ONE LAST RIDE – KB43 Ken Block Porsche 911 SVRSR HOONIPIGASUS FEATURETTE
The legacy of KB43:
The Porsche SVRSR "Hoonipigasus" was actually supposed to win the legendary hill climb on Pikes Peak in 2022 with drift king and showmaster Ken Block at the wheel. However, an engine failure paralysed the 1,400 hp four-wheel drive 911 of the Hoonigan squad in qualifying. The team competed again in the 2023 edition of Pikes Peak - tragically without Ken, who passed away in January 2023.
In Memory of Ken Block...
In his honour, his 16-year-old daughter Lia Block took the wheel of the pink-coloured monster in 2023. However, she took it easy at the 101st edition of the Pikes Peak race, as she started outside the classification and without being timed. Nevertheless, it was a very moving moment for everyone involved, both for the Hoonigan crew and the Block family. The Pikes Peak route is 19.99 kilometres long and climbs from 2,862 to 4,301 metres above sea level. Ken Block wanted to use the "Hoonipigasus" to break the track record of 7:57.148 minutes set by Romain Dumas in the all-electric Volkswagen ID.R. in 2018.
More then radical...
The Hoonigan Racing Division has kept a very low profile with concrete information on the hillclimb racer developed together with BBi Autosport. An all-wheel-drive concept with a mid-engined drive and a power output of 1,400 hp, combined with a weight of just 1,000 kilograms, is an absolute house number! The body design is based on the 911 type 964, but everything had to be in the spirit of Pikes Peak: lower, wider and more extreme! For use on the mountain, the engineers gave the 911 extremely fat wheel arches, a front spoiler in XXL format and a wing on high stilts at the rear, which could serve as a dining table for entire families elsewhere. In the underbody, a mighty diffuser extended the 911 body. Huge flaps on the flanks rounded off the downforce concept of the "Hoonipigasus".
Top Model provides all these details in 1:64 scale, and you could almost say that we have been presented with one of the most detailed models in this scale. Error404 also brought the Hoonipigasus to the collector, but the price was in the three-digit range. The Top Model version, on the other hand, is a lot cheaper, around four times cheaper! However, given the price, you can assume that Top Model didn't really bother with the correct handling of the licences. This is definitely not a problem with Error404. It is clear that although the Error404 looks extremely similar to the Top Model, the materials are of a correspondingly higher quality.
The chosen paintwork is also striking. Here, the block racer was modelled on the Porsche 917/20 from 1971, christened the "Rosa Sau". The artist Trouble Andrew, a.k.a. Guccighost, was responsible for the design. Hence the ghost motifs on the floor panels, for example. Top Model went one step further and recently launched the tribute version of the Hoonipigasus, whose colour and design elements are reminiscent of earlier iconic vehicles by Ken Block. The Ford Mustang RTR Hoonicorn V1, for example, is complemented by the green design elements of sponsor Monsterenergy and copper-coloured rims. The Top Model vehicles are limited to just 999 units.
Ken Block VS Pikes Peak
The deployment of the "Hoonipigasus" is not the first Pikes Peak attempt by the Hoonigan squad. Back in 2005, Ken Block stormed up the mountain in a Group N rally car. In the end, however, the storm turned into a mere breeze, as the turbo-powered speedster's performance collapsed to a meagre 200 hp in the mountain air. In 2017, Ken piloted his 1,400 hp Ford Mustang Hoonicorn RTR V2 with twin-turbo and methanol drive at Pikes Peak, a further development of the V1. However, the Mustang was more of a drift car than a real hillclimb racer - so Block never harboured any ambitions of winning. This was to change with the Porsche SVRSR. With BBi Autosport, he had an experienced partner at his side. The renowned US tuner has already achieved eight podium finishes and five class victories with its cars. The PPO class victory (Pikes Peak Open) was to be added in 2022 with Block.
Now, in 2023, his 16-year-old daughter Lia Block was allowed to compete in his honour at the Pikes Peak race - albeit outside the classification and without timekeeping, but acked with a lot of emotions! The full-length video is available on YouTube:
