The Head Hoonigan in Charge.
Kenneth Paul Block (November 21, 1967 – January 2, 2023) was an American rally driver, stunt performer, and entrepreneur, best known for his Gymkhana series of stunt videos where he drifts a variety of specially modified cars in city streets and urban areas.
Block also competed in a number of extreme sports events including skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross. He was also one of the co-founders and former owners of DC Shoes, an athletic footwear company, but shifted his business focus to Hoonigan Industries, an apparel brand and Youtube channel for auto enthusiasts. In 2020, it was announced that fellow rallycross driver, and X-Games Gold medalist, Travis Pastrana would take over driving duties for Gymkhana Eleven
, which was filmed in Pastrana's hometown of Annapolis, Maryland. In 2022, Block returned to Gymkhana, filming "Electrikhana" in Las Vegas with an electric rally car supplied by Audi.
Electrikhana was to be his final Gymkhana, as on January 2, 2023, Hoonigan released a statement saying that Block had been killed in a snowmobiling accident in Utah. He was 56 years old.
Selected filmography:
- Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (2009)
- DiRT 3 (2011)
- Jay Leno's Garage (2015, 2018)
- Need for Speed (2015)
- Racing Legends (2013)
- Top Gear (UK) (2009, 2018)
- Gymkhana (2008-2023)
- 2008 — KEN BLOCK GYMKHANA PRACTICE
- 2009 — GYMKHANA TWO THE INFOMERCIAL
- 2010 — Gymkhana THREE, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l'Autodrome, France
- 2011 — GYMKHANA FOUR; THE HOLLYWOOD MEGAMERCIAL
- 2012 — GYMKHANA FIVE: ULTIMATE URBAN PLAYGROUND; SAN FRANCISCO
- 2013 — GYMKHANA SIX -- ULTIMATE GYMKHANA GRID COURSE
- 2014 — GYMKHANA SEVEN: WILD IN THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES
- 2016 — GYMKHANA NINE: Raw Industrial Playground
- 2017 — Climbkhana: Pikes Peak Featuring the Hoonicorn V2
- 2018 — GYMKHANA TEN: The Ultimate Tire Slaying Tour
- 2019 — Climbkhana TWO: 914hp Hoonitruck on China's Most Dangerous Road; Tianmen Mountain
- 2022 — ELECTRIKHANA: High Stakes Playground; Las Vegas, in the Audi S1 HOONITRON
- 2023 — Electrikhana TWO: One More Playground; Mexico City in the Audi S1 Hoonitron (posthumous release)
- 2008 — KEN BLOCK GYMKHANA PRACTICE
Tropes associated with Ken Block and his Gymkhana videos include:
- Action Dad: Ken Block was a father of three, but still kept on doing rallying and Gymkhana, even getting his wife, Lucy, and daughter, Lia, into rally racing.
- Arc Number: The number 43, which he used for quite a while when competing. The FIA World Rally Championship would retire his number as a sign of respect after his death.
- As Himself: Block made his first appearance in Colin McRae: DiRT 2 and its sequel, albeit as an AI competitor. He also later appeared in the 2015 reboot of Need for Speed, though he made an Early-Bird Cameo in a special event in No Limits.
- Badass Driver: Well, you'd have to be one just to compete in rally racing and do sick drifts as he did.
- Bait-and-Switch: The first shot of Electrikhana is of Ken strolling through a crimson-lit parking garage, toward the Pikes Peak Hillclimb-winning Audi S1 rally car. The words "KEN BLOCK" (Beat) "WITH A LEGENDARY MACHINE" appear onscreen, only for the camera to shift to show Ken walking toward another car instead, which was previously out of the shot: the brand-new Audi S1 Hoonitron.
- The Cameo:
- Epic Meal Time makes an appearance in Gymkhana Four, as Ken drifts around them and their set while they're filming a segment.
- Oliver Solberg, who won the Nordic RX tournament when he was sixteen years old, briefly appears in the first segment of Gymkhana Ten, drifting around an ice-pool with Ken.
- Car Fu: Pretty much the gist with his Gymkhana stunt videos.
- Dictionary Opening: The very first Gymkhana displays the following text before Ken first shoots off in a souped-up Subaru and surges off of a dusty airfield and into the shadowed mists of legendry:GYMKHANA
jim-kah-nuh
An automotive sport that takes place on an open field or parking lot and requires drivers to skillfully maneuver their cars around a series of cones, slaloms, 180 degree turns, 360 degree turns, figure eight turns or other obstacles using extreme acceleration, braking, and drifting.
Similar to "autocross", Gymkhana courses are often very complex and memorizing the course is a significant part of achieving a fast time.
Ken wanted to take this concept further and on a larger scale for his practice and testing, and this is the result... - Don't Try This at Home: Ken's later Gymkhana videos had a disclaimer at the beginning and/or end of the video beseeching the viewer to not replicate the dangerous driving that they just saw. All of them are some variation on this one, displayed at the beginning of Gymkhana Ten:"Motorsports are dangerous. Be safe and never hoon on public streets or in any way that may endanger the lives of others. Seriously folks, don't be an idiot. Hoon responsibly."
- Drives Like Crazy: As what this video of him driving on three wheels with one of the brake discs itself dragging on the ground can attest. Normally you'd be penalized for having an unsafe car in a race, but as they say, he "ain't care."
- Name-Tron: His Gymkhana cars were often named the "Hooni____", and the Hoonitron was so named for being his very first electric Gymkhana car.
- Red Baron: Block was the self-styled "Head Hoonigan In Charge" at Hoonigan Industries and a seriously talented precision driver.
- Product Placement: Ken's rally cars were absolutely plastered with sponsor stickers for Toyo Tires, Monster Energy, and other brands. Several of his Gymkhana videos (and the Hoonicorn Vs. series) feature cross-promotions with games in the Forza series, which in turn have featured Hoonigan-branded cars. Gymkhana Two: The Infomercial, the first one done in association with DC Shoes, makes no bones about lampshading this in its very first scene:WARNING!
The following is a product advertisement. You are going to be bombarded by visuals of great looking products, and then entertained by motorsports eye candy. Do not resist the temptation to purchase the products when prompted to do so. Enjoy! - Shout-Out: Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial is packed to the gills with these, with typefaces and shots referencing various films and television shows.Click here for the full list! Little wonder, then, since it was filmed in the backlots of Universal Studios in California.
