Ken Block’s Ford Escort Cosworth Crashes During Rally, Turns Into Car-B-Q

TopSpeed

By Jonathan Lopez

Published Jul 24, 2018

Luckily, no racing driver brisket was served that day

Back in April, pro tire-smoker Ken Block announced his limited return to stage rally racing with the unveiling of his awesome early ‘90s Escort RS Cosworth. The Hoonigan crew revealed the four-door sideways superstar on their YouTube channe, and well, we got excited. Unfortunately, it’s looking like the Escort just got ashed.

Continue reading for the full story.

The Full Story

Check out what happened in the clip above. The video opens with a brief glimpse of the aftermath of the collision, showing the poor Ford engulfed in flames. Afterwards, we get the before view, shot from Block’s helmet cam as he attacks a rally stage at ten-tenths. After setting up a nice transition drift off a little right-hander, block gets sideways under braking heading into the left-hand portion of the extended chicane.

No biggie - Block is on it with the throttle and counter-steer, no problemo. Unfortunately, the line cuts a bit too far to the inside, and right smack dab at the apex is an enormous rock.

That’s when all hell breaks loose. The Cosworth slams into the rock, sending the left side of the car flying into the air and rolling it into the trees. Two revolutions later, Block and his co-driver are back on their wheels, but their field of vision is a bit obscured. It’s not just the broken windshield either, but rather, flames and smoke from the engine bay as well.

After an adrenaline-fueled exit, Block and his co-driver get out okay, but watching the pair struggle to disconnect their harnesses as the view ahead goes full-on seventh level of hell is nerve-racking, to say the least. Bleep bleep indeed.

Luckily, no one was injured. Afterwards, Block and company posted a full gallery of the crispy Ford’s remains, taking advantage of the situation to sell a few bits of merch along the way. Check it out below.

The incident occurred during Block’s recent run with the American Rally Association, which held an event back east over the weekend. “We were running in 3rd overall in the New England Forest Rally (with a gearbox problem), pressing on to finish Stage 4 when I turned into a tighter left corner and downshifted,” Block posted on social media. “The box didn’t shift when I wanted it to (because mechanical issue), and when it finally did, it threw me into the inside of a corner and into a big rock. That rock sent us rolling over twice. We landed on our wheels, and I was ready to get going again because we were shiny side up. Buuuut as you can see, a fire started REALLY quick. Alex and I got out safely, but the car thoroughly burned right there on the stage.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Block’s rally run was ended in less than ideal circumstances. Block also spent some time in the World Rally Championship a few years back, yielding mixed results, including one particularly nasty collision in 2011 at Rally Portugal.