Ken Block: A True Icon
With the sudden passing of Ken Block in a snowmobile accident on January 2nd, we want to take a look back at his amazing life, some of his crazy antics and stunts, and some of his coolest cars. Us here at Cars and Crewnecks send our deepest condolences to the Block family and all those at Hoonigan.
How It Started
You may not know this, but Ken Block co-founded DC Shoes in 1994. He later cashed out and made a cool 8 figures. He could have ridden that wave and lived a comfortable life for a good while. But as we all know, Ken doesn’t settle… for anything.
Ken chose to pursue his passion of rally racing. Even though it was for nothing more than some prize money and a little trophy. But he loved every second of it. He raced both a Ford Focus RS and a Subaru Impreza, which will cover next.
The Subaru Impreza
The Subaru Impreza was simply just the start for the Ken Block craze. The way he would send this car through corners, barely lifting his foot off the gas, gave any viewer the same inspiration to go out and thrash their car around and send through dirt, parking lots, wherever they could find an open area. Ken raced this Subie here:
This was in the very early days of his career but it set the tone for what was to come.
Gymkhana Craze
Ken followed the trend of sticking with a Subaru when he released Gymkhana 1. The video features Ken slinging his car around what seems to be an air strip and some other locations and empty warehouses. This is truly when the craze happened. Suddenly, teenagers would go out and try to shoot their own Gymkhanas and post them online. Or they would simply just go and “hoon” around. There are 11 total Gymkhana videos with Ken driving in 10 of them.
Hoonigan, Ken’s company, shut down one of California’s busiest highway to shoot Gymkhana. He was given access to the backlot of Universal Studios in California and was able to hoon around old movie sets, emptied out filming pools, and sound stages. He drifted around an airplane in Dubai, shut down LA to debut their heavily modded First Gen Mustang dubbed The Hoonicorn.
HOONIGAN
By now you’ve seen the word “Hoonigan” or “hoon” throughout this blog. Many of you probably know that Hoonigan is the company that Ken Block started. They are dedicated to producing more of the same reckless, tire thrashing, action that Ken Block fans got accustomed to. They have a YouTube channel where they showcase the Gymkhana videos, drag races, builds, events, and much more.
The word “Hoonigan” means A person who operates a motor vehicle in an aggressive and unorthodox manner, consisting of, but not limited to, drifting, burnouts, donuts as well as acts of automotive aeronautics. One who hoons.. It’s a combination of the word “hoon”, which is Australian slang, and the word hooligan. With a slogan like “kill all tires”, you better believe that Hoonigan means business, and that business is to kill all tires. Hoonigan hosts events, makes videos, races in various motorsports, and creates and sells apparel. One of their greatest series is This vs That. In This vs That, they have subscribers come out to their private drag strip with their own cars to race against each other.
The Hoonicorn
Another one of Ken’s most popular cars is The Hoonicorn. This 1965 Ford Mustang is barely even a Mustang anymore. Pictured above is version 1 of the Hoonicorn. With a Roush Yates 410 cubic inch Ford V8, and a 6-speed Sadev transmission, it produces 845 horsepower and 720 ft-lbs of torque. It redlines at 6500 rpms (more than enough to get the tires spinning). This was featured in Gymkhana 7 where Hoonigan shut down LA.
Pictured above is version 2. Instead of the supercharger like version 1, version 2 sports a twin turbo setup. Garrett Twin Turbos to be exact. This Hoonicorn has nearly double the power of version 1. It pushes 1,400 horsepower and 1,250 ft-lbs of torque.
The Hoonicorn is a true tire thrasher and has been featured in various Hoonigan videos. They will even feature them in their This vs That videos. Both versions of the Hoonicorn, along with other Hoonigan cars, are featured in the Forza videogames.
Here’s Ken performing an All-wheel burnout in the Hoonicorn V1.
Ford RS200
Ken Block has stated that the Ford RS200 is probably his favorite car. This is 1 of 200 cars that were required to be built for homologation purposes. Block’s RS200 sports a 1.4L turbocharged 4-cylinder pushing 700+ horsepower on pump gas, but can get up to 800+ on race fuel. It has a sequential transmission and is one of the cars featured in the Forza video game. A legendary car for a legendary driver.
Thank You Ken Block
Ken Block is a true automotive community legend. A true car enthusiast. He created one of the biggest crazes in the automotive community, inspiring thousands of young kids to go out and hoon around with their own cars. Ken was the inspiration for so many automotive YouTubers. Nick from the AR12Gaming YouTube Channel gave a tribute video to Ken Block, stating that the original Gymkhana was the inspiration for a video of him doing donuts in his own Subaru Impreza. You can watch his tribute video here. He was not only an exceptional driver, but an exceptional role model. Ken was an amazing father and husband and always made time for his family. He was his daughter Lia’s biggest inspiration.
Once again, we here at Cars and Crewnecks send our deepest condolences to the Block family and the crew over at Hoonigan as they go through this extremely difficult time. We have decided to create a t-shirt design dedicated to Ken Block. It will feature him and a few of his cars. This will be a limited edition shirt. Only 43 will be sold, in honor of Ken’s number 43. Legends Never Die!
Stay tuned.