KEN’S TOP 5 WILDEST BUILDS

As well as a tyre-shredding supremo, Block was a master of the monster build, as the following examples illustrate

HOONICORN

You’ll remember it as the carbon-bodied Mustang that gave Matt LeBlanc a smoky taxi ride around London. In fact, this 845bhp version was just taster of things to come, with a V2 arriving later that Block called “the most frightening thing I’ve even driven.” Yeah, a pair of turbos, methanol injection and 1,400bhp will do that.

HOONITRON

Block joined Audi with the brand on something of an electric kick, with the Hoonitron featuring a twin-motor AWD set-up and a sound eerily reminiscent of the Tamiya cars we had as kids. And probably the same instant-on acceleration. It was proof that how wheels are spun means much less than the fact that wheels are spinning.

GYMKHANA THREE FIESTA

If you’re not as old as us, there’s a fair chance that a Fiesta, not a WRX was the first machine you saw flung about the place as if physics was taking flexi time. In fact, statistically speaking, this is the car you’re most likely to have seen – six appearances in the Gymkhana series, and five where it was the lead, rather than part of an ensemble cast.

HOONITRUCK

The Hoonitruck featured Ford’s 3.5-litre twin turbo, as per the Le Mans-winning Ford GT, making more than 900bhp and 700lb ft. Installed in your average 1977 F-150, this would usually result in a game of Which Bit Will Break First, but the Hoonitruck sidestepped that issue by running a custom 4WD set-up complete with 6spd box.

HOONIPIGASUS

A proper silhouette racecar, based on an old 912, with a livery reminiscent of Porsche’s 917/20 ‘Pink Pig’. But while the Porsche that Block took to Pikes Peak didn’t feature in a Gymkhana video, the specs feel up to par – a mid-mounted flat-six from Porsche’s GT3 R racer, twin-turbocharged to 1,400bhp and powering both axles.