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    Ken Block working on ‘Electrikhana’ as part of new Audi partnership

    World Rally Driver Ken Block is well known for sliding sideways around race tracks, but also rose to fame online with his Gymkhana series of stunt videos attracting hundreds of millions of views over more than a decade.

    Block is someone from the old-school of racing, a real petrol-head and in many ways, one of the hardest candidates to convert to EVs.

    After stepping away from his long-running relationship with Ford earlier this year, the new contract with Audi is already proving fruitful.

    Block has announced in a tweet today that they are working on the next Gymkhana video titled ‘Electrikhana’. This open mind to what electric vehicles can offer (minus the exhaust and engine noise) has really been a multi-year journey for Block.

    Back in July of 2020, he drove Vaughn Gittin Jr’s off chops 1,400 HP Mustang Mach-E tyre slayer.

    By September 2020, he was behind the wheel sliding sideways in an all-electric Ford Fiesta ERX which seemed to go pretty well.

    Block also experienced an EV in the Dakar Rally, in the form of the Extreme E’s Odyssey 21 on the final stage of the 2020 event.

    Now with Audi, Block is helping them develop their electric motorsport which should put them in a good place for the future and welcome a whole new audience to the Gymkhana series.

    It will be criminal if the boffins at Audi, don’t get Block behind the wheel of their Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo. This thing looks amazing and I’d love to see a whole racing category allocated to these.

    With all forms of vehicles transitioning to electric powertrains, the motorsport die-hards will have to come to terms with the fact that means race cars as well. What we know is that EVs have incredible torque, insane acceleration and with the right batteries, motors and brakes, could provide some incredibly exciting racing.

    It was disappointing to see Audi step away from racing in Forumula E, but it does seem that was for the right reasons, to invest available resources in making the transition to electric vehicles.

    As a big fan of the Gymkhana series for the driving skill, but also the cinematography, I’m very keen to see how ‘Electrikhana’ goes. No pressure, but the most popular Gymkhana was number 5 in the iconic San Francisco, with a massive 110.3 Million views since it was uploaded in July, 2012.

    Jason Cartwright
    Jason Cartwrighthttps://techau.com.au/author/jason/
    Creator of techAU, Jason has spent the dozen+ years covering technology in Australia and around the world. Bringing a background in multimedia and passion for technology to the job, Cartwright delivers detailed product reviews, event coverage and industry news on a daily basis. Disclaimer: Tesla Shareholder from 20/01/2021

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