Pirren, there is no justifying backrollers. Just kill them. Backrollers are usually suckers for flares, too.

Its true, popping a back roller is easy. All you have to do is take a couple seconds, figure out where he is going to be and loose a few Sunnies.

I totally disagree with this. Imagine the engine as an ion drive or something futuristic like that. You could choose where to spout the ions in order to produce a thrust (imagine a well of ions going through pipes to get out of the ship).

Also, I use distance control+backrolling a lot, and it allows me to be able to take on multiple targets while still taking minimal damage, waiting for one to make a mistake, and blasting away when someone does. This would totally ruin my anti-ganking strategy: -1.

It is not imaginable as a Newtonian drive. It is a gravitic engine, no relying upon direct interaction with the mass of the ship but creating gravity wells in the direction of where you intend the ship to go. The light emanating from your ship's vents is merely the shedding of excess heat. The 'turbo' is, on the other hand, a Newtonian drive, and only yields thrust in one direction. There, something like an ion thruster is probably being used.

At least that's the most likely explanation, convened upon by the mass of technobabbling sci-fi avouts in here, last I checked.