It's official! This weekend at Gymkhana GRID I will be joining forces with my good friend Ken Block and the Monster World Rally team to compete at Irwindale Speedway. Ken offered me the the chance to drive his sick 1978 Ford Escort RS rally car, and I just couldn't refuse the opportunity to blast that thing around Irwindale! Ken and I have never competed in an event together, so this should be fun for sure.
Hope to see some of you out there!
- Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Buy tickets online at GymkhanaGrid.com
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Does Ken own a car that ISN'T sponsered by everyone?
I LOVE OLD ESCORTS WOOOO YEAHHH!
I love how Americans have now invented gymkhana!!! Bring on Formula G and everything that will destroy another cool sport.
Sick
^ i think he himself is sponsored, not each individual car.
that looks ugly as hell. hopefully the real car looks better....
Is this car LHD? Not sure if this is an original '78 rally car or a newer build... I thought most of these were RHD..?
Wouldn't you if they paid for everything?
Does it have to look like that though? Tacky
i can't belive it
This MKII is awesome. You are going to have so much fun!
And now Ken Block has not only ruined the image of drifting and motorsport in general but he has ruined a classic. When will the bloodshed stop......
Fail Episode #2.
Sometime marketing plans don't succeed. There is a point when the audience sense a feeling of deja-vu (a who-cares-anymore kind of attitude), and then moves on
In other words: those marketing gurus that are organizing those check-this-shit-out-events are trying to bring in more money, boost the economy, and inflate their business' revenue.....screw the passion; it's all about the image folks.
If you are so gullible to think that those "pro" are doing this because it's fun, think again. It's all about money ! THAT point I was talking about earlier has been reached (more than once), and it's now time to drop this fad, and move on from this crap, and put some heart into this thing called car culture.
Shall we?
Watch out for the wheel clearance when at full lock.
SICK!
@alex
you're aware that it's called the automotive INDUSTRY right? industry as in "we need cash moneys to keep the whole thing going"
get off your high horse, cars aren't art; at best they're fun or great pieces of engineering but at the end of the day, they're still just tools.
haha this will be the first time Jr gets in a real car
i like the livery, its just missing a NFS/Speedhunters decal though - one one the best looking cars in all of its forms.. its hard to write about these cars without mentioning the word 'sideways'.. fun to drive, with point and stomp drivability - [i miss my old Mexico..]... cant wait to see the finished article!! keep us posted
@Henry
Actually almost all official Ford rally cars were LHD, because most of the drivers were from Finland. But still, it's most likely a newer build because MKII Escort is probably the most common rally car ever and all Boreham built cars are now in museums or trashed to death.
My personal opinion is that MKII Escort is the most awesome car ever made.
I agree with ALex ^ .I mean event?for crying out loud the gymkhana ( i really don`t care how it`s written correctly) was a ...movie shot in parts not something done one time and then filmed.Yes i`m european and I might not be a fan of your motorsport disciplines this is like a ...circus not a motorsport event.but at the end who cares?sponsors pay and non-car preople are enjoying it.I thought speedhunters are motorsport -street-performance oriented not ...ricer-ish. a good day to all true motorsport fans !
OMG when this shit gonna end ?! Next try: Formula Gymkhana
Now i know why Subaru kicked Block in the ass ...
your one lucky bastard, vaughn
WOOOOOW @ the HATE
Dear GOD
One driver thinks of the big picture and dares do do something other than Shut Up And Drive and you people crucify them like the Anti-Christ. Like him or not, Ken Block, with his Top Gear appearances, videos, and mass marketing have elevated the attention to the motorsports world more than any single other factor, since maybe....drag racing? I dont think he's a god or anything, but damn you guys got serious issues.
paint it up like the RTR-X!!!! now that would be cool!
This is SHIT.
@razvan
if you dont know yet I am sure you do by now that Speedhunters is biased towards the JDM scene every other post is something about drifiting, a hooked up S15, a slammed VIP Lexus its all junk.
EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
alex you are an idiot. do you really think VG jr isn't having fun? go crawl back under your rock D bag!
Ruined???
How?
By having a monster livery?
So how many other mk2 escorts do you lot know of in the U.S then? I imagine there's not a lot of them.
In fact, i think this is better. It doesn't look like every other mk2 which is either painted red, orange, or blue. I lost count of how many identical mk2's went past me on rally GB. (they ran a national b4 class alongside the wrc on saturday and sunday) At least this one has a proper livery. Most mk2's these days have a shoddy paint job, and a few random stickers to cover up the dents.
Now go on the bay of e, and find yourselves a glass of chill pills. Actual sponsorship does not ruin a rally car.
FORD has a serious marketing campaign....especially the Ford>Toyota ads on latin channels lol
One of the editors sold his Miata for a Mustang? -scratches head-
Although Gymkhana defenitely seems like some pretty cool sh*t, IMO it doesnt appeal to the masses or the "regular joe" like drifting or even drag racing bcause its much more exclusive.
We have Local drift and drag events down here in South Florida all the time and easily accesible.
Alex is right about the MONEY, its always about the MONEY.sir!
I honestly much rather enjoy watching the Best Motoring guys rip shi*t through an isolated mountain deep in Japan or some MSC action.
European and Japanese drift events and rally seem to still keep the passion of drifting alive and as the core of it all.
The short time drifting was awesome in the US and not biased judging and all these BS schemes, was in the early days 2001- When Signal had shown up for demos in the states and Hawaii.
Leave it to America to kill the passion in this motorsport....as soon as Corporate steps in.
And although Japan grew from the grass roots events of late 90's, most of the Big Names in D1 are tuners, HKS, RE-Amemiya, Greddy/Trust, Yashio Factory, Vertext T&E, etc ..
AND japan still highlights grassroots drifting like MSC, D1SL, Touge and local drift crews street drifting in the mountains, etc....
Here,, there are no magazines that cover our "grassroot" events, nobody pretty much gives a sh*t, so getting into FormulaD (which is garbage anyway), would be rather impossible.
We'll have to see where this Gymkhana thing goes....but i see a toilet close by....