A car travelled at least 2.8km backwards on a busy Whangarei street before engine troubles forced the driver with four others in the vehicle to pull over in a cloud of smoke.
A driver travelling immediately behind the reversing car described the experience as "scary" and was signalling to them to get off the road.
The drama began just after 3pm on Wednesday when nurse Juanita Bassett was at Whangarei Hospital waiting to pull out on to Maunu Rd and head west.
She spotted the dark-coloured car "roaring backwards". "When I initially saw it I thought 'What's wrong with this car?' and it didn't register immediately what I was seeing."
As she followed a safe distance behind, and videoed the incident, she could see five young men in the car.