The word on the street was that Ken Block had a new car. It was a 2004 WRX STI built by Crawford Performance for both track and gymkhana use. Some of you may be wondering what a gymkhana is. Basically, it's just like autocross only tighter, with donuts and such. Others might be saying: "OK, but who the hell is Ken Block?" He's a shoe salesman, like Al Bundy, only a lot better at it. And for no good reason, we wanted to kick his ass.
Actually, Block is this ber-cool guy who co-founded DC Shoes. Until recently, he simply traveled the world promoting his products at skate, snowboard and other extreme sports events. But in 2005, he entered the Rally America National Championship, seizing the Rookie of the Year title then finishing second and third in the championship for '06 and '07. All while bringing rallying to the attention of America's youth.
Taking things even further, Block jumped his WRX rally car 170 feet for the TV show Stunt Junkies, then shredded up a snowboard park with it in New Zealand for the latest DC snowboard video MTN.LAB 1.5. Even if you're not into boarding, dude, the video is totally worth watching just to see the Subaru carving snow to a soundtrack by Primus. It's clear that this guy has way too much fun with his cars.
So, when we heard Block might be headed our way, we challenged him and the crew at Crawford to a duel. They would have to go up against a time attack car of our choice, at our usual Streets of Willow test track. Then they'd have to beat a different car at a gymkhana course of our design. To our astonishment, Block accepted.
Choosing the cars for our side was a little tricky. We wanted to see a good fight, but we had no idea what Block and his car were capable of. To play it safe, we hunted down the fastest things we could find.
For the road course, we chose Steve Mitchell's M-Workz 350Z. This is the same Z that was almost banned from the '06 USCC for its gutted interior and Technosquare roll cage. The car finished second on the road course during that competition and, after a further 18 months of development, it's been refined significantly. The motor has gone from a Vortech supercharged stock block to a Jim Wolf twin-turbocharged Cosworth. This is the same turbo kit M-Workz just installed on Project Z (see page 84). The suspension has gone from a streetable Koni/Eibach set-up to a Moton/Swift package. The brakes were switched to Brembos, tires to Hoosiers, engine management to EFI Technology-there wasn't much left of the original USCC contender. But based on the shop's reputation, we knew the car would be ready on time. And judging by the results in recent time attacks, we knew it would be fast.
Similarly, our choice for the gymkhana competition was obvious. Taka Aono has been autocrossing Corollas for close to 15 years. He started in the snowy parking lots of Nebraska, making the line between grip and drift just a matter of temperature. Mastering both disciplines, he has won national championships in both Solo2 and Pro Solo SSB competition. On the drifting side, he's been at the heart of the American scene since the first exhibition events at Irwindale, California. These days, Aono is the head course designer for Gymkhana USA and competes in Formula D.
Aono's ride this season is Falken Tire's AE86 Corolla. It's not only one of the lightest AE86s out there but also one of the most powerful. Every body panel other than the roof and rear quarters are lightweight composite pieces by J-Blood. The windows are polycarbonate from Speedglass. The only real weight in the car comes from the SCCA Pro-Spec cage fabricated by Technosquare (the same shop that caged the Z). Technosquare also mated up an OS Giken-equipped FC RX7 transmission and handled all the other chassis preparation. Under the hood lies a 4AGE Formula Atlantic motor built by Hasselgren Engineering. Anyone unfamiliar with Hasselgren but into racing engines should look these guys up-pretty awesome stuff.