2009 Subaru Impreza STI

Chances are if you're reading Modified, you've seen the original Ken Block "Gymkhana Practice" video. In fact, you've probably watched it multiple times, mesmerized by the utter automotive coolness on display, from the raspy sound of the exhaust to the billowing tire smoke to the unbelievable speed and angle of the drifts and the stunning pirouette through an aircraft hangar. It is, quite simply, one of the most epic pieces of motorsports erotica ever produced for the Internet, and given the more than 22 million views since its release less than a year ago, it's quite possibly the most popular racing video of all time. Jeremy Clarkson from "Top Gear" has even been quoted as saying it's the coolest motorsports video he's ever seen.

The Interview
So why risk making a sequel that would inevitably be compared to the wildly successful original, potentially giving all the e-thugs something new to direct their pointless brand of hatred at? Only one way to find out, by going direct to the man himself and quizzing Mr. Block as best we could on the phenomenon that is his gymkhana video projects.

Q: What motivated or inspired you to make the first gymkhana video?

Ken Block: The first one was really just for fun. I did a gymkhana event at El Toro [air force base, in the Los Angeles area] a couple years ago, and since I really enjoy driving rally cars, for me gymkhana was a way to do some rally type driving locally, as opposed to doing some autocrosses or time attacks or something like that. There was an organization here in Southern California that was doing a couple of events a year, and I had this car that was used for Gumball3000 and One Lap [of America] so I decided to convert it for gymkhana. As soon as I got the car done, the organization that was doing the gymkhana events quit doing them, so I was really bummed that I'd just built this really fun car and didn't have anywhere to go with it.

Since I'd been to El Toro before and knew the place was rentable, I decided to go out there and just have some fun and get some seat time. When I started to look into the place a little more and rented it, I found all these different areas-like the helicopter pad and hangar-and realized we could try a bunch of different stunts with the car and film it. I actually went out for one day and filmed most of the Gymkhana ONE video, just playing around and having fun. I didn't see the footage for about a week, and when I finally saw it I was blown away. It was way better and way more dramatic than I ever imagined. So we tried to put it all together and it worked out really well, but some of the scenes weren't perfect and we needed a bit more for a complete video, so we went back for a second day to finish it up. But really, it was just something I did for fun, and never imagined that we'd get the response that we did out of it.

In terms of inspiration, I'm a big fan of video on the Internet. Being a driver, I'm very interested in racing, so I constantly watch rally on the Internet. There's lots of stuff out there that inspires me or just purely entertains me-highlights from the WRC championship, highlight videos of Colin McRae or Gigi Galli doing some incredible slides on tarmac in a rally car. It's videos like these that I truly love about the Internet. It's just a great way to see a wide variety of driving styles and conditions. So when it came time to make the first gymkhana video, a lot of what I'd seen and had inspired me on the net was kind of built into it. And it was also just fun to do and cool to watch and actually develop that sort of content. And another big deal for me, since our [Rally America] championship isn't on TV anymore and I have some great sponsors, was to do a good job getting them some exposure, and doing this type of video content is a really good way to do that.