When we heard that Ken Block was dialing up the engine of his all-wheel-drive “Hoonicorn” Ford Mustang to 1,400 horsepower, we figured he had to be up to something interesting. After all, Block is a master of social media promotion; he wouldn’t make a big hullaballoo about a car unless he had a project to use it in.
As it turns out, that project is the next installment in Block’s venerated Gymkhana series. It’s been dubbed “Climbkhana,” and as you might have guessed, it involves climbing. More specifically, it involves Block and his Hoonicorn climbing Pikes Peak.
Block released the first teaser for Climbkhana: Pikes Peak, as it’s technically called, yesterday, on the YouTube account of sponsor Toyo Tires. It’s less than a minute long, but it sets the stage for what’s sure to be one hell of a film; the trailer is filled with dramatic shots of the roadway snaking up to the towering mountain’s 14,114-foot summit, juxtaposed with frames of the Hoonicorn spitting fire and vaporizing tires as it clambers up the Colorado peak.
Given the demands of dealing with the atmosphere at 14,000 feet, Block’s decision to strap a pair of turbochargers to the 6.7-liter V8 of his stripped-down muscle car starts to make sense. (We were about to say “seems reasonable,” until we remembered there’s absolutely nothing reasonable about a methanol-fueled, 1,400-hp, all-wheel-drive 1965 Ford Mustang.) We’re sure the Hoonicorn’s original output of 845 naturally-aspirated horsepower, but hey, there’s a reason the cars that do well at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb are usually packing powertrains not particularly affected by thin air.
Sadly, while the highly-produced nature of the trailer make it seem like the finished product is just around the bend (no pun intended), Climbkhana is still a ways off. The finished product won’t arrive until the summer of 2017.
