Ken Block Readying New Drift Video Featuring 560-HP WRX

The video, "Gymkhana Two Project, The Informercial," makes no claims to be anything but what it is: shameless motorsports eye candy with a few keenly placed DC products thrown in on skateboarders Rob Dyrdek and Jason Ellis.

We attended a media preview of the video at the Port of Los Angeles, where it was shot, Tuesday night - six days before it will debut on Block's website and, presumably, everywhere else on the internet.

The video we saw was about 80 percent complete and, like all sequels, it attempts to trump the original with the glory of cinema and, in this case, horsepower. Also, like most sequels, it has a tough time living up to the original's staggering visuals and physical improbabilities - probably because the original was exactly that: extraordinarily original.
 
What you get with Gymkhana Two, also from Director Joshua Martelli, are some spectacular slow-motion sequences, some juiced-up car tricks including fire, water balloons and fluorescent light bulbs. Yes, you read that right, fluorescent light bulbs. And they are very cool.

We asked Block how many takes were required to nail the video's most risky shot  -- a long slide with the bumper visibly touching the edge of the dock.  "Seven times," he said, which is exactly seven times more than we would have tried it.

The big news is the new car which is more race car than street car. Powered by E85, the 2009 WRX STI uses a Motec ECU and a huge Garrett turbo to make 560 wheel horsepower and 611 lb-ft of torque from 2.65 liters.

And, yes, that's more than enough power to spin all four BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW tires forward as the car is sliding backwards. See it here for yourself on June 1. -- Josh Jacquot, Senior Road Test Editor