Over the years, Ken Block has treated us to a wide variety of high-octane racing action, having competed in plenty of racing disciplines that has earned him the title as one of the most versatile racers in the world today.
Having had experience with the WRC, Rallycross, and Gymkhana, Block has likewise driven plenty of race cars, each unique to its own depending on the where he is racing at a particular time.
But all that’s about to change with the introduction of the new Ford Fiesta RS WRC HFHV. If you don’t know, ’HFHV’ stands for ’Hybrid Function Hoon Vehicle’, which pretty much explains what the car is all about. It’s a modified Ford Fiesta that has been tweaked and reconfigured in such a way that it fits right in on all three racing items Block competes in.
At the heart of this versatile machine is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder Ford EcoBoost engine that produces 600 horsepower and 665 lb/ft of torque mated to a six-speed sequential manual gearbox. Anytime Block and his team need to change the specs of the car, they only need to add and subtract a few elements of the car.
Read more about this versatile vehicle after the jump.
At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, Ken Block was presented with two racing cars: the Gymkhana Three Ford Fiesta and the current Ford Fiesta RS WRC car. Defending the "hooning title" he won in 2010, Block spent the entire weekend sideways or in circles on Goodwood’s hillclimb and rally stages. This video was then released so we could all partake in the mad skills Block illustrated.
The Gymkhana Three Fiesta is powered by a boosted 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that delivers an impressive 850 HP (de-tuned to a total of 650 HP in the name of tractability) and 660 pound-feet of torque. With this amount of power under the hood, the Fiesta will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 2 seconds, providing the very reason why Block felt it necessary to have at it during the festival. Enjoy!
A year into driving the Ford Fiesta RS WRC after years spent sitting behind the wheel of the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Ken Block is gearing up for the 2011 rally season by unveiling the 2011 Monster World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC armed with a year’s worth of rally experience and, in the case of his refreshed ride, a host of freshly updated livery.
This year, the American rally driver will be competing in a number of rounds of the World Rally Championship as he continues his WRC development while getting his feet wet on racing on a car with a completely different chassis from what he’s used to.
Apart from the WRC rounds Ken Block is scheduled to partake in, he and his new Monster Fiesta RS WRC will also be participating in a number of competitions, including the Summer X Games, the Gymhana GRID, as well as other RallyCar and RallyCross events in the US.
For a lot of us that have gotten used to Ken Block and his rally car wizardry, 2011 promises to be an exciting year for both the esteemed American driver and his legion of fans all over the world.
It also certainly doesn’t hurt to know that he’s going to be sitting behind the wheel of a pretty damn good rally car for the 2011 rally season.
Back at the 2010 Paris Auto Show, Ford pulled off the sheets on the new Fiesta RS WRC rally carr, which will be competing in the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.
Now that the season opening race is only days away - Rally Sweden on February 10-13 - Ford officially unveiled the car decked in all its racing livery.
Set to be driven by the Abu Dhabi World Rally Team and its driver line-up of Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, and Khalid Al Qassimi, the new Fiesta RS WRC rally car was built by M-Sport and loosely based on the S2000 car that recently took the top step of the podium at the Monte Carlo Rally in 2010.
With a recent triumph under its belt, M-Sport is looking into kicking off the new year on a high note with a lighter yet stronger Fiesta RS WRC that is capable of competing with the big boys of the WRC.
Whether that goal becomes a reality remains to be seen. What we do know is that with the season opening race a few days away, we won’t have to wait too long to find the answer.
Now that Kimi Raikkonen’s rumored return to Formula One in 2011 has gone up in smoke, rally fans of the Iceman can now breathe easy. It looks like your hero is going to stay in the WRC after all.
But as one of the most recognizable faces in the sport, Raikkonen will always be the subject of constant speculation and while the rumor of him returning to the glitzy world of Formula One has been shelved, another rumor is beginning to take shape; only this time, it involves who Raikkonen’s teammate is going to be in 2011.
There has been whispers that the Finnish racer’s name is being mentioned as a potential driver for the Monster Ford World Rally Team where he is going to have no less than Mr. Gymkhana himself, Ken Block, as his teammate.
Take this for what it’s worth because this rumor is trickier to navigate than a field full of land mines. For starters, there’s no telling how much Raikkonen is going to command in the market and given certain financial constraints, accommodating both him and Block on the same team is going to require a lot of ringing cash registers.
Then there’s the issue of endorsements. As we all know, Raikkonen is one of Red Bull’s top endorsers for the brand whereas Block holds the same clout with Monster. Last we checked, those two companies are direct competitors with each other.
So while the Raikkonen-Block tag team looks to be formidable both on the dirt track and up in the WRC suites, there’s a whole lot to be sorted out before it becomes a reality and at this point, we’re not holding our breaths.
In other parts of the world, racing gamers are jumping in delight over the release of the official WRC 2010 racing game. Unfortunately for us here in the States, we’re going to have to wait a little while longer – November 30, according to Amazon – for the game to drop on our shelves. It may sound like an inordinately long time, but given how our patience has been repeatedly tested by the continuous delays of Gran Turismo 5, waiting for another seven weeks doesn’t sound all that bad.
Besides, the wait should be worth it once we get a hold of WRC 2010. The game comes with a number of unique features including 18 different cars, 58 drivers, 13 rally events, 78 race tracks, and around 55 trophies to be won. It sure does appeal to the racing gamers in all of us.
So while we wait for the game to be released on November 30, we can pre-occupy ourselves with this recently-released trailer of the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3-bound video game.
MINI’s entry to the World Rally Championships certainly caught a lot of people by surprise, not because the brand can’t hack it in rally competitions, but because, well, they’re MINI.
It’s hard to take a company seriously, especially one that prides itself on producing some of the weirdest and most eccentric marketing campaigns of any automaker on the planet.
The thing with this WRC entry, however, is that the company is dead serious on it and if you’re one of the cynical types, this video of the company’s Countryman WRC prototype should quell all of your doubts.
The video, which took place at Ponte de Lima in Portugal, shows the WRC Countryman doing some serious rally testing, and with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder turbo-charged engine courtesy of BMW Motorsport, the Countyman WRC prototype is looking mighty impressive in its test run.
We don’t know how that’s going to translate in an actual competitive race, but the car looks to be in good shape, and if they give more time on their testing and development, then MINI could become a player in the WRC when it starts its run in 2012.
Here’s an amazing video featuring some of the WRC’s most dramatic moments, including Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae, Marcus Gronholm, Tommi Makinen and Sebastien Loeb. WRC fans out there, hold your breath; this is a video you should definitely watch!
Whether it be sun or rain, asphalt or sand, the WRC is fun no matter what the weather or terrain brings. Using maximum concentration and perfect cornering are always helpful, but the fact of the matter is, when you drive in the WRC, it’s all about finishing the race. Of course, having the driver and the car finish alive is a preferable scenario.
This video is all about these moments, and words cannot express what this video illustrates, so you suggest you watch it as it will surely be worth your time. By the way, be sure to turn up your volume. The background music is equally amazing! Enjoy the four minutes of World Rally fun!
The Rally Deutschland kicked off today and the Monster World Rally Team got right to work as Ken Block and his co-driver, Alex Gelsomino, started testing the Ford Focus WRC outside of Brauneberg, Germany, a town 45 minutes east of the Rally Deutschland start. This race marks the first time Block will race on tarmac in the World Rally championship.
During all of this testing, the Monster World Rally Team had enough time to stop and interview Ken Block. Here’s what the racer rally had to say...
"With zero tarmac rounds in the Rally America series, Alex and I are at a huge disadvantage here in Germany," says Block. "We have only raced two tarmac events before, and while we did win both of those events, I have no expectations of keeping up with the veteran drivers here."
"Sitting in the car with Jari-Matti made me well aware of how much I still have to learn about tarmac driving." says Block. "It’s going to be a challenge, but a good one. This test was one of the best days I have ever had in rally car. I am really looking forward to improving my skills on sealed surfaces as I put down more and more stage miles on tarmac not just here in Germany, but over our next two rallies as well."
Check out what else Block had to say by checking out the video!
Reports are coming out that the reinvigorated Swedish brand, Saab, is also set to make its return to the most prestigious rally racing series in the world, which, if everything pushes through, could happen in the 2012 season.
Saab has been absent from the rally scene since 1979 and the brand’s return to the WRC could be in-line to the recent revival the automaker is enjoying under its new ownership.
Details are still sketchy at best, but there appears to be mutual interest from both Spyker - that’s Saab’s new owner, if you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months – and officials from the WRC for Saab to make its rally comeback. Given the brand’s rich history in rally racing, we’re going to be surprised if their return to the WRC doesn’t happen.
In the event that Saab does come back to rallying, it is expected that the brand will be fielding a modified 1.6-liter turbocharged Saab 9-2, which, interestingly, will also be the same platform that the MINI Countryman will be using when it makes its own return to the world of rally racing.
