The first time Jean Jennings confronted the Mexican federal police, they had just arrested one of her friends for public urination. It was 1983, and she was part of an eight-vehicle road test along the length of Baja California, which she had joined as a writer for Car and Driver magazine. Thinking fast, she called her friend a cerdo — pig — and talked the police down to a fine.
A few days later, the cops caught them speeding outside La Paz, near the bottom of the peninsula; she wriggled out of a ticket by showing officers her Datsun’s fancy electronic voice system. Still later, she was arrested when she hit a cow. This time she wheedled an officer into letting her drive his police car, gave his girlfriend a manicure and got away with a $50 fine.
Mrs. Jennings, who died on Dec. 16 at 70, was not just one of the best writers in automotive journalism; she was also, by all accounts, the most interesting. She won a demolition derby, rode a motorcycle across China and traversed New Zealand in a 1916 Benz, all during her 30-year career first at Car and Driver and then at Automobile, where she was editor in chief.
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