It was 7:00 pm and I had just arrived at work. ‘Pick a car that has a good e-brake, you’ll need it for this sequence.’ When hearing these cautionary words from the stunt coordinator two things passed quickly through my mind. First, I thought “Great!” I was pretty sure I was going to have a good evening. Second, I hoped the cars did indeed have strong e-brakes.

Picking up my bag with my driving gear I walked toward the picture cars that were lined up at the rear of the location area. A number of various shaped and sized cars were to appear in the shoot that evening and my eyes were drawn to the Crown Victorias parked there. The cars were set up with all the police lights and I was excited to be playing a ‘goodie’ that evening.

Checking each car to see how the e-brake responded, I decided that there were two that were a little squashy, but two were ok. I wasn’t entirely happy with any of them, but felt that while they weren’t as firm as I’d like, at least they didn’t slide to the floor. Selecting the one that I believed had the strongest e-brake I turned the key in the ignition and reversed out of the park.

Thinking it would be best to give the e-brake a test run before filming began, I asked a friend to help me check the brakes. While he stood back to watch the tire on the passenger side, I revved the car and hit the e-brake when I reached 30km per hour. I was able to check the rear tire by leaning out the driver’s window and could see it lock. My friend confirmed the other rear tire did as well. I was set to go! My first challenge was behind me.

Coming to a halt, I got out and looked at the pressure in the tires. Feeling it was too low I collected my portable compression pump and plugged it into the car cigarette lighter socket. Placing the opposite end in the tire I then began filling the tires. As the compressor did its work I pulled out a length of garden hose, plus my trusty duct tape and prepared the e-brake release handle so that it couldn’t go back in. This was important to ensure that the brakes wouldn’t lock when the e-brake was used in the stunts.

Once the e-brake was ready and the tires sorted, I moved my car seat into position. Seeing a few things lying around on the floor I gathered them up to be sure that there was no likelihood of anything sliding under my feet as I was driving.

The scenes being shot called for precision driving with stunts involving rapid 90 and 180 degree turns with the vehicle. To make this as easy as possible on the handbrake I had selected 38 lbs. of pressure in the rear tires and 32 in the front tires. By doing this I was aiming to have the car move with as much control as possible to ensure that it turned where I directed it.

With checks of the first car out of the way I then went through the whole routine on the second best car, just to be sure I had a fall-back option if the car I was in encountered any problems. By the time I finished it was getting dark and I went to get ‘breakfast’. My ‘work day’ on set was only just beginning.