On this week's episode ofThe J-Turn, host Jessi Lang heads to the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving for the Executive Protection Course, where she learns how to drive Chevrolet Camaros and Tahoes defensively in tactical situations.
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This episode kicks off with Lang attempting to master the dead man driving drill, in which the driver of a vehicle is incapacitated and the passenger must quickly take control. Lang's first attempt doesn't go so well, with the Chevrolet Tahoe veering off the track, but she gets the hang of it soon enough. Next, Lang learns a few evasion techniques including the Rockford reverse 180-degree turn, emergency lane changes, and reverse-autocross.
Lang then learns how to do a PIT maneuver in an old Bondurant beater (and has a bit of a mishap), and then puts her skills to the test on the Bondurant road course. Check out the latestJ-Turnbelow.
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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