Have you seen the new Ken Block video?

I feel like a lot of "car guys" hate Ken Block for the same reason to some extent that "real race car people hate NASCAR". They see a dude who they think is a poser in a flat brim hat appealing to parts of society they don't get or flat out don't like. We don't know him personally, his past, how hard he worked before he got into cars in the first place. They treat him like a trust fund baby instead of a guy who loved cars and was successful in another business endeavor. He happened to nail the marketing and branding aspect after his first Gymkhana video and it's helped him get the opportunity to do more car stuff. We would all be so lucky.

Give me a 300 million dollar lotto win and the opportunity to do stupid stuff with cars and race a WRC car I probably won't be near as good and will crash even more :P

I think it's pretty cool that he builds a vintage car, drives the snot out of it, and then isn't too proud to share the photos/video after he wrecks it. 

A lot of people in the same situation would be making excuses for what happened, trying to hide evidence about what happened, and generally blaming everyone but themselves. 

I hope he builds another one.

People can hate all they want.  If I can ever control anything in my life as well as he controls a car (most of the time), I'll be happy.

I don't think that he's a terribly special driver, but that being said, I love Ken Block and what he's done for the sport. He's a marketing and branding genuis. He's created a way to get millions of views on rally cars doing rally related things when you're lucky to get 5000 pairs of eyes on a vehicle over the course of an event. He's taken the skate video model and brought it to motorsports. He created his own motorsport brand in Hoonigan that affords him to switch sponsors while still keeping the same underlying branding and image. Subaru or a certain energy drink manufacturer goes away, Hoonigan grabs Ford, an oil company and new drink company and continues on. He campaigns and chooses to run some machinery that isn't current or modern and does almost a race verison of restomod on others. His liveries are like sneakers, some aren't the most appealing things, but they're all over the top and draw your eyes. He has his wife involved in the sport, and she's quite good behind the wheel. He always has time for fans and never complains about sponsor commitments and he started up his own sanctioning body that was basically Pro Solo extreme. 

If someone hates hime for balling up equipment that they can't afford, that's not hate, it's jealousy. 

accordionfolder said:

He's like the Nickelback of motorsports, people just love to hate him for some reason. He seems like a cool guy. Glad him and his co-driver are fine, that doesn't look fun.

The only thing I found surprising  was the lack of fire-supression? Unless I missed it or something.

Looks like he spent the first 4 seconds or so of the 12 he took to get out of the car trying to trigger the fire suppression system. I think it somehow didn't work...

after seeing the video I have just magically found budget for a quick release steering wheel for the rally car...

eastsideTim said:

In reply to vwcorvette :

Afraid not.  Sounds like a wild driver.

Something like 10 national championships a few decades ago. Maybe you're too young. How about Colin McCrash?

Keith Tanner said:

eastsideTim said:

In reply to vwcorvette :

Afraid not.  Sounds like a wild driver.

Something like 10 national championships a few decades ago. Maybe you're too young. How about Colin McCrash?

Okay, I think the point has been made

fidelity101 said:

after seeing the video I have just magically found budget for a quick release steering wheel for the rally car...

it's funny, I rarely even take mine off getting in/out of the car. In a wreck I woudln't even waste time taking it off. I know Ken drives with the wheel pretty close to him compared to a lot of drivers (I looked pretty closely at that car), so maybe he needs more clearance, thought.

I don't know Ken much better than anyone else other than exchaning "hey's" in Parc when we were parked next to him, but he and Alex were out in Parc signing autographs for like 2 hours on the first day of NEFR (though so were Pastrana and Higgins) and he always seems friendly. I talked to Lucy between a couple stages after the crash and she was also nice. 

During Parc Alex Gelsonimo (Ken's Navi) was leaning on my car while talking to people. I totally wanted to go lean on the Cosworth across from him lol...

Also, there are a lot of big rocks at NEFR, and even if the notes call them out, it's not always possible to do so. Just ask my oil pan...

Keith Tanner said:

eastsideTim said:

In reply to vwcorvette :

Afraid not.  Sounds like a wild driver.

Something like 10 national championships a few decades ago. Maybe you're too young. How about Colin McCrash?

Sometimes it seems like Higgins has ice in his veins, but he crashes sometimes too....

In reply to irish44j :

Lol @ the spring running away in the trail of dust.

"Free! I'm finally free!!"