Dutch manufacturer DAF created a small family car in the late nineteen fifties equipped with a variomatic transmission that allowed it to drive backwards exactly as fast as it could drive forwards.

A closer look

Dutch manufacturer DAF created a small family car in the late nineteen fifties equipped with a variomatic transmission that allowed it to drive backwards exactly as fast as it could drive forwards. Naturally, this bizarre engineering quirk birthed a deeply unhinged motorsport in the Netherlands where lunatics would race these innocent-looking sedans in reverse gear at sixty miles per hour. The resulting crashes were spectacularly chaotic because the human body and standard car steering systems are absolutely not designed to maneuver violently at highway speeds while staring out of a rearview mirror. The races became wildly popular on Dutch television, proving that if you give bored Europeans a vehicle with a terrible design flaw, they will immediately invent a suicidal gladiator sport to entertain the masses on a Sunday afternoon