Davey Hamilton, 57, used to participate in the IndyCar racing series back in the day, but today, he would like us to throw a glance at his latest creation: a 1952 Ford F-Series pickup moving backwards all the time.
Unlike his worldwide famous namesake Lewis, Davey Hamilton has never been too successful in professional motorsports. Worse yet, a serious track accident in Texas in 2001 and the series of surgeries that followed left him crippled and bound to a wheelchair for a whole year. Hamilton attempted to come back to racing fterwards – and once again without any results worth pointing out – but he has still retained much of his love towards all things automotive.
This video cropped up on a YouTube channel dedicated to the most unusual and weird rides. Hamilton did his best to get into this category, turning the entire cab contents of his truck around to face backwards – this included the seats, the dash and the steering wheel. He then moved the engine higher up and into the cab to hook it up to the transmission properly. In the end, he found that the cab grew uncomfortably cramped and the wide pillars at both sides compromised his line of sight considerably. Despite this, the car handled like a charm and could easily accelerate to 85 mph (137 km/h).
On an interesting side note, the man never had any difficulty obtaining the necessary vehicle registration papers. Apparently, the local state legislation never stipulated any particular orientation of the car’s controls or drivetrain components.
As weird as the thing is, it is not the first of its kind. Several months ago, a self-taught car technician from Russia did something similar with his Zhiguli. Not long ago, a reverse Chevrolet pickup just like this one rode out on the USA streets (and is likely still cruising them now).