Over the last few years, Ken Block has become synonymous with the idea of drifting. His Gymkhana movies gather millions of views on a regular basis and watching any of them makes it easy to spot why.
In this clip, he takes a break from all that and talks about drifting, his car, his past and his passion. He mentions things like the Group B and names such as Colin McRae's, so you start to get a very clear idea of what influenced him early on.
While talking to Matt Prior, the guy from Autocar interviewing him, we get the idea Ken Block was born a little too late for his own sake. He admits that back in the mid-'00s when he started rallying, he wanted to do what those guys were doing back in the '60s and '90s.
The only problem is modern day rally cars actually lose speed while drifting, so he had to choose between staying competitive and doing what he liked most.
He chose both, launching the famous Gymkhana series as a side-project in which he could have all the fun in the world. The fact he was sharing this fun with - besides bringing him lots of money on advertising deals, I'm sure - also made him a very likable character and brought him a huge fan-base.
What's the secret?
Seeing a car (albeit a different car from time to time) slide through various locations and spin around all sorts of objects or living creatures (remember the 'gorilla'? Of course you do) should normally get boring quite quickly. And yet, it doesn't. Speaking of which, here's Gymkhana_Seven for you, in case you missed it.
The current car Ken Block uses for his drifting material is completely custom-made. It is developed by Hoonigan and goes by the name of Hoonicorn Mustang, even though the similarities with the Ford model are simply aesthetic. It's got an all-wheel drive system with three differentials, 845 bhp (857 horsepower) V8 engine and, of course, a mechanical handbrake.
It doesn't take much for Ken to get tired of speaking and so he goes: "I'm not a good teacher; I'm not an instructor. I think I can probably do a better job... showing you." Oh, Ken, we thought you'd never ask.
We'll leave you to watch the whole clip - don't skip to the fun part or you'll miss out on some interesting facts.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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