Ken Block, one of the giants of contemporary car culture, died in a snowmobiling accident on January 2.
Block loomed large as a rally racer, taste-maker, and seemingly indefatigable advocate for all things automotive. An entrepreneur at heart, he walked away from a multi-million dollar shoe and sportswear empire to take up a career in professional rally and, in the process, established one of the most recognizable brands in the car world: Hoonigan.
The Gymkhana YouTube video series made Block a sensation, showing off his supernatural driving talent in all kinds of environments and all kinds of vehicles. In this, Ken Block was unique. In a community often obsessed with brand loyalties, he was comfortable in anything with four wheels. He built and shredded the tires off everything from Subaru rally cars to Ford pickups to electric Audis and Safari Porsches. Block’s ethos was, “If you can build it, and you can drive it, it’s cool,” a mission that his Hoonigan teams in California and Utah fully embraced, growing a YouTube channel with five million subscribers and hundreds of millions of views. His message was always one of inclusiveness—Block eschewed gate-keeping, and he did more to encourage and inspire a new generation of automotive enthusiasts than anyone in recent memory.
I met Ken Block at a stage rally many years ago, just when his stardom started to take off. He was walking parc fermé, joking with drivers and crew members, signing hats, and generally having a good time. He shook my hand, flashed his goofy smile, and asked if I was enjoying the rally. He seemed genuinely warm and friendly, and by all accounts, he never lost that sincere connection to the broader car community as his fame skyrocketed. The strongest parallel I can draw with Ken Block’s untimely death is with Anthony Bourdain, someone whom many of us that long for adventure also admire. They left the world in different ways, but neither wore their celebrity too seriously, and they were both—despite their otherworldly talents—so plainly human, so very real. Like all of us.
One trope that always resurfaces among automotive enthusiasts is that the culture is slowly suffocating, lost on the young, and subsumed by technology, phones, and other distractions of modern life. Our vehicles are increasingly automated, becoming mere appliances, and soon none of us will be driving ever again. When I hear this hand-wringing, I almost always point to Ken Block, one man who pushed against this tide and brought countless new hoonigans into the fold. No doubt, his legacy will live on.
Ken Block is survived by his wife, Lucy, and their three children.
Image: Audi USA
