Toyota Coralla beats Ferrari 430 in drag race... backwards!

Imagine the agony of a Ferrari owner who just got humiliated in a drag race by a Toyota Corolla, and an ordinary one to boot. Well, that's exactly what happens in this video, but with a twist - both vehicles are racing in reverse.

Typically, the single reverse gear ratio of the F430 gives it a top speed of 51 mph (82 km/h). However, the Corolla powers up to 66 mph (106 km/h)!

How is this possible? The clever producers of the Japanese television show selected a Corolla equipped with Toyota's Super CVT-i transmission. The continuously variable transmission has no dedicated reverse gear. Within a given range the actual gear ratios are variable regardless of whether the car is driven forwards or backwards.

Source: jalopnik.com

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N20_Purge

I wonder how many people have sold their F430 to buy a Toyota Corolla just because it goes faster in reverse.

April 22, 2011 10:35 am

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Hardboy997

Hahaha good point!!

April 22, 2011 2:03 pm

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otakki

Interesting info. Does the same goes for all CVT transmission? By the way, the Corolla going reverse becomes a rear engined RWD, and F430 the exact opposite. Look, it doesn't cost a fortune to own a rear engined RWD car--just swapped all the seats and controls forward. And I have heard rear steered cars in general have really interesting handling characteristics on the track.

April 22, 2011 12:02 pm

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shaahinmt

a fwd going backwards is not like a rear engine car going forward since the geometry would be absolutely messed up. meaning that in a fwd you would get infinite amount of wheel hop and rear-end lift due to the fact that the direction of torque would be pushing opposite to all the control arm (and lots of other math-y stuff) which is equal to having no weight pushing down on the tire and the power would no be transferred to the ground. However in most fwd's (specially Korean fwd's) the geometry is so bad that it dosent matter if u be going ahead or backward u'd couldn't put whatever power they have down on the ground

April 23, 2011 9:04 pm

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sub39h

why so serious?

April 24, 2011 7:18 am

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droid_dtm

Well they just blew it for everyone... now Toyota is gonna put a speed cut/ratio change inhibitor while in reverse. Not that it affects my life one single bit, but I'm sure many a bored Japanese housewife saw this and cancelled their Bluebird Sylphy order for some backing up thrills courtesy Toyota :-D

April 22, 2011 12:54 pm

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nforspeed91

I don't think Ferrari will be shaking in their boots about this.

April 22, 2011 7:08 pm

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Douglas6250

That is very clever indeed. Never thought that the gear ratios are variable even in reverse !!

April 22, 2011 7:26 pm

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MadAboutCars

This is so funny, irrelevant but scientific hahahaha, they just rewrote the Clarkson rule-book of motor journalism

April 22, 2011 11:29 pm

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rxlonline

lol!! by the way WCF, the title is wrong, its Corolla , no Coralla...

April 23, 2011 4:28 am

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PONTIAC G8 GXP

CorOlla, not CorAlla

April 23, 2011 6:15 am

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bavorak

it is probably as relevant to ferrari as corolla having bigger trunk. You can always pinpoint things on any wreck that are better than those on the best supersports it is like saying that some ugly woman is better because she has bigger boobs than Megan Fox

April 24, 2011 3:41 am

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V-elocity

Not sure what the Toyota clocked but I know Ford Crown Vic can hit 55 or 60mph in reverse...terrifying

April 25, 2011 4:22 am

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