Watch Ken Block turn a desert into a playground in ‘Terrakhana’

By Stephen Edelstein August 22, 2017

Ken Block is arguably the king of car stunt videos, thanks to his Gymkhana series. Pennzoil has made some crazy videos of its own, including one featuring a drifting Dodge Demon. So what happens when the two combine forces?

Get ready for Terrakhana. Like Block’s previous videos, it features stunts and maneuvers of the “don’t try this at home variety.” But for this Pennzoil-backed outing, Block traded streets and smoke for a desert and dirt.

The Gymkhana videos tend to be set in urban locations, where Block turns buildings and vehicles into obstacle courses. But for Terrakhana, Block and company decamped to the desert near Swing Arm City, Utah, for some off-road action. It’s always good to try new things.

Block’s weapon of choice is his Ford Fiesta RX43 rallycross car, the same type last seen in Gymkhana 8. The last Gymkhana video features a Ford Focus RS rallycross car, and Block currently races the Focus in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. But the older Fiesta gets another moment in the spotlight here. With 600 horsepower on tap and all-wheel drive, it’s not exactly lacking in power or grip.

While Block’s normal antics involve huge clouds of smoke, this time his car is enveloped in clouds of dust. Block seemed unfazed by the dust storm (not to mention 102-degree ambient temperatures), turning a wide open space into a playground, and treating geological features like halfpipes.

If that’s the kind of driving you plan on doing, it’s good to have a rallycross car. Rallycross essentially did for cars what supercross did for dirt bikes, distilling the racing action into something extremely fast and extremely exciting. Regular rallycross races don’t involve desert off-roading, but they do cover both dirt and pavement, with a few jumps along the way.

Besides being built to handle both types of surfaces, rallycross cars are among the fastest-accelerating cars around. Cars in the top FIA World Rallycross Supercar class can do 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds. They get their 600 hp from just two liters of engine displacement, thanks in part to turbocharging. After all, extreme driving requires an extreme car.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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