For those who did not know of Ken Block.........

Here are a few clips of the types of driving he was capable of.









He will be missed.

Even his early stuff was off the hook.

Unbelievable what the guy has done and a snowmobile falls on him. Just a shame.

I can't think of anyone with better car control; the stuff he did on the UK Top Gear programs was just about unbelievable, yet not his most amazing.
When everyone from F1 drivers & Rally drivers on "down" - as a figure of speech, not a judgement - respects his ability, you know he was special.
Really sad.

sad to hear about what happen , have to admit i was a little bit of a troll towards him sometimes about his wrc stuff

I feel like I''ve been under a rock, can't say I ever heard of him. BUT, what a driver!! What caused his death?

Snowmobile accident.

When the tires are spinning and smoking the car is not going as fast as it can
I guess his deal is not about going as fast as you can, it maybe, probably is about trying to impress some folks with the noise and smoke while making videos
Not my cup of tea, go fast or go home
I hope he was a Christain
May he rest in peace and God have pity on his sou if he wasn't l

What a BS comment to make.

The point, basically, was to thread a car that appeared out of control through a maze.
How close he could get to objects that would ruin the day always amazed me.
He wasn't just puttering through, but attacking the route like a madman; yet not touching anything.
Way more impressive than drifting on a skidpad, IMO.

RIP

Do you race or watch?

Amazon Prime the Gymkhana Files. Its a series they did on the making of some of those crazy videos. It was very interesting. The level or work they put into those videos is insane.

Consider the source.

Yes, very unfortunate but if we knew what was going to cause our demise we probably not do it and just stayed home that day.

i really liked the pennzoil commercial he made in the streets of pittsburgh, as i have been on those streets many, many times.

When he raced, which was often, he had full grasp of what wheelspin did to forward motion and he managed to win often for both Subaru and Ford.

When he was entertaining, he drove in a manner that created a lot of smoke and slides and was a demonstration of control on the edge of the line where most can't manage their vehicle. His work in these efforts generated a lot of interest, which was good for his advertisers, which afforded him a very lucrative living.

Had no clue who he was….

Ya know, I sat on this for the entire day, but I cant any longer. I called you out on a callous, disrespectful comment in a thread which you clearly know nothing about. And now, instead of realizing that you would have appeared wiser to remain quiet or even looked into the man's racing and business backround....you want to know about me? okay, I'll bite.

I drag race (albeit casually), i build engines for other street and drag users, I race MX and Off-Road pretty darn successfully in my little world, and I crew on a Sprint car. I also compete in USPSA and 3Gun, so you could say I 'race guns and myself'. So, yeah, I race. More than the average bear. And I still find time to be a decent Christian.

I'll tell you what I DONT do. I dont:

-Espouse snarky comments which attempt to diminish a dead man and father's accomplishments in a thread someone else started
-Pretend that I have a higher understanding of what that man was about or what he was or was not trying to accomplish
-Compare my own motorsports acumen to another/ completely unrelated discipline
-Criticize what others may view for entertainment
-Inject my own commentary relating to one's Christianity or COMPLETELY UNKNOWN lack thereof.

I BOLDED a particular sentence in your comment because even a cursory amount of investigation would reveal the KB had accomplished pretty impressive success in sanctioned racing on a world-wide stage. But you couldnt be bothered.

Now, those videos that "arent your cup of tea"...those videos have done more to legitimize motorsport and draw in young people to the possibilities in motorsport than anything in the last 10 years. They made motorsport for the sake of being a HOBBY bankable to outside sponsors. The reason is Ken Block and those videos.

Ive never seen any of the membership here call you out for your willingness to mention you own "next build" in a completely unrelated topic of discussion....yet you do it non-stop. No one has said, "Hey Cab, we get it, pump gas is junk, but stop calling it 'pump swill' MULTIPLE times in a single post like its a cleaver dig that youve created.

Maybe, just maybe, this was one that you should have sat out so as to not make your personal biases attempt to out-shine folks commenting on a legend of motorsport who met an untimely demise and leaves behind a young family and a company that is more heavily in Racing than you or I will hope to be.


I just noticed that you were in on a PRIOR thread about KB. So you chose to come in to this one and pull your crap with your emojis. You and I must have grown up in different Churches, jack.

Touche, Essay

Rest In Peace and Godspeed Ken Block,



Apparently, someone hasn't watched any tire spinning World Rally Championship races or motorcycle Flat Track, Speedway or Motocross races for that matter. Funny too is that Top Fuel and Funny Car RACING is the mega act of managing wheel/tire spin up to the point of 1 to 1 through the clutch from the engine to the tires to win. Also funny is how the race announcers always praise a driver for "pedaling" a car when it loses traction and getting control back and then somehow winning the RACE. Ken Block could "pedal" a car like very few in the world, What a DRIVER!!! Godspeed KB I got great enjoyment watching your on the edge driving.

MikeR

Please clarify what part of my post is B.S.?
The driving part or the religious part?


I'm a lifelong drag racer (I won my first trophy in 1964 at Mickey Thompson Drag City in Fontana, CA) and try to accelerate my race cars rapidly as possible, spinning the tires defat that effort.
I've never been a fan of those that do smoky donuts or burn outs at car shows to impress the crowds with the wasting of tires
This is America, the best country on Earth with a constitutional right to free speech. The WOKE crowd can stick their politically correct agenda up their rear where the Sun doesn't shine in my personal opinion hammer:
Sorry you are so easily offended, make peace with God and ask for salvation to help you reach happiness

Cab,

Let's take a moment to realize that you are making a reply to me 16 HOURS AFTER your first reply to me.

Pretty sad attempt to troll with the same bait.

I was worried that members of the site would be upset with me after my response to you....
However, I have received 2 PMs and 3 Emails celebrating the way I spoke towards you.

Let that sink in. Listen more, talk less. You'll be better for it.

Have you ever raced anything other than in a straight line?

LOL another DA who has never read the 1st amendment and/or is too dumb to understand it.

RIP Ken. Pretty sad to read some of the comments here.

I am still trying to cope with how this young man passed away . Been snowmobiling my whole life in WI and the U.P.

Thousands and thousands of miles on the trails - I have seen everything on the trails , and in the bush

Honestly your life flashes by you every time your on a snowmobile , inches away from trees , inches away from other sleds , sometimes at well over a 100 mph

Offtrail , buried tree stumps , rocks etc

I have lifted sleds off myself , wife , friends , so many times I lost count

I see possibly he was highmarking with friends in the mountains - Where was his friends ? What was he wearing for protective gear ? I would obviously assume a helmet , a chest protector ?

Man the only conclusion I can think of , he was knocked unconscious by the sled on top of him , couldn’t breathe buried in the snow in the mountains

Maybe a handle bar hit him in the chest or

He had to know the area well from what I have read

Man so sad - Sorry for going off topic , but just trying to put the pieces together

I young man that lived on the edge constantly, and then to die on a snowmobile in the mountains

God Bless Him , and his family

Nope, I've had the opportunity to drive an offroad desert racer years ago in the Baja 1000 but passed on that based on how rough those race vehicles beat you up while driving them to be completive, I don't like pain.
I've rode off road motorcycles (many different sizes from 90 CC Honda step through up to a 650 CC Honda set up to race in the Baja 500 set up by Al Baker years ago) to 500 CC two strokes in the Mojave Desert for a lot of years for pleasure. I've got hurt on them more than once also
I've own and use ski boats, dune buggies and a lot of different motorcycles to ride off road as well as in the sand dunes in SO CA
I have help several different roundy round racers in SO CA, we ended up making them faster by focusing on attacking one issue at a time, I did learn that the motor is not the most important part of those car, to win races the car has to be better than all the other cars out there racing from the front bumper bolts to the rear ones. Same thing on the driver, they have to be driven to win and learn how to lose and learn from both experiences to get better and faster .
I am a commercial instrumented rated pilot with a little over 1100 hours total time as pilot in command.
I don't make comments on here to insinuate anything, if I think something is wrong, I'll say it in print outright on here, as many of you know,
I have been truly blessed in my life, THANKS be to God
Any other questions or comments?
BTW, I don't own a "Smart Phone" so my replies and using the internet are based on when I want to get on my desk top computer that gets turned on and off when I use it.
The last thing about Ken Block is that he died doing what he wanted to do. It is to bad that the video camera mounted on his helmet broke through his helmet and kill him
May God have mercy on his soul

Obviously an enormously talented driver and personality. RIP Sir.

No one cares. You have mentioned those things ad nauseum in a million other threads.

You have no idea how to shut the FU, do you?
Time to set yourself a timer. When it hits 0:00, that's is enough internet for the day.

Stop trying to dig "up". It don't work, son.

He was responding to a question asked by A12...

This internet stuff most be more serious than I thought. Lots of hurts feelings around here. Too bad...

Because, A12 is too nice to say it. But I aint. Seriously, what does "IFR Pilot" time have to do A12's comment?
The whole deal is BS just like the comment that started the whole caper.

Always enjoyed his videos. He made driving at the edge of control, an art form. RIP.

I love watching the videos. The Mustang and truck MOREso since they closer match what I would drive. The import FWD cars are nimble but sound terrible.

You made your response about yourself, I responded in kind
I'm a (older) happy white male conservative Christain

RIP Ken Block.

His videos were extremely entertaining to me and they demonstrated that his control over the vehicles he drove was off the chart.

As far as the off-topic comments on this thread, I have one word. Pathetic.

Mike.

On all accounts.

sadly u do stupid stuff on a snowmobile this can happen

Hoonigan's release a video for Ken's fans.

Thanks for sharing the video.

Great video, I'd like to thank you for posting it here, too.

i as well.........Thank You !

R.I.P. mr. Block.............

X100

He is a legend.