Check out some of the Ford Heritage Vehicle Collection in Dearborn
Ford Motor Co. shows some of the famous heritage vehicle collections in its headquarters building in Dearborn, Michigan.
- Andrew Comrie-Picard is a rally champion and Hollywood stunt car driver.
- He brought the message to push Detroit through the challenge with a fundraiser at the Ford Pique Avenue factory.
For Andrew Comley Picard, the successful stunts on the set of an action film starring Charlize Theron represent a “good day in the office.”
The 54-year-old Rally Racing Champion and Hollywood stunt driver had sets of vehicle controls from the backseat in advance with Theron and played the driver in the atomic blonde scene.
It wasn’t easy to have to look over Theron’s shoulder to do the operation, but Theron said, “We’ve rotated the steering wheel at the right time when we counted down from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and it came together.
Comrie-Picard, or, as he knows, ACP, said he likes to do “hard things in the car,” but the native Canadian who lived in Los Angeles for about 15 years spoke at a fundraiser at the Ford Pickett Avenue factory on Friday, September 12th.
From the X Games medals, a list of achievements that have been part of a team that has stopped an astounding global vehicle expedition over both poles, distills the characteristics and mentality of extreme sports and explores lessons that anyone can use in their daily lives.
It’s about how people in extreme sports and expeditions deal with contingencies and find a way, he said.
In the film stunts, “We plan, plan, plan, but we need to be confident in the moment we do it. It’s a challenge to set up things as much as we can and realize that the outcome is not entirely certain, but we press the button.”
He said most people tend to overestimate the shortcomings of risk, he said.
Henry Ford offers examples of overcoming difficulties and even successful bankruptcy, Comley Picard said.
“That’s something everyone has to do to make the most of themselves,” he said.
Comrie-Picard spoke on the phone with Free Press, part of the USA Today Network, explaining his affinity for Detroit, where he felt his parent-ship, and his attention to his sense of entrepreneurship and urban rejuvenation.
It’s “a real story of grit and determination, and that kind of friction you get from so many people being creative and working really hard creates something amazing.”
According to Comrie-Picard, it’s also important to move on from failure.
“If you can go back from some failures and some epic mistakes and find success on the other side, if you have the right attitude to continue, if it’s a Detroit story, then you’ll realize that failure is not a very big deal,” he said.
When asked about his own mistake, Comrie-Picard was referring to a crash in the 2008 X game. The roof of the car was crushed and he said that his life and the life of his co-driver was probably saved by the restraint of the vehicle’s head and neck.
It was the car he was using at that time to make his living, “It was all gone, it was all terrifying.”
However, the extreme nature of crash fall landed it in the commercial, and he was rebuilt with more sponsors and later returned to X-games and medals.
Comrie-Picard pointed to his childhood, growing up as the only child on a farm in Alberta, Canada, where he explained that he was “raised with merciless negligence” and “a lot of time for me.” He learned to drive a tractor and was told to roll his father’s pickup at age 11 and fix it.
He was good at school, earned multiple degrees and eventually went to New York and became a lawyer. However, he stayed engaged throughout the car racing, and at least he allowed him to “buy a better race car.”
The National Rally Championship provided the driving force behind resigning that job for racing and ultimately television. Stunt work came later on on projects as diverse as Fast and the Furious and Deadpool films.
Last April he added the Transglobal automotive expedition to his list of achievements as part of the team that completed the first land and maritime intersections across both the geographical Arctic and Antarctic on one consecutive journey by car.
Or, as Comrie-Picard explained, “the most extreme vehicle expedition we’ve ever done.”
Comrie-Picard has broadened his interest in improving his autonomous driving efforts, but during his life he didn’t know what each step was, but he said he knew his general goals, what he was good at, what he enjoyed and what he could offer.
“I just kept working towards it and I think that’s why I can do what I do,” he said. “I’m really, really, really, really fortunate. I’m basically doing what I wanted to do when I was 11 on a farm dirt bike or tractor.
Eric D. Lawrence is a senior car culture reporter for the Detroit Free Press. If you have any tips or suggestions, please contact elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Send a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
