Back to front

A cab driver in the Northern Indian State of Rajasthan has been given a special license by the local authorities, which permits him to drive at speed in reverse. This stems from an incident when his gearbox failed in 2003 and he had to drive home in reverse. The man then decided he wanted to distinguish himself from other cab drivers by becoming an expert in reverse driving and had the gearbox of his Padmini Princess cab (based on a 1950s Fiat) reassembled so that it has four reverse and one forward gear. T
July 16, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A cab driver in the Northern Indian State of Rajasthan has been given a special license by the local authorities, which permits him to drive at speed in reverse. This stems from an incident when his gearbox failed in 2003 and he had to drive home in reverse. The man then decided he wanted to distinguish himself from other cab drivers by becoming an expert in reverse driving and had the gearbox of his Padmini Princess cab (based on a 1950s 2729 Fiat) reassembled so that it has four reverse and one forward gear. The taxi now has 'Back Gear Champian' painted on its side so that would-be customers should have no doubts as to what to expect, while the driver has no doubt already been told that his spelling is incorrect. The cabbie regularly drives at up to 80km/h in reverse while using an ambulance siren to warn other road users. For his troubles he does suffer severe neck and back problems but says that this is a small price to pay. He has attempted to set a world record but has not as yet managed to have this officially verified.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • TISPOL Conference: autonomous vehicles high on safety agenda
    February 2, 2017
    Safety and autonomous vehicles exercised the minds of some of Europe’s senior police officers at the recent TISPOL European Traffic Police Network Conference in the UK. The European Union looks like missing its target of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020. Just when European police forces are trying to get back on target, along comes the autonomous vehicle with all its inherent safety issues.
    Read More
  • Zipping up road lanes
    September 28, 2018
    QMB has a Lindsay Road Zipper on duty near Montreal. World Highways deputy editor David Arminas climbed aboard As vice president of Canadian barrier specialist QMB, based in Laval, Quebec, Marc-Andre Seguin is sanguine about the future for moveable barriers. On the one hand, it looks good. The oft-stated advantage of moveable barriers is that the systems are cheaper to install than adding a lane or two to a highway or bridge. Directional changes to lanes can boost volume on a road without disrupting tra
    Read More
  • Custom crazy
    September 26, 2013
    A British man has built an unusual custom vehicle with a front grille made from bottle caps and a steering wheel featuring part of an old firework rocket. Based on an old BMW Z3, the car’s six cylinder engine is visible and has been fitted with salt and pepper pots, to form part of the visual appearance of the vehicle. The car has a top speed of 224km/h and hopefully none of the additions will fall off at speed. Meanwhile a Hungarian man has built a car from wood, using the engine from an old Polish-made Fi
    Read More
  • India’s road to safety
    September 5, 2012
    India's growth rate is the envy of the world, and its infrastructure is rapidly improving, but its road safety record is the world's worst. Patrick Smith reports on a conference aimed at finding answers to the problems Ambling through the gardens and marble magnificence that is the Taj Mahal or gazing down on the city of Jaipur from the hilltop Jaigarh Fort is far removed from the world outside.
    Read More

Highlighted Content