After last year’s big-budget production that toured the city of Dubai, Ken Block has returned Gymkhana to its roots for the 9th installment in the series. For Gymkhana 9: Raw Industrial Playground, Block chooses the grittier environments of Buffalo, New York as the setting.
“I really wanted to bring Nine back to the core roots of my earlier Gymkhana videos,” Block said. “The full city takeovers are a ton of fun, but we felt it was time to get back to the basics, especially with the all-new 2016 Ford Focus RS RX. We really wanted to let it shine and be the star in this video since it has so much useable power and control.”
Designed and built in the UK by World Rally Championship team M-Sport, the 600hp Focus RS RX in the video below is the same car Block is currently using in the the FIA World Rallycross Championship and so far, it has already taken 2 wins in its first season of the competition. This is also the first time it is off the racetrack and on public tarmac.
The film starts in Buffalo’s magnificent, disused Central Terminal railway station and tours the industrial areas of the city, including warehouses and the waterfront. Block has also borrowed a couple of stunts from the production’s backer, Microsoft’s Forza Horizon 3: drifting in front of a moving train and drifting around a Ford Raptor dangling from a helicopter.
“The great thing about these videos, everything I do with the car, everything we capture on camera is all real, live action,” Block added. “We may do a few takes to get all of the angles covered or to get the timing more dialed, but at the end of the day it’s all actual driving, nothing is faked.”
Including the pay-off, the like of which you won’t have seen before. “It all worked out amazingly and I couldn’t be more stoked on how this video turned out,” Block concluded.
Enjoy the video below!
