RE: Time for Tea? Ken Block's Gymkhana Five

[thehawk]

Agrispeed said:

from the stupid wheels on his car, to the stupid handbrake thingy , to his stupid clothes... I don't know why, but I just can't stand him.

You mean the handbrake that is in many WRC cars, and the wheels on WRC cars used in tarmac rallies? Hardly Ken Block items

[Ari]

Jerry Can said:

what this vid did make me realise is n that, is that it is not actually sponsored by Monster, yeah ?

I thought it was, like, and then Travis turned up in his red bull helmet and I thought, that's weird, and then I look again n that, and imagine my surprise when I saw it was DC shoes.

wicked.

Anyone..?

[GTO-3R]

I was left underwhelmed by this one sadly, I follow Ken Block on twitter and Instagram and I admire the guy a lot. This was built up to be something extrodinary but I was left dissapointed sadly

Gymkhana 3 is by far the best and 2.1 for comedy value!

[TankRS]

thehawk said:

Agrispeed said:

from the stupid wheels on his car, to the stupid handbrake thingy , to his stupid clothes... I don't know why, but I just can't stand him.

You mean the handbrake that is in many WRC cars, and the wheels on WRC cars used in tarmac rallies? Hardly Ken Block items

i think he may be refering to the custom 43 embossed handbrake and the mismatch colour on the alloys.




and most WRC teams use multispoke alloys on tarmac rounds as they are lighter and aid with brake cooling

[Contigo]

Love the video, just wow.

The way it starts with the stick shifting over the bridge and the video work is brilliant too. The side jump around 5:40 is also something that I've never seen. Block sure knows how to drive a car on the edge out of control but in control!

And THE best city in the US! FACT!

[just me]

Captain Muppet said:

just me said:

Circus performer.

It's kind of hard to tell what sort of a judgement you are making with just those two words.

Do you mean enthralling like watching a trapese act with no safety net?

Or do you mean you think his mates will be breaking in to your house during the show?

I'm not a fan of Block, but if I had the talent and the money I'd do exactly what he does.

Just that it's an act that is entertaining and requires skill, but it's not a heroic act or anything. It's entertainment, that's all.

Trapeze artists are risking paralysis and death and take years and years to perfect their art--I wouldn't put him at the same level, or on the level of stuntmen either--though some of them do things similar to this video, I think they also risk more injuries. Was talking to a friend in the movie business about this...apparently it's very specialised now, and there are stuntmen whose "stunts" don't have much risk. My notion of what a stuntman is and does is slightly old-school--falls, fights, truly dangerous driving and riding stunts, etc.

This guy's video is more like the clown acts. Except the word clown also has a double meaning and I am not calling him a clown in that sense, just that he is not exactly risking his life and limb to the same extent as a trapeze artist. Pretty good entertainment but that's all it is. Nothing more, nothing less. I am not into drifting, so it doesn't do much for me, but I don't hate it or hate him. Just not my thing. Definitely a cool car and some good footage. Should be woven into a good Fast and Furious script!

I did like the earlier ghostrider videos but I think that guy is nuts. As a biker myself, I can appreciate what he's doing and the risk/skill/daring/recklessness involved. Yes, I used to do 160mph+ on public roadways when I was young and stupid, and I always thought a helmet cam would provide superb footage. He proved me right, but I hope nobody dies as a result of what he is doing. I was lucky and came to my senses before I hurt myself or anyone else. Usually stay below 130 now.

Edited by just me on Wednesday 11th July 20:29

[just me]

irocfan said:

here's the thing though - if he'd been hooning around like that in a 250/RS/GT40/300SL etc there'd be howls of protest about breaking said classics and having no respect for history etc etc.As has been previously said on this thread - yes other people probably could do better BUT they haven't, or haven't thought about it so kudos for
a) being an awesome stunt driver
b) being an innovative thinker
c) by all accounts being an all round good chap

Good point. To each his own. I never understood people who did nothing but store and polish their cars and brag about the low mileage. I am not in that camp, and I wouldn't be one of those protesting. I guess people protest anything. All I can do is state what I like or love. I like this video ok, I don't love it. Certainly I don't dislike it or hate it. It's a fun thing even though it doesn't hold my interest for more than a couple of minutes. The San Fran setting is interesting too, especially since I live nearby and have many shots of exotic car drives on the same bridge, streets and exit ramps (some are in even better SF locations). I guess the Golden Gate bridge and Marina Green were fogged in on the day he filmed there...
Would be hard to see him through this...!

Edited by just me on Wednesday 11th July 20:37

[TankRS]

sorta realted to the arguments on this thread about the amount of practice runs Ken appears to have had.

i'm told this was filmed in one take without practice, but in a few shots you can see tyre marks similar to the ones the driver takes, but cant say it was definatley him.

Kenneth Moen Hillclimb Drift Lillehammer

if it was shot in one hit then hats off to the guy!


i dont think Block could do it all 'freestyle' as it would just be a succesion of drifts and doughnuts round the place, which would get borring really quickly, so the practice runs need to be had to make sure the manouvers he comes up with can be done and still look appealing.

Ken needs recognition for remembering all the tricks he has to pull throughout the whole set too, if i were driving i'd have forgotten what was next as soon as i left the bridge!

[Chas-Chiro]

Very entertaining video.

[Captain Muppet]

just me said:

Captain Muppet said:

just me said:

Circus performer.

It's kind of hard to tell what sort of a judgement you are making with just those two words.

Do you mean enthralling like watching a trapese act with no safety net?

Or do you mean you think his mates will be breaking in to your house during the show?

I'm not a fan of Block, but if I had the talent and the money I'd do exactly what he does.

Just that it's an act that is entertaining and requires skill, but it's not a heroic act or anything. It's entertainment, that's all.

Trapeze artists are risking paralysis and death and take years and years to perfect their art--I wouldn't put him at the same level, or on the level of stuntmen either--though some of them do things similar to this video, I think they also risk more injuries. Was talking to a friend in the movie business about this...apparently it's very specialised now, and there are stuntmen whose "stunts" don't have much risk. My notion of what a stuntman is and does is slightly old-school--falls, fights, truly dangerous driving and riding stunts, etc.

This guy's video is more like the clown acts. Except the word clown also has a double meaning and I am not calling him a clown in that sense, just that he is not exactly risking his life and limb to the same extent as a trapeze artist. Pretty good entertainment but that's all it is. Nothing more, nothing less. I am not into drifting, so it doesn't do much for me, but I don't hate it or hate him. Just not my thing. Definitely a cool car and some good footage. Should be woven into a good Fast and Furious script!

I did like the earlier ghostrider videos but I think that guy is nuts. As a biker myself, I can appreciate what he's doing and the risk/skill/daring/recklessness involved. Yes, I used to do 160mph+ on public roadways when I was young and stupid, and I always thought a helmet cam would provide superb footage. He proved me right, but I hope nobody dies as a result of what he is doing. I was lucky and came to my senses before I hurt myself or anyone else. Usually stay below 130 now.

Edited by just me on Wednesday 11th July 20:29

Thanks for taking the time for the long reply!

For what it's worth I agree with a lot of it, and will google for ghostrider stuff...

[Alfanatic]

TankRS said:

sorta realted to the arguments on this thread about the amount of practice runs Ken appears to have had.

i'm told this was filmed in one take without practice, but in a few shots you can see tyre marks similar to the ones the driver takes, but cant say it was definatley him.

Kenneth Moen Hillclimb Drift Lillehammer

if it was shot in one hit then hats off to the guy!


i dont think Block could do it all 'freestyle' as it would just be a succesion of drifts and doughnuts round the place, which would get borring really quickly, so the practice runs need to be had to make sure the manouvers he comes up with can be done and still look appealing.

Ken needs recognition for remembering all the tricks he has to pull throughout the whole set too, if i were driving i'd have forgotten what was next as soon as i left the bridge!

Ah, someone doing it in one take... awesome!!

[tbtstt]

matoakley said:

And Car made in Hereford UK. Quick Motor Sport

Can anyone confirm this? I know OMSE built the "GYM3" Fiesta, but I've no idea who built the "H.F.H.V.".

As for the video I'm not a huge fan of the slo-motion sections but, irrespective of the "how talented is he" argument, I still admire what Block does: because if I had enough money to shut down parts of a city to drive a road legal-rallycross car around it like a lunatic, thats exactly what I'd be doing!

Personally the car massively appeals to me as I'm a huge rallycross fan. I've always loved the idea of a road-legal rallycross car and the Mk.7 Fiesta is, in my opinion, the best looking of all the modern rallycross Supercars. I appreciate that I've got a fairly specific set of likes to have the car appeal to me so much though, and that others would rather look at something a bit more exotic. Still, come on Ford and give us a 4wd Fiesta RS, you know it makes sense...

The first gymkhana film still still remains my fave and I think its unlikely to be toppled from that position. The first one is still the rawest of the bunch and the only one that the majority of people watched with no preconceptions as to what it was.

[TankRS]

tbtstt said:

Can anyone confirm this? I know OMSE built the "GYM3" Fiesta, but I've no idea who built the "H.F.H.V.".

i cant 100% confirm it, but Ken was over here last year testing on Brawdy Airfields in his Fiesta. a mate took photos but has removed them from facebook so cant check them out

[sparks_E39]

Good video. DC Clothes are awesome by the way, Monster, not so awesome.

[BlackPrince]

There's silly criticism and then there's reasonable criticism imo. Reasonable criticism criticizes aspects of the film while appreciating it overall and not making overarching remarks like "its st" or "he's no Rohrl/McRae/Loeb/Burns".

The type of silly criticism in this thread would be like me saying "its boring because he's not on 2 wheels tear-arsing through the city at 150mph like John McGuinness does at the TT and the NW200. BLOCK'S NO JOHN GUINNESSS!!!!"

It would be absolutely ridiculous to say that and its equally silly to criticize Block for not being some amazing Finnish driver that drove before I was born!

[TankRS]

BlackPrince said:

It would be absolutely ridiculous to say that and its equally silly to criticize Block for not being some amazing Finnish driver that drove before I was born!

Juha Kankkunen was active in the WRC until 2002 and made a guest appearance on WRC Finland in 2010. So unless your 8 or 2, if its the latter bloody good work on learning to use a PC and doing it so well so quickly, i’d imagine he’s been active for a good part of your life. Being recognised and well documented he probably wasnt as it was towards the tail end of his career and in the middle of a great battle between McRae/Burns/Gronholm/Martin/Panizzi etc

[vxah]

just me said:

Good point. To each his own. I never understood people who did nothing but store and polish their cars and brag about the low mileage. I am not in that camp, and I wouldn't be one of those protesting. I guess people protest anything. All I can do is state what I like or love. I like this video ok, I don't love it. Certainly I don't dislike it or hate it. It's a fun thing even though it doesn't hold my interest for more than a couple of minutes. The San Fran setting is interesting too, especially since I live nearby and have many shots of exotic car drives on the same bridge, streets and exit ramps (some are in even better SF locations). I guess the Golden Gate bridge and Marina Green were fogged in on the day he filmed there...
Would be hard to see him through this...!

Edited by just me on Wednesday 11th July 20:37

So am i correct in thinking that was the twisty Lombard street he smoked up the wrong way? I was there driving it last week! Awesome!!

[just me]

Yes, looked like it. I think they blocked traffic up top, let him go up and down for a couple of takes.
Early Saturday morning almost at first light.

Did you drift your rental car at all? I tried it today in a friend's old Caddillac today. Ended up in a hedge but couple more takes and I should have it down .

[BlackPrince]

TankRS said:

Juha Kankkunen was active in the WRC until 2002 and made a guest appearance on WRC Finland in 2010. So unless your 8 or 2, if its the latter bloody good work on learning to use a PC and doing it so well so quickly, i’d imagine he’s been active for a good part of your life. Being recognised and well documented he probably wasnt as it was towards the tail end of his career and in the middle of a great battle between McRae/Burns/Gronholm/Martin/Panizzi etc

I meant that derisively towards the iconoclastic-for-the-sake-of-it numpties on this thread :P

and for the record, I used to watch every WRC race from the late 90s until the early 2000s when Speedvision in Canada stopped televising the races and started showing bloody NASCAR 24/7, so am intimately familiar with Kankunnen's accomplishments, though I really only started watching WRC when he drove with Sainz for Ford and w/ Burns for Subaru, and then he retired after that IIRC

[Rallyz]

vxah said:

So am i correct in thinking that was the twisty Lombard street he smoked up the wrong way? I was there driving it last week! Awesome!!

It was Vermont Street, see http://jalopnik.com/5925769/ask-gymkhana-5-star-ke...