Head Hoonigan in Charge, Ken Block, is known for his yearly Gymkhana series. For 2017, we are not getting a Gymkhana video, but hold your tears because we are getting two Ken Block spin off series Terrakhana and Climbkhana instead.
Terrakhana was released late last month. It featured Block driving his 600-horsepower Ford Fiesta ST RX43 Gymkhana 8-star car through the desert of Swing Arm City, Utah. Terrakhana was a surprise and a well-kept secret which was only teased a few days before release, but Climbkhana has been teased for nearly a year now.
We first got our look at the car Block will be driving in Climbkhana when he was making Methmallows with it. The car was version 2 of his famous Hoonicorn Gymkhana 7-star car. It is basically the Hoonicorn with the dial turned up by slapping twin turbos on a V-8 engine and having it run on methanol, giving it 1,400-horsepower.
To put that in perspective, the original monster Hoonicorn only had around 850 hp. "Only." The twin-turbo set up combined with Block's need to see on the set of Climbkhana eliminated the visibly appealing hood scoop from the original Hoonicorn.
Why does Block need to see? Well, the setting of Climbkhana is the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb road. He does not want to go off the side of the mountain after all.
Block was recently testing the Hoonicorn V2 and took some time describing how it feels for the camera. He said, as hard as it is for him to admit it, the car frightens him. He is known for what he does in all-wheel-drive cars, but says that the Hoonicorn V2 forces him to forget all his all-wheel-drive knowledge.
The wheel spin from the 1,400 hp monster, how fast the car goes, all of it, forces him to approach his driving differently. He even wears a medical mask while driving, possibly due to the methanol smell as well as the increased tire smoke.
Check out the testing video below and be sure to watch when Climbkhana releases on Sept. 25.