Bootleg Turn - Technique

Technique

The turn is performed by putting the vehicle quickly into a lower gear, usually the second gear, and quickly turning the wheel in the direction of the opposite lane. If performed correctly, the vehicle will enter a controlled skid, enter the opposite lane and turn completely around. In a perfect bootleg turn, the car will be at a complete stop at the end of the maneuver and ready to accelerate and depart in the opposite direction.

It is easier to initiate this on some cars by initially applying a flick of the steering wheel the wrong way, before turning it in the direction the driver wants to go. This maneuver (known in racing as a Scandinavian flick) increases the load transfer to the outer wheels.

Classic bootleg turns can be performed only on cars with a manual transmission and are most easily done on a rear wheel drive car, as the spinning back wheels aid in the turn. This is because the maneuver is essentially a controlled fishtail-like spinout. Vehicles with an automatic transmission can be modified to make a bootleg turn possible. This is most commonly done for stunt vehicles used in motion pictures, to reduce the stress on the stunt driver to change gears while turning.

Cars with a handbrake on the rear wheels can enter a controlled turning skid by employing the handbrake, locking the wheels and turning the steering wheel sharply in either direction. This maneuver can also be called a bootleg turn, but is more precisely described as a handbrake turn. Using the handbrake to break the traction of the rear wheels is much simpler than trying to do this by power alone.