INTERNET drifting sensation Ken Block is back in all his sideways and smoky glory with the ninth instalment of his Gymkhana video series.
Gymkhana Nine finds Block ditching all the fancy theatrics and story stuff in favour of ballsy driving and crazy stunts, which include almost falling off a shipping dock into the ocean and jumping in front of a moving train. It’s really good!
The setting for Gymkhana Nine is an abandoned industrial park in Buffalo, New York. It was originally meant to be set in Sydney, as Block has partnered with Forza Horizon (a car-racing game for Xbox), whose latest game uses Australian locations. However, it has been reported that the crew faced an uphill battle in securing the locations they wanted to use for filming. We’re not sure what those locations were, but apparently they were iconic and clearly Australian – perhaps the Sydney Opera House or Harbour Bridge? Apparently as the film date got closer, they lost more and more locations until it all became too difficult, so they chose somewhere closer to home. I guess the brand name Hoonigan doesn’t really resonate too well with the nanny-state types that run our country.
As for the car, it’s a Ford Focus RS RX – basically a dedicated rally race car with all-wheel drive, sequential gearbox and a 600hp turbocharged four-cylinder. It may not make the sort of noises we’re used to hearing at our big burnout comps with blown and injected V8s, but hey, the thing gets up!
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