Reverse round a curve

Watch it, then drive it

1. 1

   Watch the official video

   DVSA's short guide to the four manoeuvre skills the examiner looks for.

   

   From the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency on YouTube. Free to watch.

   More videos on YouTube↗
2. 2

   Drive it with the coach

   Guided mode puts the reference points on screen and stops you the moment you drift.

   Practise this in the simulator
3. 3

   Test yourself

   Test mode says nothing and marks you in the examiner's words. Three clean runs in a row and it is learnt.

What is marked here

Not on the driving test, so there is no examiner's box. The simulator marks it the way it marks the test manoeuvres: control, observation and accuracy, with the same grades. A clip of the kerb or a rough finish is minor; touching something or finishing outside the target is serious.

Where it is tested

Spain's category B exercise has the car reversing along a straight and a curve, and France and Poland use a reversing curve of their own (marche arrière en arrondi, jazda pasem ruchu do tyłu, known as the łuk). We have not matched their dimensions to an official document, so the layout here is our own: a 10 m straight, a 90 degree bend of 15 m radius, a 10 m straight, in a road 4.4 m wide.

Reference points

Start with the car straight in the middle of the road. Look all round, then select reverse and look through the back window. Reverse straight to the start of the bend. Then turn the wheel to the left, about a quarter of a turn, and hold it: the car follows the bend by itself, and the front swings out to the right, so check it. When the road straightens, bring the wheel back to straight and carry on back to the end.

Why a quarter turn

The car is a 4.04 m hatchback with a 2.49 m wheelbase. To follow a circle of radius 15 m the back axle needs a steer angle of atan(2.49 / 15), which is 9.4 degrees. Full lock is 35 degrees and 1.35 turns of the wheel, so 9.4 degrees is about a quarter of a turn. The front of the car moves out about 1.25 m beyond the line of the back axle, which leaves 0.95 m to the kerb on this road. It is arithmetic, not a saying.

Common faults

Minor and serious follow the simulator's marking, which copies the examiner's grading. Serious: touching a kerb. Fix: hold the wheel steady through the bend; the more you change it, the more the car wanders. Serious: the front swinging into something on the outside of the bend. Fix: look at the front as well as the back before the bend starts. Serious: reversing without all-round observation. Fix: both shoulders, the rear window and the blind spot before the car moves, then keep looking. Minor, then serious: too many corrections (three, then six here). Fix: one smooth turn in, one smooth turn out.

If it goes wrong

Stop. Look all round. Pull forward to straighten up and start again from the straight. Never carry on hoping, and give way to anyone who walks across behind you.

How you practise it here

Watch drives it for you with the commentary running, so you see the whole thing once before you touch anything. Steering only takes the pedals and gears off you, the way an instructor does on the first lesson: a mark on the wheel shows when to turn and how far. Guided puts the reference points on screen and stops you the moment you drift. Test says nothing and marks you in the words the examiner uses. Three clean Test runs in a row counts as learned, and it comes back two days, a week and three weeks later so it is still there on the day.

Step by step

These are the words the simulator says to you, in order, the same commentary you would get from the passenger seat.

1. 1You will reverse along the road, round a bend and out onto the straight. Look all round first, then select reverse.
2. 2Reverse gear. Look through the back window and keep the car in the middle of the road.
3. 3Straight back first, in the middle of the road. Get the wheel ready for the bend by looking where it starts.
4. 4The bend starts. Turn the wheel smoothly to the left, about a quarter of a turn, and hold it. The front of the car swings out to the right: check it.
5. 5Half way round. Hold the wheel steady and watch the kerb on the inside of the bend.
6. 6The road straightens. Bring the wheel back to straight and keep going back.
7. 7That is far enough. Stop here and tap Finished.

Common questions