Ken Block: Gymkhana Six

Ken Block is a controversial guy. Whatever he does is sure to generate extreme reactions; people either love or loathe his style. I was one of the few not taking sides until March when I met him in person. He turned out to be a nice, relaxed and cool guy who didn’t think it was beneath his dignity to get into a car worth the new, gold plated Hoonigan e-brake grip of his Fiesta and take it for a spin. Just for the fun of it, and for the viewing pleasure of our readers.

That was the first time he drove the Desert Rat. We would have been understanding if he had refused our request in order to protect his image, but Ken Block was game. He giggled a bit when he saw the rusty, shabby old Sierra, jumped in and drove right off. The welded diff played tricks on him, as did the suspension, not exactly of the calibre that he’s used to, but he made the car his own in a matter of metres. And he was happy to follow our instruction of „Kill the cones!”

He signed the hood, we handed him our thank-you present, a few pairs of unused, 40 year-old Hungarian cult trainers for his collection, then I put the winter tires back on the car as it was starting to snow and headed up to the mountains to go bashing , which is what I keep it for.

Ken Block’s latest video, Gymkhana6 was released on 11 November. In the course of only eight hours the spectacular material received 1.6 million hits on Youtube. Top viral marketing. I wish I knew how the film was recorded, as no tire marks left on the track during the rehearsals and previous takes can be seen in the video, as if the whole material had been recorded in one take.

Which part do you like best?