The automotive world has come a long way since the 2008 launch of Gymkhana Practice, Ken Block’s first video in what would become a massive international series with hundreds of millions of views across fourteen Gymkhanas, a pair of Climbkhanas, a Terrakhana, and now two Electrikhanas. Ken and the rest of the Hoonigans became household names off the back of this series, and seriously influenced the trajectory of car culture in the last 15 years. As everyone reading this already knows, Ken Block died in a snowmobiling accident just under a year ago, and this posthumously released gymkhana film will be the last to feature the guy who started it all.
As usual, Ken and his team picked a wild cityscape that is usually bustling with millions of people, and cleared the streets entirely for the stunts. The Audi S1 Hoonitron is back for a second run, following its foray in Vegas last year. The all-electric one-off supercar is extremely interesting for this series, because it allows a level of precision and wheel speed control that Ken’s gasoline-powered smoke machines could never deliver, and because of that the stunts seem cleaner and less manic.
That’s not to say this isn’t an impressive film. Like with the crew’s efforts on Gymkhana 5, where they cleared out sections of San Francisco, it’s incredibly impressive that they were able to use the streets of Mexico City to such great effect. There are incredible drifts around roundabouts and on airport runways that simply wouldn’t be possible without the crew’s dedicated efforts to securing those locations.
While the Hoonitron may not deliver the incredible sound and flame backfires that have been commonplace in earlier Gymkhana videos featuring the NASCAR-powered Hoonicorn or Hoonitruck, or any variety of wildly customized Subaru and Ford rally cars, it’s still a fun and exciting watch. The original Gymkhana videos are all still there on YouTube, so if you’re missing the fuel-fired action you remember, you can always go back and re-watch them again and again.
Hopefully Ken’s talented daughter Lia will pick up the Gymkhana mantle and keep the series running alongside Travis Pastrana. I know I’d love to see that. Thanks for that one last dance, Ken.