Ken Block and Ford part ways

Straight from the Head Hoonigan In Charge himself, Ford and Ken Block are ending their exclusive ten year deal and he is now a free agent. From his Facebook page:

It’s been a great ride with Ford!

From winning races all over the world, to scoring a few points in WRC, to building epic vehicles, to producing some amazing films with 500+ million view viral success on YouTube, to Emmy nominations for documentary filmmaking... we’ve done a lot of awesome stuff together in our partnership over the past 11 years! (read more here in our press release) …

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

KEN BLOCK BECOMES FREE AGENT AFTER 11 RENOWNED YEARS WITH FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Park City, UT / [January 8th, 2021]: Ken Block and Ford Motor Company’s exclusive partnership has brought in some real hardware over the past decade in rally and rallycross. 19 race wins plus 17 other podium finishes, 2 X Games medals, well over a billion video views across Block’s social media platforms, and the first ever World Rally Championship points scored for the brand by an American driver. As of January 2021, that exclusivity comes to an end, with Block becoming a free agent. And that means his options behind the wheel are now wide open.

“Working with Ford over the past decade has been awesome.” says Ken Block. “From racing all over the world, to accumulating a half billion views from Gymkhana THREE to Gymkhana TEN, to creating the Emmy nominated series The Gymkhana Files for Amazon Prime - along with building a fleet of Fords including the iconic AWD Mustang Hoonicorn and F-150 Hoonitruck - it’s been a great partnership. It’s simply been a dream come true to work with the company that built the truck that my Dad drove when I was a teenager. I’m super appreciative to Ford for the support over the years, but I am also looking forward to what an unrestricted 2021 holds, and the ability to spread my wings a bit and play with a lot other toys.”

2020 was a big year for Block and his Ford vehicles. He took the overall win at Rally Barbados in a WRC2 Ford Fiesta, won his class (and 3rd overall) at Rally Legend in San Marino in his Ford Escort Cossie V2, and also won the first ever Projekt E race of the FIA World RallyCross Championship in Holjes, Sweden, in a Ford Fiesta. Along with winning races, Block and Hoonigan launched the all-new viral video series,- Hoonicorn Vs The World. Spanning 11 episodes, the series features Ken racing his 1965 Ford Mustang RTR Hoonicorn against a variety of wild vehicles including a McLaren Senna and the World’s Fastest Donk. The series has been viewed over 34 million times since its launch in late November.

What does the next chapter have in store? Ken Block and Hoonigan Racing Division will be announcing new partnerships very soon.

I gotta be honest, I did not see this coming.

Ford just became a bit more boring.

Kia/Hyundai could benefit from some of this. They have some sporty cars car but too few people know about their availability. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Hyundai/Kia was my thought as well, since they have a rally program. 

Wow... seems like more than ten years ago that the Subaru community were all "OMG TRAITOR BLOCK GOING TO FORD WHARRGARBL"

Like what happened with Colin McRae.

I'm just baffled that he is leaving Ford to begin with, since he seemed to be a big Ford guy. He owns an RS200 and an Escort Cosworth, which he said were two of his dream cars. His wife has a resto-mod Coyote-swapped early Bronco. And he just built a Fox-body convertible for his daughter. 

What could be really weird is that if he signs on with another manufacturer who has a similar rule as Ford (he couldn't drive non-Fords on camera) then the Hoonicorn and Hoonitruck and his RS200 and Cosworth Escort would end up as museum pieces essentially.

In reply to NickD :

Who's leaving who?  I'm sure it all comes down to money.  Ford may not want to spend as much.  It would seems Ford's spending will be focused on Bronco and MustangE.  They might not have a place for Block in those plans.  

Or, someone else offered more than Ford offered.  

In reply to John Welsh :

From personal experience, I'm guessing you are on the right track thinking this is more about Ford's appropriation of funds than Block leaving.

I mean what other manufacturer participates in Rally and sells the same base cars here still? the Fiesta and Focus are dead, VW is out of rally, its really only Subaru and Hyundai(yes i know we dont get the i20).

Hoonigan has become such an identifiable brand and handle so much of their video production and scheduling of their calendar on their own that they provide more value to a manufacturer then a singular driver (in spite of Ken being their only driver) they also drive apparel sales. 

I'm fairly confident that you won't see an exclusive contract instead you will see sponsorships by manufacturers for individual builds it is not in Ken's best interest or hoonigan's best interest to be tied to a sole manufacturer at this point. 

Pretty sure this is due to Ken not doing rallycross anymore. And the "Ken is a free agent" translates to "Ford dumped me and I need a new girlfriend". 
 

Don't even get me started on Hoonigan. I unsubbed them a few months ago. After several negative experiences, I no longer support that company.

John Welsh said:

Kia/Hyundai could benefit from some of this. They have some sporty cars car but too few people know about their availability. 

Block and Hoonigan are a huge brand in an attractive demographic for an auto manufacturer.  Go to Cars and Coffee and count how many Hoonigan stickers/hats/t-shirts you see.  Ask yourself if Shelby, Cosworth, Cobra or even Ford itself have the same brand cache with people under 30.  I'm sure Ken wanted to be paid accordingly, and Ford didn't see it as being worth the price of admission any longer.

From a marketing standpoint this makes perfect sense to me for Hyundai.  Ford is betting on the fact that their brand is stronger than Block's in this demographic, but it wasn't that long ago that most people perceived Ford as the brand that made contractor trucks and fleet vehicles for sales reps.  Nobody ever looked sexy driving around in a Taurus (not even an SHO) and IMO the Mustang E is a step right back down that same path.  It also wasn't that long ago that most people thought of Hyundai as starter cars for new college grads, but those college grads have cash in their pockets now and a mostly good ownership experience.  To car enthusiasts in that age bracket, Ken Block = Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, etc.

My 13 year old son loves cars.  He can tell you every detail of Block's builds, etc.  He might have a vague awareness that Brad Keselowski does NASCAR, but that's about it.  I'd be willing to bet that if I asked ten other teenager boys, the results would be the same.

MrChaos said:

I mean what other manufacturer participates in Rally and sells the same base cars here still? the Fiesta and Focus are dead, VW is out of rally, its really only Subaru and Hyundai(yes i know we dont get the i20).

Subaru's been out for over ten years, coinciding with when the WRC ruleset indirectly mandated a transverse engine, with the spec transmission.  They'd been struggling for a long time before that, so they folded instead of petitioning for a variance.

If Block signs onto an exclusive manufacturer, whichever manufacturer it is, they are getting a marketing powerhouse. I know tons of people who bought WRXs because of Ken's involvement with Subaru, and it seems like almost everyone I know who autocrosses a Focus RS is always trying to register as #43 because that's Ken Block's number.

I have to admit I never really associated Block with Ford. When I think about it, he has been driving Ford cars for a while but I never realized he only drove Fords. Huh.

My parents first looked at a Subaru in large part due to the late 90's WRC scene, and they ran one for years. That was McRae, not Block. Or more accurately, Subaru advertising on Speedvision during the WRC broadcasts.

Ken Block just posted about wanting to hoon a Group B Audi Quattro. 

Also about how he wouldnt get to drive the Hoonicorn anymore. So I am wondering if that is owned by Ford? 

93EXCivic said:

Ken Block just posted about wanting to hoon a Group B Audi Quattro. 

 

Also about how he wouldnt get to drive the Hoonicorn anymore. So I am wondering if that is owned by Ford? 

I would guess ford put money up for it and it will go to the Ford museum.

93EXCivic said:

Ken Block just posted about wanting to hoon a Group B Audi Quattro. 

 

Also about how he wouldnt get to drive the Hoonicorn anymore. So I am wondering if that is owned by Ford? 

I'm guessing they likely had some part in the design, fab, and tech in that and the hoonitruck 

I don't care much for the honnicorn brand; however, I appreciate their marketing and they are extremely good at driving the brand and the hype. I have a soft spot in my heart for Scotto. When he was with Evo he wrote an article on how Audi fixed Lambo and brought them up from the ashes. I used that piece as part of my capstone project in college and reached out to Scotto and he gave me so much more info from his experience there that helped me knock my project out of the park. 

Vajingo said:

Pretty sure this is due to Ken not doing rallycross anymore. And the "Ken is a free agent" translates to "Ford dumped me and I need a new girlfriend". 
 

Don't even get me started on Hoonigan. I unsubbed them a few months ago. After several negative experiences, I no longer support that company.

I mean I kind of want to ask...

I really don't care what Ken Block does. I got bored with him on IG and unfollowed. He seems like a nice guy, it's just same E36 M3 different day, though.

My only real complaint about "Hoonigan" is that they've basically effectively ruined the word "hoon". Because now everyone just associates it with "hoonitruck" or "hoonicorn" etc. The hipster in me like "hooning" before Hoonigan even existed.

Didn't realize Block had left professional Rally-X. But I mean that is such a boring motorsport, it doesn't surprise me. I didn't think it was possible to make a boring motorsport, but they pulled it off with Pro Rally-X. It seems to basically be, "How many times can we restart a single race before everyone is bored and changes the channel." I've watched "races" between two walls of paint drying that were more entertaining than Rally-X races. 

In reply to RevolverRob :

Ken Block is a nice guy. It's some of the rest of the crew, including the pricks behind the scenes, that ruined it for me. Namely their social media guy, and the donut garage employees. Also had some negative conversations with the "usual crew". Real dicks at SEMA to the fans. 

John and Keith collectively nailed it - Ford was paying to build the Ken Block brand not the Ford brand.

Keith Tanner said:

I have to admit I never really associated Block with Ford. When I think about it, he has been driving Ford cars for a while but I never realized he only drove Fords. Huh.

My parents first looked at a Subaru in large part due to the late 90's WRC scene, and they ran one for years. That was McRae, not Block. Or more accurately, Subaru advertising on Speedvision during the WRC broadcasts.

I agree. I saw Ken Block as a seperate entity.

And those were great Subaru ads. They sold me a new WRX with those ads.

I figured something might be up when Subaru was back in the latest Gymkhana

STM317 said:

I figured something might be up when Subaru was back in the latest Gymkhana

I mean travis is taking over the gymkhana vids and he is a sponsored subaru driver.

GRM has picked him up, the next Hoonicorn will feature megasquirt and a $2021 build cost. Probably a Miata.