PARK CITY, UT, February 22, 2016 — For 2016, Ken Block is proud to announce a brand new,
multi-year partnership with Toyo Tires. The debut with Block and Hoonigan
Racing Division will be seen in just one week when the latest installment in
Block’s 350+ million view Gymkhana viral video franchise, Gymkhana EIGHT
drops on the Ford Performance YouTube channel, February 29th at 9 PM PST.
“I’m stoked to have Toyo Tires
joining me in my ongoing quest to kill as many tires as possible,” said Block.
“It’s an exciting partnership for me because I feel like everyone at Toyo Tires
understands my mission to be competitive on-track, but to be able to take these
amazing racecars and have fun with them off track—which for myself means smoky,
sideways driving doing Gymkhana.”
To help introduce the new relationship
to the automotive world, as well as debut Block’s all-new Ford Fiesta ST RX43
Gymkhana EIGHT livery, Toyo Tires has partnered with Hoonigan to produce and
present Block’s livery reveal video. For Gymkhana EIGHT, Block and his team
have created a highly unique, directionally reflective, black-on-black livery
that changes looks depending on the angle at which it’s viewed, as well as how
light is hitting it. The video serves to give fans their first official glimpse
of Block’s Fiesta in Gymkhana EIGHT trim and how it changes looks in the light,
but also their first official look of Block’s car equipped with Toyo tires.
“Gymkhana EIGHT is definitely one of
my favorite projects that we’ve done so far,” said Block. “Part of what made
the process so enjoyable for me was running on the Toyo Proxes R1R which
provided good tire smoke, but really good mid-slide feel. They broke away very
predictably and allowed me to pull off some pretty tricky maneuvers with
confidence. I’m really looking forward to working on future product with Toyo
Tires that’s built even more specifically for Gymkhana, but the off-the-shelf
Proxes R1R performed awesome for this project.”
Ken Block’s Gymkhana EIGHT drops
January 29th, be sure to tune in and watch Block smoke out [redacted] with his
smoldering Toyo tires.