This clip “Secret Service Agents Train For Advance Reverse Escapes” shows President Obama’s limousine running hard around the Lime Rock race track, in reverse. It’s neat, but it’s definitely animated. A lot of people posting it to their Facebook wall don’t seem to recognize that.
The noises (shifting while going backwards), occasionally jerky physics, and pseudo-flat trees are probably the biggest giveaways that this clip is not real.
Folks writing on Reddit seem to concur that it was created in Forza 6, which I haven’t played but this seems consistent with clips and the fact that you can drive the POTUSmobile. Apparently pretty quickly, according to the Forza forums!
Update: A Mr. Joe Leech has commented on our Facebook page, having apparently created the video:
“I still can’t believe how much my video has blown up.. What was an innocent teaser for my next YouTube video has blown up into a 30,000,000 View debate questioning it’s realism. I’m completely blown away by this. The Footage is taken directly from Forza Motorsport 6 using the basic Replay system. there is no trickery involved and the footage isn’t played backwards, I am simply just drifting the car in reverse gear. The exact car model used is the Cadillac XTS Limo from a Logitech DLC pack. Again, all of this is exclusive to FM6.”
So enjoy the video, but feel free to tell your relatives and silly friends to stop getting so jacked up about how fast the Presidential limo is in reverse. Anyway, here’s what a government-issue stretched Caddy actually looks like in “reverse driver training:”
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.