Top 5: Cars of Ken Block’s ‘People’s Champ’

The Petersen Museum has paid tribute to the late racing star with a collection of his cars.

‘People’s Champ: The Impact of Ken Block’ is an exhibition at The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles that will run until October 2025. Here are our highlights from our recent tour.

1965 Ford Mustang RTR ‘Hoonicorn’

Block’s first six Gymkhana films used rally cars, but for the seventh installment he went in a radically different direction. The Hoonicorn is a ‘65 ‘Stang with a NASCAR V8 (which was later turbocharged), rally-style all-wheel drive and featured a DTM-inspired custom body.

1994 Ford Escort Cosworth ‘Cossie V2’

Block’s love of rallying in his youth showed up in his car choices. The Group A-era Ford rally car was used in Gymkhana Ten but then destroyed in a rally fire. So, he bought another one (hence the V2) and instead of leaving it standard he had it modernised for more reliable rally competition later in his career.

2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STi

It’s hard to believe but the Gymkhana video series was something of an accident. Block had this Subaru built for a planned Gymkhana series, but when it was cancelled he needed to do something with his new wheels. So, he filmed his ‘practice and testing’ and uploaded it to the internet. He crashed his website before uploading it to YouTube and the rest, as they say, is history.

2016 Ford Focus RS RX

At the peak of his competition career Block was a fully-fledged member of the Ford Motor Company’s racing and road car development. The ‘16 Focus RS was a particular area of (pardon the pun) focus, with Block not only working with the blue oval’s rally team, M-Sport, to develop this World Rallycross entry, but also create a ‘drift brake’ for the road car.

2022 Porsche 911 SVRSR ‘Hoonipigasus’

In the later years of Block’s career he stopped regular rally competition and instead set his sights on competing in some of the world’s most famous and challenging events, such as the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. He didn’t want just a regular rally car though, he had another custom creation made for his run up the hill. The ‘Hoonipigasus’ combined Block’s Hoonigan, Porsche’s pink pig and Mobil’s pegasus as well as a mid-mounted, twin-turbo GT3 R race engine with all-wheel drive and a massive body kit.