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Ken Block + Top Gear


slngsht

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He really is something else and can make a car do things that just seem unbelievable.

Sure dose help to have Subaru as a sponsor and a 380 HP WRX to play with.

 

 

More like it helps to sell your company (DC shoes) for something like $55 million (rumored). While he has certainly become a decent driver in recent years, it is only because he has money.

Having been involved in Rally for many years, I knew plenty of drivers that had the potential to be better than him but could never get anywhere because they didn't have the money to back them. Of course Ken shows up at very his first rally in a $100k rally car and the best team in the US behind him, he then goes on to compete in dozens of events in his first year while others struggled to afford to get to the next event.

I have had guys like Rhys Millen (who not only competes as a drift/Rally driver but also does precision driving for movies and commercials), drive for my camera and him drifting a bone stock car six feet off the bumper of the camera car and holding it there for the shot over and over again takes far more skill than Ken's hooligan driving videos.

Ken is a really nice guy and incredibly smart at marketing ( I am most impressed about this skill) but the hype surrounding his driving is created by this marketing skill. When he competes overseas he pretty much gets his head handed to him.

 

That said, his videos are really fun to watch but give me that kind of money and potentially I will be driving like that too.:driving:

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Wow , brave man saying that here. Here in Australia I had never heard of him. On the international stage I never noticed his name.. What I could see was a heap of money and some major choreography . That was nothing but an add. Filmed over probably several days with a huge crew. I would like to see the out takes of that vid. A good driver yes ...but not the KING he is making himself out to be.

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Wow , brave man saying that here. Here in Australia I had never heard of him. On the international stage I never noticed his name.. What I could see was a heap of money and some major choreography . That was nothing but an add. Filmed over probably several days with a huge crew. I would like to see the out takes of that vid. A good driver yes ...but not the KING he is making himself out to be.

 

 

Ken certainly doesn't make himself out to be the "king", he is quite modest actually and would probably be the first to admit that there are plenty of drivers as good or better than he. It's folks on the internets who have watched his videos that seem to think he is somehow a driving god.

Rally in the US is still mostly an underground sport, Ken was smart and realized that in order to market himself/team/car/sponsors he would have to think outside the box and that is why he makes these fun videos (albeit the one in this thread is the Top Gear tv show) that have gone viral on the internet

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Fair comment re his fame. As I said I don't know anything about him other than you tube vids so I was out of line with what my "KING" comment.

Re Top Gear , I would bet they were given this vid by Ken. ie he invited them to come along for the ride. His team would have edited in a short section with a TG presenter . I would doubt there were any TG film crew there. A free 5min segment is hard to knock back for any tv producers. It was all about getting the brands out there and having some fun in the process.

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Money and racing go hand in hand. In MotoGP, there are riders who bring their own sponsorships with them and get rides over guys that are considered better... nationality of rider can play a part too. I'm sure other motorized sports have the same issue. It would be embarrassing to me if I was out there getting in the way... on the other hand, makes you wonder how good the real guys are if money can get a rich schmo close.

 

Seems I have little money and am a terrible driver.... but just like a guy with a small johnson; doesn't stop me from having a lot of fun with what I got.

Edited by Mondo
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