Over the course of eight days, Felipe Pantone painted no less than eight works of art. Those went to become the livery of the 2016 Ford Focus RS RX, the rallycross car of choice for Ken Block and Andreas Bakkerud of the Hoonigan Racing Division.
Did someone shout “Bring back the ‘80s and the black & white floor tiles from Twin Peaks?” Jokes aside, you have to admit that the graphics are wicked as hell and they suit the Focus RS RX rather nicely. If you look more closely, you will see that there’s a minor difference between Block’s car (#43) and Bakkerud’s car (#13).
“I’m really stoked that I was able to partner with Felipe Pantone on this,” said Block. “I’m a huge fan of Felipe’s work and I think it’s awesome that we were able to work together and have him create bespoke art in his signature style for us, that we were then able to translate to both new Ford Focus RS RX racecar, as well as on to Andreas’ car, but that also worked equally well for Hoonigan and my other partners on a bunch of apparel and product.” Stop trying to sell merchandise and focus on winning a championship, please. Signed, everyone.
Speaking of winning, the Focus RS RX shapes up to be a competitive rallycross machine. Under the graffiti-inspired livery, you’ll find a turbocharged engine with 600 horsepower and 664 lb-ft (900 Nm) on tap. It’s a 2.3-liter EcoBoost modified by Ford Performance and M-Sport that uses engine management software from Cosworth. A 45 mm restrictor dials back the Garrett turbo. Cog-swapping is handled by a 6-speed sequential transmission made by Sadev and an AP carbon clutch.
On all four corners, the Brembo calipers boast four pots and 350 mm rotors. There’s a hydraulic handbrake in there as well because you can’t do without one in rallycross. Now we have to wait until April 16 to see if Block and the RS RX will prove to be a competitive combo. Bakkerud shows great promise too considering that he won three times since he entered the World Rallycross Championship in 2014.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News