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Vile Gossip: Ladies who launch

Jean Jennings has been writing about cars for more than 30 years, after stints as a taxicab driver and as a mechanic in the Chrysler Proving Grounds Impact Lab. She was a staff writer at Car and Driver magazine, the first executive editor and former president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine, the founder of the blog Jean Knows Cars and former automotive correspondent for Good Morning America. She has lifetime awards from both the Motor Press Guild and the New England Motor Press Association. Look for more Vile Gossip columns in the future. The year was 2006. We were driving a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 across the Florida Panhandle from Jacksonville to Panama City, only because I couldn't convince Bugatti to let me be the first to drive its exotic powerhouse, the world's fastest car at that time, all the way across America. One gleaming example had arrived in time for the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, where the journos massed for their quick test drives out the front drive of the Ritz Carlton, down a short stretch of the A1A, and back to the Ritz. Not far enough for me. I wanted to take the Veyron in all of its 16-cylinder, 1,001-horsepower, $1.3-million-dollar glory on a coast-to-coast extravaganza of a road trip. Never hurts to ask. I asked. Once the Bugatti guys stopped hyperventilating, I explained that the coastal adventure would be contained wholly within the state of Florida, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico. My secret destination, however, was to be Vernon, Florida, home of the great Errol Morris' classic documentary about a town in the Panhandle with the highest per-capita population of citizens who'd blown off or whacked off a limb for insurance money. (Google "Nub City.") The Swiss head of Bugatti public relations thought it hilarious. He showed up in a van with a couple of German mechanics to follow us and a failed French Formula 1 driver to serve as my chaperone. I came with a photographer from Germany and one of the most infamous of bad-boy auto magazine tech editors, the irrepressible Don Sherman. Sherman had his own reason for going, and it had nothing to do with a Veyron to Vernon. Once we gave up looking for nubbies, he ordered me to veer south to the handgrip of the Panhandle, familiarly known as the Redneck Riviera. The Don was aiming to secretly execute the Veyron's first Launch Control blastoff in captivity.

2013 Jeep Wrangler Moab Edition

There will forever be a soft spot in my heart for the Jeep Wrangler. The last one I owned was red, and, as a 1990 model, had the square headlights derided by Jeep enthusiasts who grew up on the Civilian Jeeps that descended from their General Purpose military ancestors. As a teenager, I couldn't have cared less what shape its headlights happened to be - to me, a Jeep Wrangler represented freedom; a carefree do-it-all machine equally at home with the top stowed away in the summer or with the heater on full blast in the snowy clutches of Old Man Winter. In Dr. Seuss parlance, my square-headlighted Sneetch was just as worthy as any round-headlighted Sneetch.
All that said, I'll be the first person to advise against buying a Jeep Wrangler of any sort for owners who don't plan to use it as its makers intend. There's no good reason to punish yourself with a stiff and springy ride, a loud and somewhat drafty (though generally water-resistant) interior or the poor fuel economy expected of a block-shaped vehicle if you don't enjoy its other, more exciting benefits.
Of course, Jeep has done its darndest over the years to make the Wrangler as civilized as possible while keeping it as capable as federal law will allow. The 2013 Jeep Wrangler Moab edition is one of Jeep's latest attempts to attract attention from the upper reaches of the active lifestyle set, and I spent a week with one to see what makes the Moab special.

FCA design chief Ralph Gilles uses Jeep to help couple in fiery wreck

Fiat Chrysler's head of design Ralph Gilles recently rendered assistance at a fiery crash scene that left one dead. Gilles helped two people trapped inside a vehicle following a pair of collisions that left them pressed up against a burning vehicle. He used his Jeep Wrangler to nudge a Ford Edge engulfed in flames across the road. The 57-year-old female passenger who was trapped inside the other car was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The first crash happened early Sunday, Feb. 18, in a rural area north of Detroit when a 2013 Ford Fiesta carrying the woman and her husband collided head-on with a 2013 Ford Edge that had crossed the center line. The driver of that vehicle sustained minor injuries; police said alcohol is believed to have played a role. Gilles was driving home with his wife, Doris, when they came upon the accident, stopped and called 911. He told the Oxford Leader he and the driver of the Edge tried to help the couple in the Fiesta, but none of the doors would open. After Gilles went to move his Wrangler out of the way, he saw a Buick LeSabre broadside the already-crippled Fiesta and push it up against the Edge, which then caught fire. With the couple still trapped inside the Fiesta, Gilles got the idea to put the Wrangler into four-wheel drive and push the Edge to the opposite shoulder using his Jeep. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. "I still have no idea where that (thought) came from," Gilles told the Leader. "The only thing I can remember thinking (is) I've got a Jeep, it's got a bumper on it, I think I can do this. All I could think about were the two people still inside the other car." Firefighters were later able to extract the couple from the Fiesta and transport them to a hospital. The woman was then airlifted to a second hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her husband was listed in stable condition. Gilles posted a short video of the burning vehicle on Instagram and wrote that he was "NOT a hero." "It made us appreciate the true heroes. The first responders, Firemen/women, EMS and Police who deal with this stuff every day," he wrote. Image Credit: Ralph Gilles / Instagram Jeep fire