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A conversation about cars, trucks, tugs and other machines of transport that flows like an ADHD fever dream, hosted by Hoonigan co-founder and 321 Action Action director Brian Scotto. Enjoy, it’s gonna be a bizarre ride.
S2 E16-5 Audio
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What's up everybody? Welcome back to a slightly different episode of Very Vehicular. As always, I'm your host Brian Scotto. This Friday is four three day a k, a National Ken Block Day. And to celebrate, we are doing a four hour and 30 minute live stream on Blockhouse racing. Now what does that mean for very vehicular?
It means that both myself and producer Nick have been super busy getting this set up because it's a lot more than a regular show. We've got a ton of guests. We've got obviously the blocks. We've got Rob Dyrdek, we've got Jeff Tremaine, we've got Todd Richards, we've got a bunch of the Hoonigan boys, we've got a bunch of other people who are surprised guests.
Um, the list goes on and on. I even heard today that maybe Jimmy Johnson's gonna show up. Anyway, it's going to be a really rad show and we've been putting a ton of work into that, which means we do not have. The standard episode for this week, but I wasn't gonna leave you guys with nothing. So I figured, you know what?
It would be fitting for me to tell some Ken Block stories today. So. We're gonna do that.
Let me, let me actually kind of rewind. So getting ready for the four three day stream, um, means I'm always booting up all my old hard drives, right? So I'm pulling out every damn dongle I've got to like reconnect back to fire wire 800, fire wire 400 and USB, like C and all these other kind of things that have existed over time.
Um, to, to go back and find photos and find video footage from back in the day. And. I was going through drives and I, you know, I just stumbled on a couple photos, and if you follow me on Instagram, um, you'll know that, you know, I, I, or you might know that I ran this series that actually I'm not really finished with, but I, it was called 43 Stories.
And, uh, after Ken passed in January of 2023, um, I didn't really kind of know what to do about it, right? Like, um, and I, I, I didn't wanna. I don't know. I didn't wanna just make posts saying like, fuck, I missed this dude. Um, and instead I thought it'd be really cool to just like, share these little stories. Um, I called it 43 stories.
I started posting them. I posted a lot early on. Um, now I kind of post them a little bit more infrequently, kind of when the time is right, I do it for myself. So it's kind of one of those things of like, when it comes out, it comes out. Um, and it's, it's kind of the idea of like, you know, a photo's worth a thousand words.
So, you know, I, I find photos from certain times in our time together, and I, and I tell the backstory of them. So I figured now I'm a podcaster. I might as well do this in podcast form. Uh, and there's two photos, uh, or actually a couple photos, but two top moments that I, I stumbled upon, uh, while I was going through the hard drives.
The first one is this photo of Ken, of him in a tuxedo. Wearing a bandana, which is a block four three with the, with the Huck Skull, um, character, which is a character that was, uh, created by our friend Huck and, uh, and wearing a pair of sunglasses and probably were spies at the time. Um, and he's giving not the middle finger, but the ring finger, but it looks like the middle finger.
He's got his, uh, his DC uh, athlete ring on. And uh, this was taken at the hotel as we were leaving to go to Goodwood. And, uh, there's a couple funny things about this one. Is Ken really did not wanna get dressed up. So first off, Goodwood Festival speed has, um, first of all, it's, it's an amazing event. If you listen to this podcast, you've heard me wax on about, about how fantastic it is.
If you get the opportunity to go, you should. It's, it's, it's great. But I, I wanna talk a little bit about sort of Ken's impact there. I wanna rewind to this. So they do this like VIP driver's ball, and it's a black tie event. It's really fancy. There's always like some amazing band playing. There's always fireworks and, you know, a crazy show.
And food's fantastic. It's a, it's a really, really cool event. And, um, but we were headed out to it and, you know, and I was reading the, the email and I said, Hey Ken, you know, uh, this was the first year we went to Goodwood. This was 2010. And I said, um, you know, hey, we have to wear. Uh, tuxes to this. It's, it's a black tie event.
He's like, are you kidding me? And I'm like, no, no. We, we like, we really like, it's, we need to do it. Like, I don't think we can just show up in t-shirts or in a hoodie. And he's like, all right. Like, he really didn't want to. And Ken historically never enjoyed dressing up. And I, and I, he famously said to me once we were, um, we were meeting with Ford, uh, to do the deal.
So this was probably. Uh, late 2009, early 2010, it was the Detroit Auto Show actually, so I could put a date timing on it. And we went to the auto show and we were meeting with Ford to sign the contract. Um, you know, we'd already been through the contract, but it was kind of just, it was like breakfast. It was a little bit of a, you know, thing to do, a little formal thing to do with the Ford folks.
And he said, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna sign the contract and so on. And it was an early morning event and I had spent, you know, the six years previous to that, working, you know, in automotive, taking a lot of meetings with manufacturers and I would always kind of dress up, um, you know, like I dress up as much as like my, like.
You know, shithead self could do, but like, I would at least wear like a button down and like a sport coat over it or something like that. And I came down, I wasn't wearing a tie, but I had like a button down. I had like a jacket on, and Ken was wearing what looked like sweatpants, like a hoodie. And Ken looked at me and he said, what are you, what are you wearing?
I was like, well, I mean, there's like a bunch of like executives like coming down right now from Ford, I think, like Jamie Allison, who was like the head of Ford Racing was coming and Scott Deby and, and all these other people. I, he said, but why are you wearing that? I was like, well, I, I don't know. I felt like it was this important thing, so maybe I should wear, you know, this.
I, I, I don't know. And he looked at me and he said, they don't pay us to dress like them. That was it. I was like, oh shit. Yeah, he's right. And his point was, was like, you don't have to try to pretend to be them because they're, they want us here because of who we are. And if, like, that's not you, that's not us.
Like, don't dress like that. And to this day, to be quite honest, kind of is the reason I always wear a hat, a t-shirt or a hoodie. Uh, two things. Although as I'm getting older, I'm starting to try to maybe mature it up a little bit. But it, it was this idea that, you know, they want us here because we're different and like there's no reason for us to, uh, try to be like them or assimilate to what is expected of us, of, of them, because that isn't what they, they want us for.
So anyway, going to Goodwood, it was, it was a bit much to force Ken to wear tux and, uh, he, he wore it, but he, you know, he had to, he kind of had to kind of make it up a little bit differently. And I remember one of the things when we actually got, um. When we actually got to the event, uh, after he took off the glasses and everything else, 'cause it was, you know, outside at night.
He just decided he instead he was just gonna put on an Obama cant ju kana sticker. On his tux instead the whole night. It's like the guy just couldn't, he just couldn't deal with like, dressing up nice for the night. And, uh, I thought it was pretty funny. But look, the, the, this is just kind of the person Ken was, um, you know, he felt like he didn't want to have to be someone else for someone else.
Um, and that's something that like, I really kind of, I really respected from him and it, it changed I think, the way I looked at it. 'cause I guess as someone who felt like they always had imposter syndrome, I felt that need to like, Hey, I have to dress this way to fit in, or I have to look this way so that people will take me seriously.
Um, and Ken's point was like, just let your work, like speak for you. Don't care about, you know, the rest of it. But at the same time, you know, be stylish, but be your own stylish. Don't have to, don't feel like you need to, you know, be like them. Anyway, this is all kind of a roundabout to what I really wanna talk about, which is, you know.
What can, um, really brought, I think, to Goodwood a a and this is something I I, I don't know if people really talk about, I, I haven't seen people talk about it and we've spent, you know, a lot of time talking about the impact of, of CHE Block, uh, the past couple of years since he's, he's let them in. I'm wearing the impact of Ken Block Peterson shirt.
We did an entire, you know, um, exhibit at the museum talking about all the different pieces of impact. But, but this is actually one that maybe just doesn't really get, get mentioned much. So the years 2010, and we've been invited to the Goodwood Festival speed. Now, I, I wanna set the timing for all of you who either weren't around back then or not paying attention back then, or, or who forget.
So in 2010, we've only released Jim Connell one and two. So those are just the first two Subaru films? No, San Francisco, no Hoonicorn, no Hoonigan. This is really, really early on. Um, funny thing is actually is the first stickers we ever handed out for Hoonigan were Goodwood, but, uh, I'll get to that. Um, but you know, this was, this was early and while Ken was getting some notoriety, he was not really super well known yet on the global stage.
It was also Ken's rookie year as a driver in the WRC. Um, and, and that actually did make some noise because, you know, Americans hadn't had many drivers in the WRC or definitely not many in, you know, at that point. I don't think there had been very many in the past decade or two decades before that. And, uh, and Ken had a really good showing at his first event, which was in, which was in Mexico.
And, you know, people were starting to talk. And by the way, very good showing, uh, was, I wanna say was ninth overall, which was really impressive for someone who raced in a national series. In the US who was in their thirties, who didn't grow up on two pass Wrecky and all these things that the European drivers had.
Um, and who had really had, you know, very little experience in a, in a WRC car up until that point. Um, and on top of that, you know, we just like, there, there were, like I said, this is pre Hoonigan, Ken Block, we had just left Subaru. Um, which by the way, if you were there back then, no one was happy about that.
I mean, mostly everybody was really pissed and would just say things like, go back to Subaru. We hadn't released Gymkhana three yet. Um, at Alto Jerome that hadn't been released yet. So this is in this kind of weird, uh, this weird InBetween moment and we go there. And, um, we are sort of told by, you know, the organizers, we, we spoke a little bit with Lord March, but, but not too much.
And we're, we're, we're basically told like, listen, um, you know, you can slide around a little bit, but whatever you do, you know, just don't get out onto the grass, right. We're, we're not, we're not looking for that kind of behavior. Uh, because at this time, you know, in up until 2010 at Goodwood, it was more of, um, a gentleman motoring event.
I'm not saying it still isn't, but there's a lot more fun, I would say, at Goodwood. And, and I wanna make the argument that I think Ken brought a lot of that fun there. So, of course. Ken goes out first. We, we were doing stuff on the rally stage in the, uh, in the focus, which was, uh, which was a ton of fun.
But, uh, Ken goes out, uh, and decides that he is going to, uh, send just massive donuts and the biggest slides he possibly can, uh, you know, ripping up the lawn, uh, almost into the hay bales. And while this seems pretty normal nowadays at Goodwood. It absolutely wasn't at the time. And I remember it was, there was a mix of, you know, hoot and hollering and the fans who loved that, and other people kind of looking at us crossed as like, what these damn Americans are doing here.
You know, what, what, what, what, what type of, you know, uncouth behavior might this be that they've, they've brought upon the Goodwood estate. And I, I, there was this joke, uh, that was kind of going of like, oh, Lord, March is unhappy about, you know, what Ken has done to the grass. And there was, there was even a little bit back and forth of like, who would we be?
Would we be ejected or not? Um, but it turns out that, uh, no actually Lord March, who is, uh, you know, now, I guess he's, he's the Duke of Richmond, um, Charles, uh, he actually loved it. I mean, he fully loved the spectacle that KB was, the effort and everything that we put into it. Um, and. You know, leaving there.
Uh, first off, Ken was given a trophy, uh, an award. I don't know if this might have been an award that had existed previously, but he was given the award, which was most thrilling, uh, driver, which Ken just dubbed the Honing Award because, you know, we didn't set the record on the hill climb. We didn't, we didn't set the record on the rally stage or anything like that, but Ken put on a show and it was, it was clear leaving by.
All these articles that came out afterwards that this was something different. I remember CAR Magazine, which at the time I thought was probably one of the best car magazines in the world, um, CAR UK said something to the effect of like, yes, Lewis Hamilton was there, you know, yes. Uh, sir Sterling Moss was there and Jackie Stewart.
But it was the young rookie Ken Block who, you know, who put on all the excitement. It's funny to call him young 'cause he actually wasn't, but I think they just saw us all as young and you know, car went on to say, you know how watching Ken, you know, slide car, slide his, you know, his Ford round and you know, smoke, you know, tire smoke and you know, just these big donuts and just kind of like this absolute.
Juxtaposition of what at the time Goodwood really was right. And, uh, that was, that, that was kind of the start. And then from there it only got bigger. And, uh, this is actually something that never happened. I don't think we really ever talked about it. But so later that year, um, like I said, we left, uh, Lord March, or no, the Duke at the time, Lord was really excited, uh, about, you know, what Ken had brought to, to the event and, and he, and he wanted more.
Right? Um, you know, and for, for Ken, you know, Ken loved the marketing concept of this. He loved how different this was. And, and, you know, even when we were going the first time, he thought like, wow, this was such sort of a unique and very kind of like different concept of an event. Um. We act, we made a bunch of stickers and this what I said was the first Hoonigan sticker.
And it said, um, uh, it said the Lord said, thou shall hoon. And it was like praying hands with like a rosary bead. And then the, with the time was this logo called the Archy. Actually, one of my childhood friends, Tim Shatz, designed and drew for me, um, you know, giving graffiti artists, you know, work in the graphic era.
Um, and they, that sticker we had that one. And, uh, maybe Hoy's not a crime. I think we had those two stickers and we hand, we, we didn't even make that many. Maybe there was like a hundred of them. And we handed them out, uh, at that event. That was like the first place that that sticker ever got handed out.
And then there was, as I mentioned before, the Obama can't Gymkhana sticker, but that was a DC shoes, uh, sticker. So the first sort of. Anywhere anyone had ever seen Hoonigan was, was at that first 2010, uh, Goodwood. Later on, it would be on the window of the Gymkhana. Um. Three car. So people may have noticed it there, but otherwise this was just something that, you know, was just in our heads.
We hadn't really, we hadn't really released it yet anyway. Um, so we fast forward to December of that year. It is the ending, uh, the, the final, uh, ultimate event, uh, in the WRC calendar, which is, uh, rally GB in Wales. And we go to the event and, uh, it was a really, I don't even remember how we did, but it was a fun event because it was the last event.
It was a ton of amazing, you know, drivers in the series that year. And somehow we end up at a party at the end of the night. We end up at a party, we end up actually going to dinner with Kimmy Reichen in. And then I actually wrote a whole story about this, uh, for Road in Track a few months ago. Went to, uh.
Dinner with Kimmy Rein, we end up at the Citron party, even though we're the Ford guys, we're hanging out with Kimmy and Sebastian Loeb, and we are drinking pretty seriously. Uh, all of us get pretty drunk. I end up pretty much blackout drunk. Um, I, all I remember is I woke up in the morning, uh, I threw up and then I pissed out a kidney stone that I'd had for like, I don't know, maybe like three months, which was, which was a whole other conversation.
Um, and then I called Ken and I said, Hey, I am, uh, I, I think I'm still drunk. I, I can't drive. And Ken was like, you gotta be kidding me. And I was like, dude, I, I can't drive. He's like, well, we have to be at Goodwood Estate to talk to Lard March about next year in like three hours. And it was like a two and a half hour drive.
And I was like, look, I was like, you need to drive. And Ken never drove, like whenever we, I mean that, you know, classic race car stuff he drives when he is on, on a rally stage or a racetrack, but you know, in between. And he's like, and I remember we had this like rental Mercedes or something and I just was in the passenger seat the whole time trying to, trying to keep down whatever food was left in my stomach.
Anyway. We get to, uh, we get to Goodwood Estate and um, we get to, you know, take the full tour because, uh, Lord March had this idea that we should do like a Gymkhana type video for next year's Goodwood, like record the film and then release it, or you know, air it at the Goodwood, you know, at the Goodwood Festival speed.
So we toured the whole place, like we, you know, not just the, the main property. We went to the Rolls Royce factory, which was super cool. We went to the golf course, um, kind of, you know, through all the different parts of the property. I mean, and like, I didn't get to this earlier, but you know, Lord March is like, he's part of the royal family.
I don't really, I'm American so I don't fully understand how that works. But what it means is he has this massive estate and lucky for all of us, he's a big car guy and he likes doing cool car stuff. 'cause there's not just, is there the. Festival speed, which is an amazing event. There's also the revival, which is super rad if you enjoy dress up in old cars, but it's still really rad.
There's members meeting, which is some of the best old school driving on the race track that they have on the property. Um, and their hill climb has kind of become this thing that people are really pushing hard for. Obviously our, our boy Travis goes after it, you know, every year as well. Um, but this event, th this is kind of in a different period now in, in 2011 as we're heading into, and, and they wanted to do something different.
We came up with a concept for a Gymkhana original idea was that we were going to do like a sort of like a fuck your golf course concept. Like that was really the basic of, it was like, Hey, we're gonna rip around the golf course while people are out there playing golf. Um, we're gonna do that. But I think we went and looked at it.
There just wasn't really enough obstacles. And then we started talking about other stuff, and I, and I remember the last thing we talked about, like, oh, we could, you know, do this, we could slide around this. And we were, you know, kind of walking through all different pieces of the property. There was the idea of like, could we go into the Rolls Royce factory and back out again?
Um, or can we include some Rolls Royces and some elements and things like that. We talked about doing like donut boxes of like Rolls Royces right off the factory line. Um, we had all these, all these different ideas. Unfortunately, none of it ever came to fruition, but the one thing that got really close was we had this idea of building, I, I remember still the nickname for it was called Jump kana.
The idea was to basically build like a downhill jump course. And for those of you who've been to Festival Sea before, this is where back in the day, bowler, bowler, by the way, are like absolutely batshit off-road Land Rovers. Um, bowler used to do like a demo on one side of the property. Um, they, this was, it was kind of like off.
Next to the rally stages. Anyway, we went over there and we looked at it and we came up with this concept of building these like massive dig out jumps. And like when I say dig out, like we were gonna dig like deep down into the ground with like big lips that came out. So like when you were watching like the car would like disappear and then come flying back out again and just build like this sequence of like six or seven downhill jumps.
I mean basically like a, like a like a jump section and like a downhill mountain bike course but built for a car. And uh, I actually don't know why that didn't happen because we talked about doing it for that year. I think in the end I think we just probably couldn't get the funding together to pay for it.
'cause if you don't know this moving dirt is actually really expensive. Um, I learned this working with Travis Pastrana 'cause every time we want to build a big dirt jump to go do something, it's like, wow, that's cost a lot more than I thought anyway. Um. We were gonna do that, but instead we figured, you know what, we're still gonna come back in 2011.
We're gonna come back harder. Um, we ran, I think we, again, we were gonna run both the main event, but I, we came with a, a much different idea having done it the first time around. Um, I remember like, we made sure, like DC made shirts that had, uh, like a, it was like the tuxedo tea, which was kind of funny. And it was like our funny take on it.
Um, you know, and we just went there and, and at this point too, now we knew, you know, what the expectation was, um, and, and how hard, you know, we could push it and, you know, and kind of like went there and realized, you know, this was a place for us to kind of go and be really different and really stand out.
And, uh, you know, in Lord March once again was, you know, super arms open for us. Um, was, uh, you know, he just loved, I think the spectacle that Ken was. And I think there was, I wanna remember. I wanna say they even did like a little skit moment where he came down and pretended to yell at Ken for like, sliding across the grass and then Ken just ripped up the grass even more.
Um, yeah, it was, it was good fun. And, and after that, like Goodwood became. This staple for us. I mean, it was, if you think about, so like Ken brought the focus there. He had the fiesta there, multiple Fiesta. Um, the Hoonicorn was there. Uh, the escort was there. Uh, the Mark five escort the cozy and, and then the Huna truck was there as well.
So it's like, you think like this became a place where like, you know, it was without questioning, Ken didn't go every year, but is every year he could go, he went and, which is by the way, I wanna admit, was always difficult in the past. 'cause it was always July 4th weekend. And as Americans, it's kind of weird to spend July 4th weekend in the place we fought our freedom or like to get away from, you know, England.
But anyway. It became kind of a staple, you know, event on the calendar when we would look at the calendar and be like, Hey, we're gonna do these races. We're gonna do, you know, these such and such events. We're gonna do gym Kana, and of course we're doing Goodwood. Like it. It became this, this thing. But then I started to see like, it really started to change the other people.
Who were getting invited, right. Mad Mike starts coming. You know, Vaugh Gitten goes, a bunch of NASCAR guys go and they're all just like, yeah, we're gonna go and throw donuts. And, and now it's like, I, I haven't been to Goodwood in a couple years. The last time I went was in, I want, I guess I went in 23, um, with Vinny and Ron and, you know, it was, uh, it was an amazing.
It was a, you know, amazing to be there. And I couldn't help but sit there and we actually did this like, round table with a bunch of different people who were there. I think Bagsy was one of 'em. Um, and, uh, yeah, and I met Mike, uh, Travis. I can't remember everybody who was there, but, um, it was one of those ones where you sit there and you're like, we were all sitting there talking about how, uh, you know, impactful Ken was to, to even just that event.
And it's like, you think like before that there really weren't, like Drift kids being invited. And if there were rally car guys, like, you know, they were keeping a little bit tamer. They weren't really, you know, putting on as much smoke. Um, and I, that really brought sort of like a different element to it.
And I, and I wanna believe that Ken has like, you know, his part in making Goodwood such a fantastic event. It, it, it really is. I, I, I talk about it too much. 'cause whenever I think about what makes a really good event, like Goodwood just, just lands it. So, well, I mean, kudos to, to the Duke. Uh, yeah. He's, he's done a, a fantastic job with that event.
And, uh, you know, I'm bummed 'cause it would've been cool to, to keep going there with Canon. Keep thinking of different ideas. I'm sad we never got to go. Do you know the Gymkhana there? Maybe that's something, you know, maybe a video or doing a video there. Something we could do with Lia or, or, you know, or, or Mica or something in the future.
But, uh, that was just this thing that, you know. I can't help but think, you know, would it have contin? I'm sure somebody else would've shifted a little bit different, but I do think that by Ken going there in 2010 and then doubling down in 2011, which by the way, he also won most thrilling driver again in 2011.
But Ken went triple hard in in 2011. It's like, I, I just, I don't think it was any point in time that he wasn't sideways or creating smoke in the, in the fiesta. Like he was just a bat outta hell everywhere there, because I think at that point he knew, he like definitely had permission to go absolutely wild.
So he did it. Um, yeah and uh, you know, without question, you know, sort of opened up the floodgates to bring more of that spectacle and, and, and that is what makes festival speed so amazing. 'cause in one way you've got. Priceless pieces of motor sport history being driven, like full chat up the hill, uh, which is, you know, from all different eras, which is just so sick to go see, right?
I mean, there's Formula One cars, like, you know, vintage rally cars, vintage touring cars, like, you know, just all this amazing stuff. And then there's also a bunch of people who are there just putting on an absolute show, right? You know, and, you know, just out there sliding cars around, big smoke. Like there's all that.
And then there's the actual hill climb, which has gotten really competitive. Um, you know, and again, I mentioned Travis before, it's like Subaru literally looks at that as like a race event and, and goes and, and, and brings their best to, to win there. So, um, it's, it's such a cool event and, um, I'm happy to say that I, you know, I'm.
Pretty sure that, uh, the Duke would agree. Like Ken left his mark and created this thing, uh, that like, you know, or opened the door for, for a lot of other people who just enjoyed and honing and sliding cars around and putting on a good spectacle. And it's, it's what, it's what I love about Goodwood. 'cause when we went there the first time, I, I think we felt a little out of place like that.
We were, you know, maybe like out mugged by the rest of these folks. Um, and then, and now it's like you go there and you realize like there's a world for both. There's like a world for like, these, like crazy, ridiculous, priceless pre-war cars and like, you know, round door, you know, uh, roses or Bentleys, I don't even remember which one it is.
And, you know, and, and all that kind of stuff. But then there's also room for someone sending a car. You know, reverse entry into a corner and there's also room for someone going absolutely batshit up a driveway. That really shouldn't be a hill climb, but it is. And that makes that place absolutely awesome.
Um, yeah, I don't know. That's a little bit of a story. I probably would've only written like a couple hundred words on this, on Instagram, so, you know, that one gets a little bit longer. Okay. The next story also comes from the same time period, which is like early, early, uh, and the next, the next photo I was going through, and I have to admit, when I saw this photo, I actually kind of forgot that this had happened.
So this photo right here is Ken standing in front of a WRC. Focus, and that is in mid-December 2009. So here's the situation. I, uh, I had just gave notice to leave zero to 60. Um, it was a hard thing to do. I loved zero to 60 and I really didn't want to go. Um, but uh, it was, like I said, writing was on the wall.
Um, and I wanted to do something different. And there was something about. What Ken was doing, what Ken wanted to build. We had the framework for what Hoonigan was gonna become. Although, my God, it became so much more than we ever thought it was going to be. Um, but you know, it just seemed really exciting.
And I was at an age in my life where I really loved the idea of traveling and being on the road. And, and, and I absolutely loved rally racing. Um, rally racing was that sport for me that was just cooler than the rest. Um, I loved touring car. Loved DTM, but nothing was cooler than rally racing. Um, blame speed, vision, uh, playing WRC, uh, you know, when I was in college.
'cause I used to watch that just religiously and, uh, you know, Colin McCrae and, you know, and, uh, just all of that, just that era, Peter Solberg, it just was such a, kind of, was, was such a cool thing to then to then get into and then be a part of, and to be able to go work at the highest level at the FIA and WRC, you know, just seemed like such a cool opportunity.
So here I am. Um, probably maybe one week out from having told my publisher that I was gonna leave the magazine that I begged him to start, uh, because I got this other opportunity. Um, and, you know, and, and also tell my crew, right? Tell all the guys who were working with me, um, at the time, you know, uh, Mike Spinelli, who then took over Richard Chang.
Uh, Matt Tuccillo, who I eventually poached to come work with me, with Ken Ron Zaras, who I also poached to come work with me, with Ken, uh, Mike Crenshaw. Tony Harmer. I mean, there's just a whole, I'm sure forgetting people, but, uh, Wu-Tang, Stan, um, there was, there was just a whole crew of people and they were like my family.
I mean, they were my family before the Hoonigan guys were, you know, I Hoonigan was. Just a, a little concept in our brains. Right. Um, it was a, you know, it was a twinkle in the eye kind of situation. I, I didn't even, I didn't know what that would be and it was hard for me to leave that. But this opportunity to go do this thing with Ken and, and when we, when we went there in December, I don't even think we had the team name formalized.
We eventually became the Monster World Rally team, which then. Became Hoonigan Racing Division, uh, as time went on. Um, but at this point, I don't even think we had that finalized. There was only four people on the team. It was myself, uh, Derek Dauncey, uh, AKA dear old dad who you guys might remember from, uh, well, I mean he was with Ken all along.
But, uh, remember him from the Amazon, Gymkhana, viles, uh, one of my favorite people and someone I have to get on very vehicular 'cause he's a wealth of knowledge and experience and rally and just has such, such, such great times with him. Um, and then, uh, Alex Sino, who was Ken's co-driver. That was it. It was like just the four of us just, you know, starting the whole thing up and Ken said, Hey, uh, I need to go do a test.
It's like, it's. Kind of like a, it was, I think a bit of like a seat fitting, um, which isn't like as complex as like the seat fitting in Formula One, but like, he just needed to go out, drive the car, make sure that there wasn't anything that, you know, was really off because it wasn't like a full test. I don't even, I think there was like, maybe just a little bit a, I don't even remember how much of a road there was, but I remember we flew out there and it, it just felt so surreal.
Um, you know, we went to M Sport, which was just on like a whole other level. I, I, I had visited Prodrive like a year earlier. Prodrive was certainly really cool. Um, and, and I, I got, you know, this like amazing tour of Prodrive at the time. And as, as a big Subaru fan in the era, um, it was cool to go to go visit Prodrive, but m Sport was like.
This next level laboratory type location. Um, and there we were like, you know, the Americans coming to WRC walking into M Sport. By the way, it was a laboratory like situation, but it was in, I wanna say it was like, it was in like an old psychiatric ward or something. I, I, it was like an old hospital. It was like the weirdest building, very British right, to have this like, old timey building, but inside feels like this, like laboratory setup.
It was like all white, everything. And, uh, it was phenomenal. And we show up and like, all right, we gotta go, go do this test. I remember we just kind of were sitting around. It was like, I just remember a lot of like sitting in the hotel waiting for them to call us. Um, just kinda working, you know, on all the stuff.
Because remember this point, nobody knows we're going to Ford. Um, Ken is still a Subaru driver. I think actually a lot of Subaru. Guys who actually worked at Subaru didn't even know that we weren't re-upping for the next year. Um, Ken and I were actually thrashing to put out all Subaru content and like all this gym kanai stuff, uh, before the end of the year so that like the new year was a fresh start and we didn't have any like, overhanging content that needed to be released.
That's why if you ever go back and look, there was like four or five Gymkhana videos including, um, the Gymkhanai remix, which like, I so few people watched it. It's absolutely hilarious. I just, I just rewatched it the other day. It's so, uh, it was the artistry mix. It's so insane. It's definitely, if you partake, uh, in any mind altering substances, this is the moment to enjoy those and go watch that.
Anyway, um, yeah, so it was just this, uh, it was this. Super. Um, you know, kind of interesting moment. I remember we get there and Ken and I were working on like the logos for the new team, the website we're just going through the list and like, again, the website because. Instagram isn't around yet. Facebook is still really just for like friends and your college peers.
They didn't have brand pages yet. Um, social media is not really a thing and YouTube is really kind of the only space, um, that's out there that is different than just a regular URL. Again, we've only done Jim McConnell one and two, so we're like building out a video that's gonna go up on YouTube. We're building out, you know, the webpage and, and you know, and, and the initial announcement that Ken has gone to Ford and were going to race in the WRC.
And, and for those who don't know this and don't remember, the reason Ken left Subaru at the time was because. Subaru was no longer competing in the WRCA few years previous. They were with both Petter Christian Atkinson, um, AKA ko. Uh, but you know, they had left the WRC and they had no intentions to return and Ken's whole goal was to go race in the WRC, like that's where he wanted to go.
And we'll get into this whole story one day because the really fun part of this story is that Derek Dcy was hired by Vermont Sports Car to end Subaru to prep Travis Pastrana for the World Rally Championship, and instead, Ken ended up being the one to go. Derek saw that Ken had a different drive and different ambition than Travis did.
Not saying that Travis didn't have the capability to go there, but Ken had everything he was gonna take to go through. What it was gonna take in terms of like the commitment level. Travis still wanted to do everything Travis wanted to do, double back flips, you know, everything else. And you know, he saw that Ken wanted to do this and he ended up leaving Vermont Sports car to go with Ken to go to wc.
Anyway, we're there and uh, you know, this was like this big moment and Ken gets in the car and I remember like, just sitting there like, just really exciting to see him go and he stalls the car. I thought, okay, they had told him, they had said this thing is notoriously hard to drive. Uh, look, I remember the, something like the Clutch disc was like, it's like super small and this car, and it just had like a really, really weird engagement.
Um, he stalled it again and he stalled it again and it got to a point where like it was starting to get a little comical. Um, I don't think he was laughing. I think he was pretty bummed 'cause this was sort of like his big moment. Uh, he eventually figured it out. Ripped the car around. Uh, did like a quick test.
Um, we weren't there for that long. I think we were there for an hour or two. Um, and, and I honestly kind of forgot about this moment. Um, I mean, you, you look at the photo of him, it's like, you know, he's wearing, you know, he's got like a jacket on. I don't even, I, I guess he was wearing a race suit for the test.
I don't even remember. He is just wearing, you know, the spec, uh, DC uh, driving boots here and like jeans. Um, but it was just like this really weird sort of moment because like we had entered the highest level of WRC, our highest level of rally, which is the WRC, where there, um, as Americans, there was only like four or five people test because it wasn't like a big deal.
They brought the car out in like a small trailer. Um, but you know, I look back at it now and I realize like, man, like we were about to embark on this massive adventure. Like what an amazing. You know, thing we were about to start and we had no idea. We had no idea. Like I, you look back at it now, and Jim Kane one and two feel really, really big and important, but they weren't as big as, you know, Jim Kane five is what really put Ken in front of everything.
Right. It was really Gym five that really sort of, you know, put the brand out there and, and it wasn't really until Gym seven that Hoonigan really kind of showed up, you know, so we, we Hoonigan was there, but it was very much in the background. Um, it, it didn't really become front and center until Gymkhanai.
So, you know, you're looking at, this is years before that. This is, you know, 2010, I mean this actual moment's late 2009. Um. I don't think any of us knew what was gonna, what was gonna come off, all of it. And I look back at it now, and it just seems like such simple times, you know, I mean, this was still an era where, you know, we would, me and him would just travel just the two of us.
Like there was no, there was no entourage, there was nothing special. We would just land, hop in a rental car and go where we had to go. You know? Um, I, and I, I, I miss it. I, uh, I, I, if I have any regret, it's that I, I wished I had taken more photos during that time. Like, we didn't even have a film crew. I mean, that's like one of the things to talk about.
Like, what, when do you know of Ken to have done something and not to have cameras there? It's like a, it's like the old, like, you know, if a, if a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it, it's like, if Ken did anything and there wasn't there a camera to capture it, did it even happen? But, uh, this was a photo I took on like my.
Point and shoot. Um, you know, we didn't have a camera, we didn't have a film crew there, and part of the reason we didn't is 'cause the car wasn't in livery yet. We hadn't, you know, we, we hadn't launched it there, there really wasn't anything that was gonna come out of it. And it was a rather, it was a rather small test.
Um, we then did later go on, uh, and do a proper test, uh, at Greystoke, which by the way, like only the Brits can have places that sound like there's something out of, out of like a Tolkien novel Greystoke, like, really? Anyway, um, at Greystoke Forest, I remember it was snowing. It was just so cold. But, uh, that was the first test in the livery.
Um, and, and I think that was a moment where I, I really was like, man, we're going to the WRC, like, we're gonna go compete in the WRC. Like, how crazy is this? And I, I'd been. With Ken and Travis when they raced in PWRC in Mexico in 2006. So like, I'd already seen that, but like here we are, we're gonna be on the top level, we're gonna be competing with top level drivers.
Um, you know, uh, REM Mati was on the team that year. Um, uh, there was, uh, obviously we were on the team with Stobart, which was Matthew Wilson as well. Um, it, it was just, you know, it was, it was just so crazy to, to have been a part of that in that time. Um, and at that point, I think if it was up to Ken, that was what he just wanted to do.
Like he just wanted to race WFC and that was. Our, that year was a partial year, um, that year. So 2010 and 2011 were the most rounds, uh, that Ken had done a year. And we thought we were gonna increase and do more. Um, but the reality was, uh, that it just made more sense for us to do other stuff. And the launch of Rally Cross and, and a bunch of other things, our partners, our sponsors who were mostly American brands, didn't really see the reason for us to go race in Europe.
Um, so I think I, and I, I want to clear this a bit 'cause I think a lot of people think that Ken dropped outta WRC because he, he wasn't winning. Um, Ken had. The Ken totally understood where his place was in WRC. I think he knew that, like, hi, the possibility of him, you know, being on podium was, was really, really out there.
Uh, a lot of things would've had to go wrong for other drivers, but as he was putting, you know, he was taking more and more time out of drivers going from ninth place to eighth place and seventh, and I think we eventually sixth and Germany, if I remember. Um, you know, and, but he, but he loved it. Uh, it wasn't about that for him.
It was like getting to race alongside, you know, and on the same stages as, you know, the Ogas and Loeb and, you know, and, and when we first started, Solberg was still racing with us. Um, you know, I, I think that this was something that felt, uh, you know, just, just absolutely amazing to him. And that was what he wanted to do was to eventually get to a point where we did, you know, the full season, right?
Did, did, did a full championship. Um, but unfortunately. Racing is Ex Motorsports is expensive. And we had to have partners pay for it. And partners wanted us back in the States and they wanted us doing more stuff in the US And Rally Cross started to gain some traction and there was a big want for Ken to be racing rally cross.
And that began the rally cross chapter, which, uh, I can now tell you was Ken's least favorite time because Ken just wanted to race in the woods. He just wanted to race stage rally. And that was it. And I look back at that photo and man, what, what an opportunity it was to, uh, to have been there and to have, uh, you know, been a part of that then.
And like, man, it was, it was cool also. Fuck, I forgot how good that Ford looked like. I, I was like, that car looked really good. That car looked really good, especially body and white. Um, I oddly like the focus in the livery more, but in body and white, there was just something super cool about that error, uh, focus.
It was just, it was just really good. I, the, the, the focus that came after that was just, I don't know, not as good looking that, that focus was, was it for me? I remember Ken had a, had the street focus in that green color. We ended up getting one, uh, outta Mexico through Ford, uh, us and that was like his street driver for like a year.
I think it eventually had to go back. So it was like here on carne. But I always thought that was, was that was like one of those super cool, if you know, you know, type cars. Why isn't anyone, I guess they're not importable yet, but I was gonna say, why aren't we seeing those yet? Because I feel like that's a, a super cool car anyway.
Um, yeah, I mean, you know, it's, I, I, I think looking back at it, you know. This moment, um, was one of those moments I, you know, for both of us, that was just kind of, this was, it was this thing that had to get done. We had to go, it was a seat, you know, it was a seat fitting, had to check a few things. It wasn't like a proper test.
It was a partial test. Um, and honestly, I kind of forgot it happened. And finding this photo reminded me of, you know, just how exciting this moment was. The, this moment of like, we're, we're about to do this thing. Nobody knows about it. Like we haven't actually launched it yet and it's about to come out and, and, you know, who knows what people are gonna think of it.
Um, you know, who knows where it's gonna go. I will tell you that at the time then, I never thought we'd have the run we did. I thought, you know, maybe one or two more Gymkhana films. Um. Race rally for a couple years. Uh, and then that'd be it. 'cause you know, the, like I said, Ken was already in his, you know, late thirties at this point.
Um, maybe he'd, I forget, like close closing in on 40 if not 40 already. And, you know, I thought we were gonna be in this for a few years. Um, we got an amazing run out of it. I mean, you know, all the rally stuff was super fun. And then Hoonigan and, and then just a kind of different level of Gymkhana and, you know, the Hoonicorn and, you know, Huna truck and then, and then going and doing it again with Audi.
Um, you know, it was, was really, really fun times. Uh, super bummed that they stopped. Uh, I can't say that enough. Uh, I, I was saying this to someone the other day. I was saying, I don't think that there is a day. That goes by that I don't miss or think about Ken, like he was such an amazing, uh, influence in my life.
Um, yeah, it's, it's, it's wild and like, um, you know, I've lost, I've lost more friends than I'd like to. Uh, you know, I like to say I, I lost a lot of friends growing up, um, and, and continue to lose friends to this day. But, uh, Ken was a unique loss. 'cause you know, not only was he a, a great friend of mine, um, but he was the center of our universe, which is a weird thing to see go missing, you know?
Um, it definitely threw a lot of us sort of off kilter in terms of how do you go forward and, and even to this day, like, I think about things like, man, what would Ken think about this episode? Not this particular episode. He'd hate this episode 'cause he wouldn't really want me just sitting here like talking about him.
But, um. I dunno, maybe he'd enjoy parts, he'd enjoy it. If he was here, he'd enjoy it if the two of us were here and we could, you know, just shoot the shit back and forth and, and laugh over it. And he would be trying to tell his marketing parts and I would be trying to tell like the embarrassing fun parts of it.
That was those kind of our, our back and forth. Um, but, you know, but I think about the test stuff all the time. Like, oh, would he like the, would he like this logo? Would he, you know, would he be stoked about this or that? Um, and you know, and I guess that's the way that Ken kind of like lives on with me.
'cause I look through that filter all the time. I mean, I, I, you know, when we did Jim Connell Australia with Travis, um, I, it's like Ken was like in the room with me editing it because like, I would just hear Ken be like, really that shot?
Interesting choice. Artsy, um, you know, or like, like, oh, why are you doing that? Like, ugh, like, you know, or like, just like laughing about something Travis did, you know? Like, why, like, man, like how many times did Travis have to try that, you know, whatever. 'cause it was a really good competition between those two that was really fun and friendly.
Um, yeah, it, uh, it sucks. Um, it definitely does. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's one of those things where you don't really, um, you know, you don't plan, not that anyone plans for it, but like, you don't think about how, how things will be, how different things will be when, when someone dies and exits in a, in a way that's sort of unexpected.
And it's like, man, I, like, I, I, I still, uh, like there's still days where I'm like, shit, I should text Ken. And I stopped myself. Yeah. It's uh, it's tough. Anyway, um, but like, look, it's, you know, at, at the same time in saying all of that, uh, man, if, you know, I, I, I think anybody would want to leave this much legacy and impact, right?
And I, and I know Ken wasn't the kind of person who loved the word legacy or that stuff, but I think he did understand, um, that the impact he had created. But I, I've always said this, I, I wish, I wish Ken could have read the things everybody said about him after he was gone. You know, um, I, I, I think that Ken was understood more after he was gone.
I think for a lot of time people looked and, you know, complained like, oh, he's not the best rally car driver. And it's like, yeah, he never said he was the best rally car driver. And then he didn't pretend to be, um, you know, or people would be like, oh, this Gymkhana film feels, you know, redundant or same as whatever.
And it's like, I, I, I think the thing you have to understand about Ken was like, he cared just as much about being an amazing brand and marketing and creative person as he did being a driver. And I don't think there's a single fucking driver who's anywhere close, anywhere close. Like, not even in the same.
Level, sorry boys, but there's just nobody who comes even close to ha ha having that package of being able to do the two to be able to, to be that creative, create that level of impact, and also have the driving to back up those pieces. Right. So, um, yeah, and you know, and I think that that's something that he brought to Goodwood obviously, you know, brought to rally, uh, and you know, and, and then the whole, the whole sport of automotive and all of that.
So, um, but we will be talking more about this and um, I'm gonna wrap this up, but if you're still listening and you haven't yet marked your calendar this Friday, 9:00 AM. Four hours and 30 minute stream of more of this, except there'll be more people. So there'll be more banter and it will be, you know, and it is gonna be a celebration.
It's gonna be us just enjoying this amazing impact and how much fun Ken was to be friends with, uh, to work with. Although I will admit sometimes he was a real fucking asshole to work with, but I, I miss it. I, I miss the asshole days as much as I miss just the fun days. Um, you know, he was, he was hard and he was honest, which is like a real important thing in a creative.
Um, but yeah, blockhouse racing on YouTube this weekend. Um, and for those of you who have stuck around to the bitter end of just listening to me and no one else, um, I just want to, a bunch of people have been asking like, what else am I gonna do and where, what's the future of all of this? Um, so I figured I'd, I'd give it to those who listened here.
I'm gonna make it on the video about it, but, um. We're gonna keep making very vehicular. Um, I really like that show, but it's kind of actually a hard show to do every week. 'cause having really meaningful conversations with the right people doesn't always happen every week. Um, we're going to keep doing firing order.
I really, really enjoy making that show. Um, I really enjoyed the one with, uh, VIN and Ron and the most recent one with, with Mickey and Nads was super fun because it's actually a subject matter that I do not know as well. But I really enjoyed making that show and it seemed like all of you guys enjoyed watching it as well.
Um, I really enjoyed the very vehicular that we did with, uh, with Victoria Bruno and, um, Mike Burroughs, which was sort of like the two opposing. I think I may try to take that and, and make that its own sort of version of very vehicular, um, that we can kind of repeat. I think that that works well, that, that show I think did well because it, it, it created an interesting conversation.
Um, so try to repeat that. Technically, I know no one else really cares, but I. I'm sort of doing this in my head in seasons, and seasons are eight episodes to me. Uh, it's really like a background thing is why I need to do that. But we've now put out 16 episodes plus a, well, plus this one and another special gives 18, but 16 full episodes.
So technically what you will watch next week will be the beginning of season three, and the goal for me is every season to add improvements, to bring extra things like for example, like we're, we're now on Spotify video as well. Um, but there's a bunch of other things that are gonna be coming up. We're gonna be doing a lot more with the Patreon, with Discord.
Um, more and more stuff there. Then the other part is, uh, people keep asking like, am I, am I gonna do build content? Um, I do plan on doing, I'm going to, I have a show that I've been putting together. It's called Does It Run? And it basically runs through my entire collection, uh, in the process of cutting that collection down from 26 to 28 cars down to about maybe, um, uh, 12 maybe.
Maybe 12. I don't know. Vinny thinks I should get to five, which is crazy talk. But, uh, yeah, we'll see. Um, there's gonna be that. And then I have this other show idea that I'm just internally calling the Scotto, uh, A DHD Variety Hour, which is. Basically a show that maybe comes out like once every two months and it's just like a collection of other little segments that like wouldn't really kind of do well on their own.
Maybe they would, I don't know. That like creates an hour long show that feels more like the curation of a magazine because what I miss the most about magazines isn't just the tangible, like you can feel it, but it's also the, um. It's also that you curate, you curate this experience from front to back, um, and our whole world has moved into like 32nd fucking short form, which is like so bad for your brain.
You're basically fracking your focus. Um, and I, and I think like taking, but it's not like short form in itself isn't bad. Um, sidebars one of my favorite things in magazines, but short form, um, you know, is great as you if it's a buffer in between some other things. So I I, I'm seeing a world where like it's an hour long.
There could be segments that are like feature length that maybe last for 15 to 20 minutes and there maybe is like one of those, or maybe two per episode. And then there could be things that are only 30 seconds long, or five minutes long, or four minutes long. Um, and it could be everything from driving new cars to q and a's with random people to.
Um, not really podcast stuff 'cause the podcast stuff will live on podcast, but it could be, you know, um, there could be some build stuff related to it. There could be some storytelling stuff kind of similar to this, but probably a little bit more built out. Um, yeah. Anyway, those are the things I'm working on for this year, for this, for the channel.
And that's probably gonna be it. That'll be it for what I do here. And then, um, I'm, you know, obviously still working on trying to do a reunion with all the Hoonigan OGs, um, and, you know, trying to keep fucking getting into that world and making movies. So anyway, again, thank you very much. Uh, I hope this little filler episode was enjoyable.
Um, again. This Friday. And if you are unavailable and you can't make the stream head on over to 43 i.org, uh, even if you can only donate a few bucks, you know, two bucks, three bucks, five bucks, uh, we're using this foundation to raise money to help extend sort of the impact that Ken had, uh, for people in a good way.
So one of the things that we say is that, um, you know, Ken, uh, always supported the motivated misfits. Um, and, and I always used to say this was like Hoonigan was a band misfits. Like we were not people who were graduated the top of our class. Fuck, I never even graduated college and neither did Ken. Um, but Ken gave opportunity to people who were the outliers, right?
To the people who normally, you know, um, on paper wouldn't get the chance. Um, you know, I think one of his best examples of that's guys like Rob Dyrdek, um, who's now one of the most successful businessmen I know. Um, and the idea is, is, well how do we, how do we continue that? Right? And that's what the foundation does, is it is working to give those opportunities, bring those opportunities to people who have the motivation, who have the, um, you know, the, who have a particular toolkit but maybe don't have the opportunities coming their way or don't have the access really to get to some of those opportunities.
So, um, yeah. Go support, uh, go show, go share the stream, go show up on the stream, um, tell people the stream's coming. Uh, do all of that. Uh, and I will appreciate it. And, uh, that's it. Thank you very much. Another episode, half episode partial episode. Kind of like, is it full vary? Maybe it's like just, maybe this is just like somewhat vehicular.
I don't know. Uh, it's weird when I talk by myself for more than an hour. Everyone's like, you should do a solo show. I'm like, I can't talk for this long without feeling like I'm crazy right now. I feel like I'm crazy to that. Can I?
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