When Little Richard recorded Slippin’ and Slidin’ in 1956, drifting wasn’t even a thing. But then Kunimitsu Takahashi came around to put bias ply racing tires to good use. As in driving with a high slip angle and wagging the car’s tail through corners.
Since then, the art of drifting became a big thing and the rest, as they say, is history. Ken Block is undoubtedly the best-known drifter these days and it is no wonder why. His Gymkhana series has been watched by hundreds of millions of souls from all around the world, giving youngsters the urge to pull the handbrake and let the rear axle dance.
But Ken Block is also a rallycross driver who goes beyond the simplest of drifting techniques. In the video below, you can see him lifting off the loud pedal at the apex and flicking the car in the opposite direction to the corner to cause oversteer and entertain us.
And what a car. After it was teased in the ending credits of Gymkhana 8, the 2016 Ford Focus RS RX is now ready to kick some ass in the FIA World Rally Championship. The eyeball-searing livery comes courtesy of Felipe Pantone, while the performance can be attributed to the boffins at Ford Performance and M-Sport.
The specially-engineered Focus RS RX is based on the all-new Focus RS hot hatchback and employs the same 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-banger, albeit it has been significantly modified over the standard powerplant. Instead of 350 HP, the rallycross-prepped warrior boasts 600 ponies and mind-bending get-up-and-go.
Play the video below this paragraph to see the original Hoonigan do his thing behind the wheel of the Focus RS RX in Lousada, Portugal, ahead of this weekend’s debut in the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship opener. Block’s talented teammate Andreas Bakkerud also has a knack for doing the sideways stuff.
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
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