Bootleg turn

A bootleg turn is a driving maneuver intended to reverse the direction of travel of a forward-moving automobile by 180 degrees in a minimum amount of time while staying within the width of a two-lane road.

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.

Bootleggers were notorious for using modified high-speed cars to transport their goods and for using daring driving maneuvers to escape authorities.

The man credited with inventing the bootlegger turn is Robert Glenn "Junior" Johnson, who ran liquor from his father's moonshine still and went on to become a highly successful NASCAR racer.

The presidential limousine performs an emergency bootleg turn near the start of "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I", the first episode of season 2 of U.S. television series The West Wing.