What'd happen if?

[Thankyou4calling]

I was driving at a decent speed, 60 or 70mph and put my car in reverse (auto gearbox)

Would it engage, destroy the box, is there a fail safe?

[Gavin0478]

On most auto gearboxes to go from d-n-r you need to have your foot on the brake to over ride the interlock.
Whether this would mean you would be braking hard I have no idea, but I also think the gearbox would not engage reverse till you were almost stationary anyway.

[Fartgalen]

Try it and report the results. Thankyou.

[TheEnd]

Nothing, they are smart enough not to do it.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Tried this with a mate years ago on an old scrapper...can't remember what it was though? Nissan I think?

Anyway, nothing happened - it just went into something similar to neutral. I think that there is a lockout that stops the box from doing it at any forward road speed.

[MrBarry123]

LOL! I was thinking the same today.

Good to know that even if I did have a crazy moment, it'd be okay.

[Hrimfaxi]

Thought about this too haha.

Quick search on youtube, expecting to see idiots trying it, but instead found this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PWkP4PmXho

Pointlessly activates the rear parking camera.

[devnull]

Did this once on my MX5 (6 speed). Used a bit too much force going from 5th to 6th and pulled the stick over the resistance that you overcome to select reverse. Slight gear grind, that was it really.

[V8Wagon]

My auto has been accidentally knocked into neutral at motorway speeds a couple of times. It surprised me that this was possible.

[Nickyboy]

Mythbusters concluded that if you could get an auto into reverse nothing happened, with a manual they couldnt physically get it into the gear

[finlo]

Years ago I recall tales of XJ6 drivers crashing after knocking the selector into R or P when reaching for the radio as there was no physical restrictions on the selector.