LAS VEGAS — It all starts with a jump. I’m sitting on a bluff overlooking the high-speed, Ultra4-inspired training course at Ford’s Bronco Raptor Off-Roadeo school outside Las Vegas, and I’m looking down at the first obstacle: a high-speed tabletop jump that is deceptively tricky to get right.
I take a loose gravel track, gaining speed and then making a sharp bend in soft silt. The trick is getting the car straightened as quickly as you can, then rolling on the gas slowly and without letting your rear end loosen up. You want to build speed as you approach the jump. If you do it right, you will gain speed and have a better leap. If you do it wrong, the rear end will slide around, and you’ll lose speed or even worse, go off the ramp the wrong way.
We have time for only a single run, so I have to make it count — somehow, I nail the corner perfectly and plant my foot on the gas, building speed towards the blind jump. I let off the accelerator just as instructed before we take flight. Jumping the Bronco Raptor is more akin to a belly flop than a swan dive, but we have a blissful few seconds in the air — enough time for my brain to think “wow, we’re in the…
