Don't Drive This At Home.
In the annals of viral automotive awesomeness, the first Gymkhana -- an obstacle course "drifting" which exploits both control and speed -- featured rally driver and DC shoes impresario Ken Block driving a wickedly cool 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STI through a variety of obstacles on the tarmac of an abandoned Air Force base. This video was four and half minutes of head banging, tire shredding, rally car mayhem. What was lost in the cheap production values was made up in sheer force of fun, which is actually a technical car term, mind you.
This time around, Block has upped the ante with Gymkhana 2. Again, there is all the head banging, tire shredding, rally car mayhem you’d expect, the location this time is the Port of Los Angeles, which gives us a sense of hometown pride and makes us wish we had:
a) a super sick Subaru and b) a giant production budget for our personal YouTube videos.
The scenes where Block navigates his specially prepared, 566 horsepower, 611 lb-ft torque,2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI across a landscape rife with peril is all the more interesting now that DC has upped the production values to John Woo level.
The sections where Block hits the water balloons, light tubes and comes close to bailing – another technical term – off the pier and into the water, all in super slow-mo is captivating, especially since my previous car was a 1993 Impreza and I dreamed of hitting a lot things stuck in traffic on the 101.
For those that hate cars, look at it as a work of art, Gymkhana 2 is like "Koyaanisqatsi," but for gearheads.
-- Jon Alain Guzik
Jon Alain Guzik is editor in chief at Driverside.com
Too bad this isn't really gymkhana, more like glorified drifting. Gymkhana is typically done in much smaller areas, closer obstacles and tighter turns.
Posted by: PandaTrueno | June 04, 2009 at 10:44 AM