Ken Block Joins Audi! And Gets The Ultimate Welcoming.

uh fats really fast it's just instant all right well this is real dream come true type stuff i've been a fan of addie since i was a teenager and they're a big reason why i'm actually a rally driver so i am honored and humbled to be a part of the audi team uh and usually we make the launch videos but they've made a very nice welcome to the team video for me so let's check that out and after that i might get to drive this thing and away they go that's some german efficiency this is a history defining moment this could be a turning point in the championship [Music] so [Music] all right so we are here in englishdot which is the home of audi and has been for a long time [Music] we started talking to audi actually quite a while back and we finally were able to put together this partnership and audi said well if this is going to start it has to start in germany at the home of audi and ken has to drive some cars which is the part ken is most excited about that's how we got him on the plane so you get to go to museums design studios corporate offices get to drive cars this is really kind of a dream come true so we're here for a couple days we're going to do a bunch of stuff which will end up being a couple episodes for you guys but to start audi said we've got two vehicles for you guys to drive around in one of them being the most powerful audi ever built rsc tron gt 637 horsepower most powerful audi currently made and the other one being the most powerful audi in its time that's the car that in the 80s inspired me not only to love audi but made me love rally and what influenced me to eventually become a rally driver i mean if you think about it like this at its time was a extremely pivotal car for the brand right i mean quattro this is the short wheelbase so this is like the ultimate form of the street car the homologation car that gave way to the s1 s1 e2 s1 pike's peak all these amazing machines and then this is the newest and greatest sports car from audi which from everything i know is apparently really fast for an electric car yeah violently violating fast which is good violent electric is the kind of electric we like yeah and the thing is like this is the future and it's beautiful they've done such a good job on the design side and then the performance side is incredible so i'm stoked to be coming into audi in this era celebrating the past but embracing some of the coolest new electric technology in the entire world so ken can we be honest is this just a glimpse at what the future garage looks like so like one of these one of these you picked today right a little old a little new i mean this as far as the garage this isn't very far away from yeah that's right tomorrow yeah that's what i mean this is what this is what your garage will look like at home but that's that's why i'm so stoked on this partnership the historical stuff and the rally stuff is very near and dear to my heart and the technology and the future and the horsepower is right here happy man [Music] [Music] all right so this right here is basically my nerd kingdom this is everything that i've been here before this isn't my first time here but this is my first time here with ken and because we're here with ken they've actually closed the museum for the day but they're allowing us in today because ken gets that special privilege they're rolling out the red carpet this is part of ken's welcome to audi so we're gonna walk around take a look at things and there's a couple of cars right there and a conveyor belt that are some of the biggest inspiration of why i'm a rally driver why i love all-wheel drive and i've never seen them up close so i'm very stoked to to be here and see these particular outies i'll take one maybe two yeah i actually have one of those in one of those but i would way rather have one of these in one of these and definitely one of those one of those one of those one of those [Music] whoa he did it yo i could actually drive this does that look familiar yeah one of the uh first dowdies i ever owned when i met you you had the s4 which is pretty much this is the rs4 but well i would have had the uh man this is such a cool car and i have some great photos we can drop in you too of my s4 out on the bonneville salt flats hello so you are our tour guide for today i am your very private tour guide for today ken thank you for having us it's an honor for me it's a pleasure to have you as a guest here for today to take you on the tour through the very complicated history of audi and to show you how the four rings and i know some of the complicated history but i i think this guy's gonna give us yeah he's into yourself i've been trying so there's a lot for you to explain today but the two things i think we want to walk away with for everyone who's watching is like the history of the four ranks and then the quick history of cuatro and then from there talk about some of the race cars because at the end of the day that's what inspired him to get into racing cars okay follow me very quickly the beginning of audi goes back to 1899. it was august very famous engineer in germany who founded the brand hawk he tried to develop a six-cylinder engine he failed and the result was he was fired from his own company and he went two streets away from hoch and he founded a second company he was not allowed to use the brand name hawk so he translated it and ho in latin means audi the third company it was founded by a barbarian guy she saw a big big future for bicycles their brand name was wanderer the fourth ring dkw and his first thing was a two-stroke engine to be run in the kit's room so it's a one horsepower two-stroke engine you played within your bedroom so basically like a mobile that runs on gas i'm into that all the companies they all get bankrupt at the end so the only thing was to merge this for a company under one roof and therefore in 1932 this was the foundation of the so-called auto union with the four rings there are the auto union highlights the famous silver arrows at this time the auto union with the four rings was famous because of this race cars because they were recognized worldwide this is the famous audi 100 maybe the most important car after the war because with this car we sold 820 000 units out of the audi 100 they made the shorter version the audi 80 and out of the audi 80 they made an even shorter one the first compact car the audi 50. the first luxury and more a sports car voice to audi quattro pierre said okay my five-cylinder engine in combination with this four-wheel drive would be the ideal sports car that was the birth of the development of the audi quattro kind of a big jump from those cars to these cars now we have a car with 200 horsepower with a five-cylinder engine with four-wheel drive and with a very masculine design to prove the quality of quattro he decided to go in motorsports the world rally championship and we have the first car the rally group four quadri from 1980 and we have maybe the most fascinating version here the evolution 2 s1 pikes peak the first rally quattro monster driven in the us after this car everybody in the world knew what quattro really means and what advantage it brings to have four driven wheels in racing competition well audi doing that bringing all-wheel drive into the world rally championship and ending up in pike's peak that's what inspired me as a teenager to not only fall in love with rally in the world rally championship but audi in particular that's where i said that's what i want to do in the world of motorsports and you made it yeah and even my entire career really has been an all-wheel drive basically from the inspiration of audi from the beginning i've seen many videos of it i've never seen it up close it looks beautiful to me it also looks very sketchy you as a racing driver you don't you need nothing this is enough to win a race regrettable we have it on this this elevator so you can't have a seat um i have to come back we promise as soon as he is off the the elevator will give you the chance maybe you can drive it out here of the museum and make some some curse here on the piazza before the museum would be a sensation you heard him he said it he said it i could drive this i could do donuts outside you said this [Music] they promised you you could drive cars so we are here at noiberg which is audi's test facility and the home of audi sport and today we're letting you do something i'm extremely jealous of what getting to drive both of these things here they basically said you can't drift them but you can drive them as hard as you want i mean no one wants to hear us talk about this they just want to see you drop them yep go and i'll just sit here kind of bump maybe i can get it right along with the sport watcher i think you should yeah i mean i guess i could ride along with you now yeah that sounds like a great idea oh my god it's fast it's interesting to be in the car where all you hear is the tires it's fast really fast i mean it just goes yeah it's just instant so in other words [Music] so which car do you think you're gonna be faster than this or the sport quattro that's gonna be a weird meet your hero's day yeah especially because how simple this is oh yeah this is like point and squirt there you go there you go man the active seat belts are aggressive the computer system doesn't like sensing i think the car thinks that she's got a new car accident we're on fire [Music] all right 15 second review a lot of torque incredible braking it definitely performs incredibly oh yeah like this is a race car with air conditioning yeah with a very nice ac on with a very nice interior yeah let's get into the sport watcher before they tell us we have to leave this is probably almost 40 years in the making as you're wanting to drive this car it's like 38 or something yep i mean they're beautiful looking incredible i too have been waiting to drive this car for most of my life at least i get to drive in the passenger seat every old audi smells like crayons and by the way like see the driving position the seat is as far back as it possibly will go are you saying that this is not a sporty driving position back to shifting oh boy what's that noise it's a pretty first corner it's already making noises [Applause] i feel really big in this car [Applause] i really don't want to admit but the rs gt is a little bit more fun in the past you've seen it goes against everything i would have guessed how about from behind the wheel um well this is a lot more work yeah you got to roll the window down because you're getting hot considering also that i'm being as gentle as i possibly can that's taking away a little bit of the fun looks so he looks so concerned see when i drive it less hard that's what very nice [Applause] i think depending on how you drive this will be whether or not timo lets you drive anything else 10 second review it's definitely an 80s car you had to pick between the two as a track car between the two what that i mean gt i mean that if you're just going for pure fun that car is incredible i mean i would take that car hands down if you're going for the smell the 80s design you just look at that thing if you're going looking for parts that'll eventually wear out is it hard to find then yeah this is the car cool so we should buy one yeah are you happy that's over okay are you happy yeah perfect that doesn't happen very often man what a beautiful car well thank you thank you timo thanks for having me yeah i appreciate it that was an incredible experience do you have to blur that that's like the bat cave entrance oh my god i mean is that something we could do i mean you gotta go check with another [Music] you

Channel: Ken Block

Views: 1,496,880

Rating: 4.9324994 out of 5

Keywords: Ken block, audi, Ken Black, Hoonigan, ken block signs audi deal, etron GT, Audi enron, E-tron GT, EV race car, Audi electric car, EV performance, gymkhana, gimkhana, Sport quattro, ken block audi S1, S1e2, s1 e2, electric dakar, EV gymkhana, hoonicorn, group b, rallye, rally, quattro, audi sport, etron gt rs, E-tron gtrs, electrickhana, elektrikhana, electric gymkhana

Id: DIi3yWMGnlc

Length: 16min 36sec (996 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/wesleysmalls]

I’ll make the joke before someone else does it; he’ll crash a Quattro.

[u/da13371337bpf]

Did he just get back with Subaru?? Sorry if not, I'm poor at keeping up to date

[u/Rambaz_69]

Even though he's certainly not as fast with the Sport Quattro as Röhrl or Mikkola or the other drivers back then, his videos are always great and he's also very likeable. He is certainly the ideal person for Audi on the American market.

[u/Racing21187]

EKS posted about him joining Audi so I wouldn't be surprised to see him drive for them in a rallycross race or two.

[u/flippamipp]

Electric is where they are heading.

[u/FlaccidEel69]

This really surprised me too, especially since he practically just started with Subaru and they built him a whole car. Maybe Subaru for the ARA and Audi for WRC at the same time? Seems unlikely but I really can’t think of anything else

[u/dirtiestUniform]

Ok I didn't see there was more info in the description, there will an Electrikhana 2022 coming our way. Hopefully more than that too.

[u/NaBUru38]

Hopefully he enters the Baja 1000 and the Pikes Peak.