From the October 2023 issue of Car and Driver.
A love of driving propelled Bruce Robinson’s career as an engineer in the automotive industry, with his lengthiest tenure at Nissan, where he even toiled on the hallowed GT-R and 350/370Z. Shortly after his retirement, this same desire, along with a hunger to see the country, led Robinson to get his commercial driver’s license and embark on a short-lived career driving Class 8 trucks. But he soon found the required waypoints, stops, and scheduling to be more trouble than they were worth, so he took a job driving oversize moving trucks.
Contracting drivers to operate moving trucks was just one aspect of business for the company that had hired Robinson. It also happened to hold the account for Jackass star Steve-O’s coach bus. When Steve-O needed a new driver, Robinson was offered the gig—no interview required.
Despite his proximity to the comedic daredevil, Robinson has never watched the TV show or subsequent movies that made Steve-O a household name. Robinson doesn’t have any interest in seeing his boss’s notorious hijinks, such as the time he stapled his scrotum to his leg or let a leech attach itself to his eye. While Steve-O may be associated with outrageous stunts and questionable decisions, Robinson knows him as a guy who’s out there saving lives by sharing his struggles with addiction and his path to sobriety, of which he celebrated 15 years in March.
After a year and more than 50,000 miles in the saddle, Robinson says his success in his role comes down to three things: prioritizing safety, keeping to the schedule, and maximizing comfort. He always goes 5 mph below the speed limit and drives as smoothly as possible to ensure Steve-O and crew are comfortable and go undisturbed by the motions of the bus during the many hours spent on the road.
DON’T DRINK THE WATER
While crossing Chicago’s Kinzie Street steel-deck bridge in 2004, a tour-bus driver for the Dave Matthews Band dumped the vehicle’s septic tank, presumably thinking the contents would land in the river. Instead, they landed on roughly 100 people sightseeing on the open deck of a boat under the bridge. It’s one thing to think the Dave Matthews Band is crap, but it’s another to get covered in the band’s actual crap.
Director, Vehicle Testing
Dave VanderWerp has spent more than 20 years in the automotive industry, in varied roles from engineering to product consulting, and now leading Car and Driver‘s vehicle-testing efforts. Dave got his very lucky start at C/D by happening to submit an unsolicited resume at just the right time to land a part-time road warrior job when he was a student at the University of Michigan, where he immediately became enthralled with the world of automotive journalism.
Source: www.caranddriver.com