After spending considerable time and effort dreaming up increasingly stupefying stunts for his series of Gymkhana videos, driver extraordinaire Ken Block has put a more recent focus on the cars he drives in the wildly popular YouTube clips. Block’s car trickery began with ever-cooler liveries for his Ford Fiesta rally car–cum–Gymkhana car, and also included the wicked all-wheel-drive, V-8–powered ’65 Ford Mustang he wielded in Gymkhana 7. For his next effort, Block has blown us away once again with the debut of his all-new Gymkhana ride, a highly modded 1978 Ford Escort MkII RS. Oh, yes.
Known around the world for its rally prowess, early rear-wheel-drive Euro-spec Escorts were and still are pretty hot stuff. This particular car has been owned by Block himself since 2008, and while set up for road-rally stages, a dearth of such events in the U.S. left the Escort languishing in the garage. Aware that his Ford wasn’t getting the use it deserved, Block sent it to Quick Motorsports in the U.K. for modification into a proper Gymkhana machine. The Japanese widebody specialists at Rocket Bunny—you may have seen some of their work in our SEMA show coverage—slapped on some epic fender extensions, custom two-piece fifteen52 rims were bolted in place, and a 333-hp 2.5-liter Millington four-cylinder engine works through a six-speed sequential transmission to power the rear wheels. Naturally, the Escort wears a sinister black paint job, but the hood features a sweet American flag motif.
Ford Performance says this is the first rear-wheel-drive car Block has used for a Gymkhana video—the others were all AWD—which should help shake up the basic Gymkhana format with some more wide-open drifts and perhaps even nuttier stunts. We assume the car is going to be pushed into service for Gymkhana 8, the next video in the series, but there’s no word yet on when that clip may arrive. Until that day comes, satiate your Gymkhana desires with this clip of the Escort’s post-build shakedown:
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