If you’re inclined to think that the Gymkhana concept had run its course roughly around the same time Ken Block drove a bemused James May around Inyokern Airport, you’re not alone. But the 2022 edition has an ace in the hole: the wonderfully bonkers ‘Family Huckster Wagon’, which is loosely based on a 1983 Subaru GL Wagon - in the same way that Cocaine Bear is loosely based on a true story.
You might remember the 862hp Huckster from this year’s Festival of Speed - we do. Its flamboyant run up the hill was the perfect antidote to the (much) quicker EVs that ultimately finished ahead of it in the pecking order. And we’re mainly reminiscing about the sound of the EJ-based 2.3-litre flat-four revved beyond 8,000rpm - factor in the entirely wild active aero and the we're-on-a-mission-to-make-a-mixed-tape styling, and, frankly, you always had the makings of a ready-made fan favourite.
Accordingly, we’d cheerily watch the Huckster be reversed into a parking space at a rest home. But Gymkhana 2022 goes a wee bit further than that. It says much about it that the most exciting high-speed jump is not the one which clears a helicopter’s spinning rotor blades. And of course, you can’t fault Pastrana for edge-of-credulity antics - after all, the man broke his pelvis in a base jump for the film which wasn’t strictly required, narratively speaking (watch it all the way to the end for the bone-crunching outcome). Travis, Huckster, all concerned - consider the PH hat tipped.