift into neutral, bring the rpms up to say 3000, then shift reverse, you will probably squeel some tires, mash the throttle once it engages and you may be able to keep engine running and tires (or transmission) squeeling until you're at a stop. Start at low speeds and build your way up, it should work (but best with an RWD)

Grants white auto car obviously stalled in that episode - he even says check engine + battery lights are on - that's what happens when you stall the engine. There is no reverse safety feature, never heard of it and I don't believe in it. That may be a new myth to test... ?

One more thing - on most auto transmissions the oil pump is at the input shaft, behind the converter. Which is why auto cars usually can't be towed to start - no oil pressure to do anything inside the trans without the engine running - which is also why Grant's car coasts for a looong time after engine stalled. Now I heard a myth that some auto transmissions have another oil pump on the output shaft (tail shaft end) to make it able to tow-start. If these transmissions really exist, the whole myth might actually work - shift into reverse at high speed - engine stalls - but output shaft oil pump still keeps pressure to clutches to grind car to a halt - probably will look like a kenguroo- tires will stop, oil pressure lost, tires start again, oil pressure back, repeat.

Now I'm really looking forward to the remake!

Amund: check my message right above yours! There are manual transmissions with sychronized reverse, factory installed in normal family cars.

Continuing my reply to Amund: The RPM difference with synchronized reverse is not a problem (at least in low speeds), that's just what the sychronization is for. You don't (and can't) ram the reverse gear on, you just gently push the lever towards the reverse, giving the syncro time to change the RPM and direction in the tranny innards to match the drive shaft. When the RPM mathes, the lever snaps in place. Then you start releasing the clutch, which in high speeds probably breaks the tranny or burns the clutch, depending on how fast you release it. But in slow speed it just works.