Ken Block’s Gymkhana 8 leaves its mark all over Dubai’s splendor

By Miles Branman Published March 4, 2016

If you have seven minutes today, you need to watch Ken Block live life sideways in Dubai. For those of you who’ve already seen the above video, go ahead and watch it again (here’s the link to the video).

Strapped into his Ford Fiesta WRC race car, the Hoonigan star ships off to the United Arab Emirates to leave (many) marks on Dubai’s wealthy streets, residences, and surrounding sands. It’s hard to believe this is Ken Block’s eighth Gymkhana video, but the production value and level of action continues to rise with each installment.

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In this clip, you’re in for some of the best stunts money can buy, including drifts around Dubai’s extravagant police fleet, a drag race against some of the world’s fastest supercars, a 30-foot jump, a tandem drive with light aircraft, pestering of Boeing’s Dreamliner, and a close encounter with Ford’s all-new GT.

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Ken Block’s career is an interesting one, and it might surprise some that he’s 48 years old (I hope I’m half as cool as he is when I’m that age). Block was a co-founder of DC Shoes while he competed in several action sports, including skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross.

In 2005, Block entered the world of rallying, joining Vermont SportsCar team and racing a Subaru WRX STi. That season, Block held five top five finishes and earned a third place overall in Group A. The following year, Block and Travis Pastrana signed a deal with Subaru to start Subaru Rally Team USA (which Bucky Lasek now races with as well). Also in 2006, Block raced in the first X Games rally event, where he took Bronze.

In 2008, Block entered the Canadian Rally Championships, continued to race in the WRC, and won second overall in the Rally America National Championship. Block’s first Gymkhana video also debuted that year. In 2009, Gymkhana 2 became the most viral video of the year. The following year, Block signed with Monster World Rally Team (which later became the Hoonigan Racing team) and won the 100 Acre Wood race in the Rally America Championship for the fifth consecutive year. Since 2010, Block has continued to race in various rally series while investing more time and money in Hoonigan.

For 2016, Block has committed to racing in the WRC full-time.

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