Ford And Driving Icon Ken Block Part Ways After 11-Year Collaboration

If you enjoyed those multi-million view videos of Ken Block sliding and racing his heavily-modified Ford Fiesta and Ford Mustang around exotic locations, then get ready to be disappointed.

Block and Ford are over.

The famed 53-year-old rally driver, drift guru, head honcho at Hoonigan Industries and co-founder of DC Shoes, who has collectively racked up over half a billion views through his game-changing gymkhana videos, has been released from his exclusive contract with Ford.

“After 11 years, Ford and I are parting ways, amicably,” Block said in a farewell video. “It’s simply been a dream come true to work with the company that built the truck my Dad drove when I was a teenager,” he added in a release. “I’m super appreciative to Ford for the support over the years, but I am also looking forward to what an unrestricted 2021 holds.”

Ford, in turn, wished him farewell. “All of us at Ford are very grateful for Ken Block and his bringing the thrill of Ford Performance vehicles to a whole new generation of car buyers,” Ford Performance said.

The reason for the breakup? One rumor doing the rounds in motoring circles is that Ford had already spent tens of millions of dollars on Block’s colorful antics, but when Block asked them to double that fee, the Blue Oval simply decided to pull the plug.

Block signed to drive Ford vehicles in 2010. While many may only know him as a specialist drift master throwing cars sideways into corners with smoke billowing from all four corners, Block is also an accomplished rally driver. He has competed in a Ford Escort Cosworth rally car, a Fiesta and a Focus in several rally disciplines including the World Rally Championships and Rallycross, posting 19 wins, 17 podiums and two X Games medals. Piloting a Ford Escort, he also won the first-ever all-electric Projekt E race of the FIA World Rallycross Championship staged in Holjes, Sweden in 2020.

But perhaps Block is best known for hooning around major cities in his Hoonigan and Monster branded vehicles. In 2012, he tore up downtown San Francisco in a 650 hp Hoonigan Fiesta, portrayed in a YouTube video that generated over 108 million views. A few years later, he slid his 845 hp 1965 all-wheel-drive Mustang around the streets of Los Angeles in 2014 generating over 54 million views. But it was the moment in 2017 when he hung the tail end of his Mustang over a cliff during his Pikes Peak climb, just inches from disaster, that proved how far he is willing to go for a thrill and video gold.

One other 49 million view video that helped to cement his global appeal, and notoriety was when he gave Friends co-star Matt LeBlanc a passenger ride in his Mustang around London’s streets on BBC’s Top Gear. Block’s donuts and burnouts incurred the wrath of public scrutiny making the London shoot a video to cause the most ire. With sections of London’s city center blocked off by police, Block and LeBlanc threw multiple donuts and revved the V8 engine to the max at places like The Mall, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and even the Cenotaph, a war memorial. Even members of parliament complained about the noise. But then, at the end of the day, such notoriety only adds to the legend.

To be honest, Block is the most popular and controversial motorsport icon on the planet. He has put Ford performance cars and trucks on the international map. His skill, video production expertise and media draw are unmatched in the automotive world. To have a guy like him driving and promoting your products is enviable to say the least. What Ford bosses have done to the brand by splitting with Block will not be known for perhaps many years to come. I feel that doubling his budget, if indeed that’s what he demanded, was more than warranted to take the Ford brand to the next level and appeal to a more discerning younger market. After all, he’d only just started to drive, and win, in an electric Ford Escort. 

Now that Block is free to drift whatever he wants, it’s anybody’s guess which manufacturer he will collaborate with next. Will he stay with an American brand, or will he venture overseas to automakers like Toyota or Hyundai or maybe even Audi, who are known for their all-wheel-drive powertrains? Wherever he ends up, you can guarantee the Block brand will keep the thrill level at 11.