How Ken Block and Ford Motor Co. ruled the hooning world

Posted by Talbot Payne on January 6, 2023

Rally race driver and legendary Hoonigan Ken Block died tragically this week at 55. He likely entered the Pearly Gates sideways in a Ford Fiesta, smoke pouring from his tires.

Block had a successful racing career, but it was his antics off-track for which he will be most remembered. He took “hooning” — “the act of driving recklessly, racing, doing burnouts etc.” according to the Urban Dictionary — mainstream with his wildly successful Gymkhana videos.

Skateboarders cheer as DC Shoes President Ken Block, center, wearing black shirt, smiles after pledging $1 million to support skateboarding in Philadelphia's LOVE Park on June 1, 2004. Block, the co-founder of DC Shoes and a pro rally driver who won multiple medals at the X-Games, died Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, in a snowmobiling accident near his home in Park City, Utah, authorities said. Block was 55.

At the height of his fame, he teamed with Ford Motor Co. for 11 years — a partnership that raced across the globe while also thrilling millions with videos of Fiestas, Hoonicorn Mustangs and F-150 Hoonitrucks doing breathtaking stunts through the streets of cities like San Francisco and Detroit.

Block lived large and on the edge and his death came suddenly on his Utah ranch after he lost control on a snowmobile. Though he and Ford had parted ways in 2021, the reaction from his old comrades was swift.

Ken Block does donuts around the Fist on Jefferson Avenue for Gymkhana 10.

“We lost a legend today in Ken Block,” said Ford in a statement. “Ken inspired generations of auto enthusiasts, and in the process he came to inspire all of us at Ford as well. Ken personified the joy of driving, drifting and racing. He had a boundless imagination for creating special cars and special moments.”

Added CEO and amateur racer Jim Farley on his Twitter feed: “This is heartbreaking. I was lucky enough to call @kblock43 a friend. He was truly a legend and inspiration to all of us at @Ford.”

Block’s career reached beyond the automotive world. Born in Long Beach, California, his early fascination with skateboarding led him to co-found DC Shoes apparel in 1994 — a company he sold for a reported $87 million a decade later. With money in the bank, he turned to his new love, race cars.

Ken Block's No. 43 Hoonigan race car catches air on a ramp.

Rally racing’s tail-out, extreme environment seemed to suit his swagger. Despite taking up the sport at 37 — many years older than his competitive set — Block instantly showed promise, winning Rookie of the Year in the 2006 Rally America National Championship driving a Subaru WRX STi.  Two years later, his first Gymkhana video — showcasing his raw hooning skills on an open airfield — went viral, generating an healthy 14 million views (and counting), mostly in the coveted 17-to-25-year-old demographic.

A star was born. Two years later, he inked a contract with Ford.

“He was a heck of a driver. The videos speak for themselves,” said Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook, who worked with Block for years, in an interview. “I rode with him a couple of times . . .  and it just blows your mind at the speed at which his brain was able to process going down this rally road.”

Ken Block exits a turn at the wheel of the No. 43 Hoonigan racing car.

Rushbrook was just as impressed with Block’s marketing and business mind. “He was a marketing genius. He figured out how to not just be a driver, but also how to bring all his partners together — Ford or Toyo Tires or Monster Energy — in a way that lifted all of us. He was the hub.”

Block and Ford built synergies across a multitude of disciplines, whether winning races, creating driver schools in Utah and New Hampshire, or preparing insane, unbridled cars for the next Gymkhana video.

“(It was) a very natural relationship where we were able to find things that worked for both of us,” said Rushbrook. “We’re a performance car company and he had a passion for performance machines and putting them out in front of people in a very spectacular way. At the beginning of every year, we’d plan: what did he want to accomplish for Ken Block for Hoonigan? What did we want to accomplish for Ford?”

Block competed in multiple Fords. At the wheel of a Fiesta hatchback racer from 2011-15, he finished 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in the U.S.-based Global Rallycross Championship. In 2016 he set his sights on the world’s best, campaigning an all-new Focus RS in the international FIA World Rallycross Championship.

But his most memorable cars are the unlimited hellions he drove in his highly anticipated Gymkhana videos.

Ken Block's Ford Fiesta jumps San Francisco's steep streets in Gymkhana Five.

In his first video with Ford in 2010, “Gymkhana Three, Part 2: Ultimate Playground,” he tore apart the steep, 51-degree bankings of France’s Linas at l’Autodrome de Linas-Montlhery in a 650-horsepower, all-wheel-drive Fiesta hitting 60 mph in just 1.9 seconds. In 2015, he went to an urban environment — the streets of San Francisco — to perform astonishing Fiesta feats like doing donuts around trolleys and jumping the city’s vertical streets. Gymkhana Five has attracted a staggering 114 million views.

In 2018’s “Gymkhana Ten: The Ultimate Tire Slaying Tour,” Block took to the streets of Detroit in a 1,400-horsepower, all-wheel-drive Hoonicorn Mustang that smoked Michigan Central Station, then did donuts around The Fist.

Rushbrook’s favorite Block creation? The 914-horsepower Hoonitruck (based on a Ford F-150) that starred in the 2018 sequel to the Gymkhana series: “Climbkhana TWO: 914hp Hoonitruck on China’s Most Dangerous Road.”

“For the Hoonitruck, we wanted to do something different,” said Rushbrook of the beastly pickup that dashed up Tiananmen Mountain’s formidable 99 turns. “Let’s take the EcoBoost V-6 like we raced in the Ford GT. Working with Roush, we were able to really uncork that thing to make over 900 horsepower out of an engine that was only allowed to make 500 horsepower in the race car.”

Block’s legacy lives on in his videos, his 16-year-old, hooning daughter Lia, and at The Henry Ford’s “Driven to Win” exhibit.

There sits the #43 Ford Fiesta Block piloted in the Gymkhana San Francisco video — complete with the suit, helmet, sunglasses and shoes he wore during the shoot. In memory of Block, the museum has hung a black ribbon on the driver-side door.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

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