The Unusual 'Backward Drive' Pick-Up Truck

Ridiculous Rides

A FORMER race car driver has built a one-of-a-kind vehicle never before seen on the roads - a 1952 Ford pick-up truck that drives BACKWARDS. Davey Hamilton, from Indianapolis, built his creation after being inspired by a former racing driver pal who owned a truck – so Davey decided to get one but give it a unique spin all of its own. Incredibly Davey’s backwards driving truck can reach speeds of up to 85mph, amazing other road users everywhere it goes.  Video Credits: Videographer / director: Dan Wagner Producer:  Kalina Van Vlack, Kim Nguyen Editor: Alex Lubetkin

Transcript

00:00Number one, it's attention getter. Number two, it's definitely a fan favorite. Number

00:11three, it was a lot of work.

00:15Former car race driver Davey Hamilton has swapped the fast lane to build a one-of-a-kind 1952

00:21Ford backwards pickup truck.

00:23I'm Davey Hamilton and this is my 1952.

00:30Ford backwards truck.

00:32Wait! It's going backwards! What the heck?

00:37So a friend of mine up in Maine, who is a former racer, I went to his place and he actually

00:43had a truck that was somewhat like this, but I took it another step farther.

00:54So a lot of the trucks, older trucks, have really small back windows. They don't have the wide ones.

00:58They're still little and I'm from Indianapolis. So I looked all around the Indy area, couldn't

01:03find a truck with a big back window. I happened to find this truck like three miles from my

01:07father's house. He sent me some pictures, I go, perfect, get it.

01:11As far as the body, it's all the original body. The frame's original. The steering column and the

01:16pedals, it's all still original. And then we had to put the lights on, obviously, going the wrong

01:21direction. I didn't know what to do for a bed cover, so we figured to keep it rustic looking.

01:27We just use this piece of plywood. But then you can see inside, it's just a 350 Chevy engine with a

01:37turbo 350 transmission. Yeah. One key thing was a big radiator because the air going through the tailgate

01:45wasn't that good. So you can see we had to cut a hole for your feet to go inside the bed. So we had

01:50to seal all this up to make sure no water and stuff came in inside the truck. We actually took seats out

01:56of a Clarisse Razor. We just had them, right? But the dash, we built it. My dad actually built and broke

02:01this dash out of aluminum. Got all the gauges in it. I always get mixed up on which door to get in,

02:07but obviously this is the right door is the one you're supposed to get in all the time. So I just

02:15took a racing fuel cell and put it in for a gas tank. Fenders, brake lights, tail lights, blinkers.

02:26It has to have windshield wipers. It passed. It has everything that's required to have in a car.

02:31All the body mounts had to be turned around and switched. So getting it to where it looked proper

02:36and like it was a regular truck per se, like it looks pretty good. It looks like it's supposed

02:41to go forward. And so it took some time to get everything leveled out and make sure that it was

02:47mounted properly so it didn't bounce around. This backwards vehicle is also easy to maneuver

02:53once you get the hang of it. It's easy to drive. It's got, like I said, good brakes and all that that

02:59goes with it. But it's still, in the day, still a 1952 Ford truck, right? So, but it's fun. It's not

03:07too aerodynamic with the cab backwards. I'll tell you that. The front end is so long. It's the bed

03:13and you're looking over the bed. So it takes a little bit to learn where you're at. And as you can

03:17tell, it's a little tighter, right? The cockpit's not quite as much room as if you turned around.

03:22Had it up to 85. I really don't want to go any faster. It goes pretty good at that speed. It doesn't

03:27handle great. I definitely don't want to put it on the racetrack. It's really a 52 Ford truck.

03:36I don't even know how to value that thing, right? I don't have any idea what it's worth to somebody,

03:40but it's unique. I've been offered some money for it, but I wasn't ready to sell.

03:45Unsurprisingly, this unique vehicle gets a lot of attention out on the road.

03:50You know, the guys at the bar over there.

03:51People get a kick out of it. That's always fun, right? When it makes somebody's day.

04:01People have told me that. I haven't smiled like this for a long time. So that's pretty cool, right?

04:07That's the kind of reactions you get, right? People just like this gentleman. You know,

04:24they want to stop you. They want to talk to you. They want to, you know, look it over and ask questions.

04:29So you definitely don't want to be in a hurry.

04:31The town I'm from, everybody talks about it, but it still gets reactions.

04:35There's new people that see it every time we take it out, and it's definitely a crowd getter.

04:40I haven't been pulled over yet. I've kind of been waiting. I actually passed a cop once.

04:44He waved and off he went, like most people.

04:47You know where in the rules it says where the body's supposed to go.

04:50Yeah, it doesn't matter.

05:01He doesn't matter.

05:06We're going to be, you know, I don't know.

05:07I'm kind of scared.

05:10I'm tired.

05:11I never knew.

05:13You know I've gotten a lot of questions on, but the psychology blog has been really.

05:17I don't know.

05:20How did I change?

05:22I'm ready?

05:24Here they are in the rules…

05:26I'm ready.

05:27I'm ready.

05:28I'm ready.

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