Writing about cars will never make you rich, but the job does have its perks. Chief among these are press trips, where manufacturers put you up in hotels you couldn’t possibly afford otherwise, feed you meals that cost more than your monthly food budget and toss you the keys to cars that are worth (in some cases, anyway) more than your first house. Sometimes, they even take you to racetracks, with the sole instruction being “please don’t stack our car.”
Not all press trips are filled with warmth and sunshine, as Jeremy Hart, covering the new all-wheel drive Jaguar XJ sedan for Jay Leno’s Garage, quickly discovers. Instead, this press trip covers a thousand miles of driving in the Yukon, demonstrating the prowess of Jaguar’s “instinctive” all-wheel drive. The goal is to chase the sun until it disappears under the horizon, or as Hart explains, going about as “far north in North America” as an automobile can go.
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How cold are the temperatures? Try -50℉, which is cold enough to freeze the Yukon River solid. Breaking down here is a dance with death, and Hart gets some handy advice from the local police on how to build a life-saving fire using the car’s spare tire. That’s not instruction you’re likely to get from the Florida Highway Patrol.
If you’re going to drive a thousand miles to the Arctic Circle in winter, we suppose there are worse vehicles to choose than the AWD Jaguar XJ sedan. We’re not averse to cold weather, but to be honest, that’s one press trip invite we’re glad we didn’t get.
Kurt Ernst has been passionate about automobiles and driving nearly his entire life. His early years were shaped working in the family service station, though his real passion was auto racing. After graduating from the University of Colorado, Kurt spent a year club racing with the Sports Car Club of America, before focusing on a business career in marketing and project management. Later, his passion for writing and the automotive hobby found him freelancing for a variety of automotive news sites, including Automotive Addicts and Motor Authority, where his work was syndicated and appeared in several national publications. Recognized as an expert in the automotive field, Kurt joined Hemmings Motor News as an Associate Editor in 2013, and in the years since has progressed to Editor, Hemmings Daily; Managing Editor for Hemmings Motor News, Hemmings Classic Car, Hemmings Muscle Machines, and the Hemmings Daily; and now, Managing Editor, Hemmings Auctions. Kurt was instrumental in organizing the Hemmings Motor News Concours d’Elegance from 2013-2019, and has served as a judge at this event and The Vintage Racing Stable Concours d’Elegance. A Skip Barber Racing School graduate and prolific writer, Ernst is also skilled in copyediting, project management, brand development, and public relations.
