The Gymkhana Files 1x1

1. - Alright, we're ready to go.

2. - Okay.

3. - Go to two.

4. - Radio check, check.

5. - The thing about that mountain is...

6. - KB has landed.

7. Get him in the car and get him here.

8. - It's a killer...

9. - Copy that.

10. - Putting a car at 14,000 feet,

11. it doesn't act the same way it does at sea level.

12. Car feels like it still wants to kill me.

13. - That's good, that's a good thing.

14. You can really tell on camera.

15. - How far is good for our BPS, gentlemen?

16. - We're getting in the car and rolling GoPros.

17. GoPros are rolling.

18. - Alright, stand by guys, stand by!

19. - Okay, here we go. And three...

20. - Two...

21. - One!

22. Action, action!

23. - Who is Ken Block? - Insane.

24. - If you get maimed,

25. it makes the story more interesting.

26. - The real Ken Block, or the Ken Block you know?

27. - He's an artist.

28. - Ken Block is gnarly.

29. - He's dangerous.

30. - It depends on the day.

31. - You know, between the racing that we do...

32. - Block was absolutely flying here!

33. - To the Gymkhana videos,

34. there's so much behind the scenes.

35. It's a team.

36. - I mean, that was cool, but is that all you got?

37. - If that dude crashes and dies, I don't get paid.

38. - You know that's— Have I reached my limit

39. of what I can do with this?

40. - Sure, I'll give you a version.

41. - I'm very happy to have so many people out here in Tokyo

42. where I'm able to show them what I'm able to do

43. - with my Ford Fiesta.

44. - Day three, number six, plus, what,

45. three rehearsals?

46. - All saying the same thing.

47. - Right now, introduce you!

48. - What is it at home, like, early evening?

49. - It's back to the drivers!

50. - It's actually midnight. - It's midnight, yeah.

51. - Rally driver!

52. - It's not too bad.

53. - Super style!

54. Ken Block, from USA!

55. - The thing for me is,

56. Pike's Peak is one of the most famous hill climbs

57. in the world, and I think it's the second oldest race

58. in all of America,

59. so just such an incredible experience,

60. driving that road and—

61. and the tires worked very consistently

62. all the way through.

63. - It's funny to start with something so simple.

64. Two days of shooting, four guys.

65. - 2008, the day we uploaded Gymkhana,

66. it connected to the mainstream in a way...

67. - We didn't see this as a big video series.

68. - It wasn't like I had any great, fucking forecast

69. of what was gonna happen, but...

70. - (speaking foreign language) Ken Block!

71. (speaking foreign language) YouTube!

72. - 20 or 30 million views, in just a couple months.

73. - And Ken said... - Oh shit, we— we got something here!

74. Within weeks, the— you know, the sponsors were like,

75. "Hey, you gonna do that again, right?

76. "You gonna do something more, what's next?" You know, and—

77. - It ended up becoming a franchise.

78. - It just really touched the nerve of showing motor sports

79. in a way no one had seen it before.

80. I think one of the things I've learned in doing these films

81. is that it becomes harder and harder for us

82. to re-manufacture something that happened very naturally.

83. - Like, before we even started filming Gymkhana Ten,

84. I'd spent a year and a half working on it.

85. - It's the 10th one, so there's an expectation of, like,

86. "Okay, you keep making this bigger and better,

87. "what the hell are you gonna do for ten?"

88. - This is about to become a whole other TV show!

89. - Do you have a projector? - What?

90. No, I got a screen.

91. - Is it dirty? - No, I just—

92. - Give me a second while I air drop all of this to this.

93. - It does look like a construction worker!

94. - Wait, you're not prepared?

95. - No! - So surprising! - Weird.

96. - Dammit, my phone died!

97. - No!

98. By the way— by the way, hold on!

99. Let's break the wall for a second!

100. Most Scotto thing ever, electronics die!

101. - Oh, we have to charge this, 'cause all the photos

102. are on my phone, unless I can find them on iPhotos.

103. - Well, you could just draw us pictures.

104. - Really? Really? - I mean,

105. we could talk tricks!

106. My parents raised me up until, like, 12 or 13

107. in Long Beach, California, in the city,

108. where I skateboarded, rode BMX bikes,

109. all that sort of thing, city kid stuff.

110. And then, they moved me down to an avocado grove

111. in north San Diego, putting me in a place

112. where, like, there's nothing to do, uh,

113. so you gotta buy me a dirt bike.

114. My parents were really against me riding dirt bikes,

115. 'cause you get a lotta injuries from that.

116. I have a lot of injuries from it,

117. but I loved the aggressive nature of dirt bikes.

118. Jumping, sliding, riding in dirt.

119. I was actually up in Yosemite on vacation with my parents,

120. and there used to be a little bump in the road

121. over a bridge, so I went over it, jumped a little bit,

122. and kept going, uh, got pulled over.

123. I got— you know, a park ranger.

124. Super mad at me and yellin' at me,

125. and said I almost killed him, and like,

126. I didn't want to get in trouble.

127. You know, my parents are

128. close by somewhere in the campground.

129. And anyway, I was like, "Okay, what are you gonna do?"

130. He's like, "I'm gonna arrest you!"

131. I'm like, "Aw, crap!"

132. So, I got arrested for jumping my car.

133. Now if I don't jump, people get mad at me!

134. - We talked about donuts around Dyrdek.

135. - Yep. - Reverse entry turn.

136. - Yep. - Center axis donuts.

137. - Yep. - Figure eight, jump.

138. And the rock holding back the car for the launch.

139. - Which I got a positive email about.

140. - Nice.

141. - Alright, so let's look at these photos.

142. - I got out of college, and thought, like,

143. "I'm gonna go become a war journalist!"

144. Because, during my junior year,

145. 9/11 happens, and I live in New York City.

146. It's been my home.

147. My first feature story ever was about

148. the rampant gentrification of Red Hook, Brooklyn,

149. and why it wasn't welcome.

150. Yeah, "I grew up in this city, please don't come here!"

151. And in the end, I write about cars.

152. Throughout the whole thing, there's sections of light,

153. and then there's also darker sections.

154. Depending on the tricks and the needs for sparks,

155. - we can do things. - But even going

156. in and out of the light would be cool.

157. - All of the younger culture mags in New York,

158. at least in the time when I was there,

159. GQ or Maxim, or Vibe,

160. or Complex, or—

161. Everyone knew each other, and I happened to be

162. the one person in the group who knew automotive.

163. So, I'd write for every one of the magazines

164. under a fake name.

165. - I mean, that would make

166. a natural figure eight, or a donut-type thing anyway.

167. - How wide is that gap? - There's varying.

168. There's 35's, there's 45's, and then there's 65, 75's.

169. - Let's start in the 75's.

170. - Considering those are massive, but—

171. - It's all gonna depend on this roll the dice thing

172. of what— how much this thing grips.

173. So it may be awesome, or it may be like I'm driving on ice.

174. - Which I would predict. - I'm guessing ice.

175. And there's some good under-areas,

176. like, you've got these kind of like overlooks and stuff.

177. Which A, for camera, but also just gives us

178. kind of a different texture inside there.

179. This is...

180. - It's not easy to do the stuff I'm trying to do.

181. The Hoonicorn,

182. I'm afraid to drive this thing on Pike's Peak.

183. Say it, like, three times! I'm brain dead.

184. - Okay, look for the Pennzoil display

185. with the Hoonicorn on it,

186. or visit online at this address.

187. - Look for the Pennzoil display with the Hoonicorn on it.

188. Look for the Pennzoil display with the Hoonicorn on it.

189. - ... with the Hoonicorn on it in stores.

190. - In stores? In the store?

191. - You can just say on it, forget the store.

192. - I'm just part race car driver, part marketing person.

193. - I think what's really unique about Ken

194. is that he gets in and out of so many cars.

195. You know, when you think of most racers,

196. they're dedicated to one series—

197. Formula One, and NASCAR, sports car racing—

198. those guys, that's about all they do.

199. Ken jumps between so many cars racing...

200. so many cars filming...

201. so many cars in daily life,

202. yet he's able to put it on the edge at any moment,

203. in any vehicle.

204. And I'm like, "Whoa!

205. I never have seen that before!"

206. - It's a moving chicane, but it's a counter moving chicane,

207. you know, so the chicane's actually coming at you.

208. In racing, a chicane is something you put in

209. to slow a car down on a straightaway,

210. so it's basically a moving chicane,

211. but we've added some extra violence to it

212. - by adding blades.

213. 'Cause more violence makes everything better!

214. - Hey, Dirker, do you copy, it's Jeff.

215. - Yeah, Jeff, go ahead!

216. - The action is the car slaloming the snowplows.

217. You'll see that. Keep this scene back lit.

218. - Copy that.

219. - Alright, good.

220. - I mean, one of the main reasons why I'm here is,

221. you know, I've raced this mountain so many times,

222. so I kind of understand the dynamic of the mountain,

223. and also, I understand cars pretty well,

224. except that this car is so wild and different.

225. - The Hoonicorn is one of the most unique

226. all wheel drive vehicles.

227. You know, a '60's muscle car

228. with modern-day, all-wheel drive technology,

229. and a very modern engine in it.

230. It's genuinely the funnest thing I've ever driven.

231. It just drives like I'm fighting its effort to kill me!

232. - Where's Ken?

233. - Hey, Dan, Dan?

234. I'm still— I'm still waiting on KB.

235. - Coming back up the hill.

236. - 10-4.

237. - Here we go, guys, car is on the move!

238. - Alright, guys, we're gonna come up in the Suburban.

239. We're gonna go to our armed car position, okay?

240. - Everybody stand by for picture, please!

241. - Stand by!

242. - What's that? - Am I rolling on this take?

243. - Yes, this is a real take. - You got it.

244. - Car is on the move.

245. - Ready, and three...

246. two... one!

247. Action, action, action!

248. - We're always looking for that real killer shot.

249. You know, he delivers 99% of the time.

250. We normally use the first take.

251. You know, he's absolutely on the money.

252. - It's Scotto, Derek.

253. We're gonna film something else real quickly

254. while we wait for you guys.

255. Figure it'd be at least five minutes, correct?

256. - Number one, to get a car to perform here,

257. the altitude has to be addressed.

258. I mean, the engine management here,

259. you climb over a mile in altitude.

260. - Yeah. - And, this is

261. an altitude that the FAA requires that you wear oxygen

262. - in an airplane, you know? - Right.

263. - There's a lot going on up here.

264. - I mean, one of the reasons we're back here

265. is because we had such an issue

266. - with the Hoonicorn last time.

267. - So, think about a bag of chips at sea level.

268. They kind of have some air space,

269. and then you bring them to the top of Pike's Peak

270. and 14,000 feet, and they're hard as a rock.

271. Same thing was happening with that car,

272. except it wasn't sealed off

273. quite as good as a bag of Lay's, and—

274. Oil was coming out of it, so... a bit of an issue.

275. When you lose oil, you eventually lose motors,

276. and things like that, so...

277. - Yeah. - And that's the thing

278. I think about a hill climb is,

279. I mean, think about how much it affects you.

280. You can feel yourself being winded,

281. and it just becomes an issue of what—

282. - Right. - It's the same thing

283. for a car, I mean, it runs on oxygen.

284. It's like, that's what makes it work.

285. - Scotto to Derek, does Ken have come on?

286. - So Ken, I just reviewed through the footage.

287. It's not the best shot,

288. but your action looks really good on it.

289. So, just give me the wildest exit you can.

290. I mean, that's what we're trying to get,

291. so however you want to throw that out there,

292. if it's getting it towards the armed car

293. with throwing a little more sideways, you know,

294. - as wild as possible's best.

295. - And this'll be our last run.

296. One more run, last run.

297. - Stand by!

298. - Three... two... one.

299. Action, action!

300. - That's pretty rad!

301. That's really great!

302. Ken, that line was perfect!

303. Our success over the last ten years—

304. - What's up, girl?

305. - Has relied on us building an incredible crew.

306. Take this guy, Magic, one of our camera ops.

307. Ken's drifting right into the barrier

308. just as the helicopter passes overhead,

309. but we only know he's close to the barrier

310. if we get a proximity shot,

311. so Magic has to stand there three feet from the Hoonicorn,

312. right under the helicopter.

313. Oh, and also, I have him standing on top of an apple box

314. at the edge of a cliff.

315. This is a cliff, like 1,000 feet down,

316. but that's what it takes to get the shot.

317. - So guys,

318. we are officially moving on to our next section.

319. - So, I'll park on top and just shoot him?

320. - Yeah, you just will want to chase him

321. on the high side, looking down,

322. so that we can kind of do it that way.

323. That way, we play the edges

324. instead of the face on this side.

325. - It should be good with a little bit of snow falling

326. at the same time!

327. Good for the over crank stuff, yeah!

328. This is what Pike's Peak is about!

329. Changes all the time.

330. Good, that's the way.

331. Now, that's a good move!

332. - Today, I got called Fat Paul Walker. - Really?

333. - I took it kind of as a compliment.

334. It's better than Fat Bam Margera.

335. - Hey, Jeff, I'm gonna move Cotto

336. into the center of this donut,

337. and Ken's gonna do donuts around him.

338. I'm gonna put him on a super wide,

339. and he's just gonna kind of spin with him. You cool with that?

340. - It's not my body out there!

341. - We got an ambulance up there if you need it!

342. - Thanks, bud!

343. - So, just be— Oh, lightning.

344. Hey, Jay, I just wanna let you know

345. there is some lightning in the background.

346. - I know, I've been talking with the race team.

347. I'm tempted to scoop people up and get 'em in the van.

348. - Brian, do you copy?

349. - I'm on two, on two.

350. - 10-4.

351. I mean, we got the pieces that I think we need, so...

352. - ... needs to get vehicles hunkered down.

353. - Alright, sounds good.

354. I'll wait for you guys down here to grab us.

355. It would suck to get struck by lightning

356. after a good day, you know?

357. - Yeah, for tomorrow,

358. I mean, it's looking just like it did today.

359. - This morning was clear. - Yeah.

360. - As of right now, I just actually had lightning hit

361. at Cattle Mound.

362. - Oh, before when we were up there,

363. it hit the peak behind the peak we were at.

364. - Yeah. - You could see it hit.

365. - I don't know, with the lightning and stuff

366. being that close,

367. I know the top's gonna get worse.

368. The radar coming in, nothing.

369. It's not— nothing left for us today.

370. - Right. - 'Cause it's gonna be wet.

371. It's actually hailing up there.

372. Starting line still could dry out later,

373. but it's up to you guys.

374. For tomorrow, there's some other stuff we can pick up...

375. - Yeah, I was out there.

376. - One conversation we might want to have with Ken tonight

377. - is... - Drift to the edge.

378. - It's like that big rig shot...

379. at that Evo corner.

380. Like, is that something that's really gonna

381. - sketch you out? - To me, it's not a rig shot,

382. and I don't want to do it more than once.

383. I just knew that at some point,

384. we're gonna use a particular turn,

385. because it is the one turn

386. that really has the most dramatic views still down,

387. looking from probably, like, 12 and a half thousand feet,

388. and there's been some very iconic photos on this corner.

389. Now, what makes it still really usable for us

390. and what we want to do is there's no guardrail.

391. - 'Cause I think you want that moment of kind of

392. suck in your stomach, where you think the car's goin' off,

393. - but yet— - Is that the same—

394. - Yeah, that's the corner. - I mean,

395. that's how old and iconic it is!

396. - See how it's not a cliff?

397. See how it's not even 45 degrees there?

398. - Yeah, but I mean, the pole we have hangs, what,

399. eight feet off the side of the car?

400. - Yeah, but it's still not looking off a cliff.

401. It's still just gonna look down, and you'll see a bank with rocks.

402. - But if you're looking forward, you're not looking straight down.

403. You're looking forward.

404. You will feel the earth drop out from underneath you.

405. - Just a couple years ago,

406. a Mitsubishi Evo went off there.

407. He thought he was on a different corner, and this corner comes.

408. It looks just like a corner before, one step below.

409. - And he came in there thinking he was in a different turn and—

410. - And as you come through it,

411. you're waiting to see the guardrail,

412. and then you break at that guardrail.

413. So, he came around this corner looking for the guardrail.

414. It wasn't there, and the corner tightens.

415. It's a 45 degree, roughly, you know, face of gravel

416. with big rocks in it, and—

417. Luckily, he was in a very safe and well-built car,

418. and tumbled a couple hundred yards down this thing,

419. and... lived,

420. but, you know, it could've been really bad.

421. So, that particular corner, I knew,

422. was something we had to shoot.

423. - It's kind of the iconic Pike's Peak shot,

424. of the cars drifting around in the mornings.

425. - We didn't shoot it the first day,

426. which— , then I had to think about it

427. the whole first day!

428. And then, talking to Brian, he's like,

429. "Yeah, first thing up is, uh... Evo corner."

430. And I'm like, "Oh, really?"

431. - So, you can think about it all night long.

432. - Yeah, I'll tell you, you all sleep on it!

433. - Yeah!

434. - You forget how much bigger this mountain is,

435. after we were at Mt. Washington.

436. Like, "Oh, yeah!"

437. - I don't think there's any comparison.

438. I'm still gonna argue on that!

439. - Mt. Washington, 90% of the road,

440. you're not dead if you go off it.

441. - You're more likely to die hitting a tree than you are falling.

442. I mean, look at the Evo!

443. The Evo shows that big, nice, long rolls

444. just take the impact right out!

445. - Comfortable rolls like that!

446. - Yeah, comfortable rolls!

447. - So, you know, it's early morning.

448. I know what everyone's expecting.

449. I know Brian and I

450. have even talked about how many tire marks

451. I'm able to put down on this corner,

452. 'cause it's sketchy.

453. But also, there's no reference, there's nothing.

454. Even when you're sitting in the driver's seat,

455. there's tarmac, there's a little bit of gravel on the edge,

456. and then it's just sky, you know?

457. I really had to walk the corner several times,

458. and look at it.

459. I'd driven it and looked at it for a couple days,

460. just so I had some sort of visual.

461. I actually went out there on that morning

462. and set a stack of rocks.

463. I made a stack of rocks

464. on that dangerous, sketchy part right there.

465. I made a little stack of rocks.

466. - You guys, our track is hot and locked.

467. Everybody stand by for picture, please!

468. - It was a pretty nerve-wracking moment,

469. because the car, actually, wasn't working that great

470. for those last two days of shooting.

471. - This is the highest we've ever driven this car.

472. We never got this far last time,

473. so this is the farthest up this car has driven.

474. - As you climb and climb,

475. the throttle response is different,

476. so when you press the throttle,

477. you don't get the same delivery

478. as you start climbing up the W's.

479. - So, I had to just keep driving through this stuff,

480. and the way that I drove through this particular problem was

481. I'd have to be on the gas earlier than I wanted.

482. So, if I had said I needed to be full throttle here,

483. well, that meant

484. I actually had to try and be full throttle here.

485. Normally, the reaction with most of our cars

486. is very quick, and for some reason,

487. we were just havin' some issues.

488. - We're all ready here.

489. From our side, Brian can do that ready, ready.

490. - Action, action. - Action, action, everybody!

491. Roll cameras, action, action!

492. - And so, I went and drove it

493. for the fist time on camera.

494. The first time I went through,

495. I was being a little conservative,

496. and I had a very conservative line through there.

497. - We also— it'd be good from Ken's standpoint.

498. The camera's are reporting

499. that he's not very close to the edge.

500. Ken, are you on come?

501. - Copy.

502. - Alright, now that we got the test run out of the way,

503. let's take it all the way to the edge.

504. No pressure.

505. - Copy that, no problem.

506. So, I went back down to reposition,

507. and while I'm repositioning, I'm thinking,

508. "Man, is this gonna take 20 tries?"

509. And I think back to the moment when I was doin'

510. Gymkhana Nine...

511. and we were trying to get that water's edge moment.

512. That took a lot of tries,

513. because I had to be within inches to make it look good.

514. Brian's like, "Oh,

515. "you're still four inches off!"

516. I'm, like, "Is this just too much for me?"

517. So, as I was going back down,

518. and getting ready for the second run,

519. I think, "Is this time for me to quit?

520. "Can I handle this? "Can my nerves handle it?"

521. - We prepared ourselves from our side,

522. with recovery, and how to recover the car,

523. if it went over.

524. - You know, the consequences on Gymkhana Nine,

525. with the water's edge.

526. Yeah, there was a water drop 15 feet below,

527. but it's water.

528. It would suck, I mean it'd hurt a little bit.

529. But, that— how far down you tumble.

530. I mean, the Evo that crashed there was lucky.

531. - Yeah. - They were lucky to walk away.

532. - So anyway, that's all going through my mind,

533. and there I was.

534. I'm in the moment, and I'm in a place where I wanna be.

535. I'm doing one of the raddest things

536. I can possibly do,

537. and what happened that second run was...

538. And so I took the second run.

539. I'm just like, "Okay, I'm just gonna step up

540. "a little bit."

541. But, the problem with the engine setup in those turbos,

542. it's hard to add 10%.

543. Oops.

544. - This was such an important shot for us.

545. It's such that iconic moment

546. that I wanted to watch it from our hero camera,

547. so I was sittin' right behind Magic,

548. looking at it through the lens,

549. and as it was happening, there was that realization that

550. he wasn't gonna pull it back out.

551. - I'm 90 degrees, basically, to the road.

552. I know I've gotta keep the front wheels on tarmac,

553. or I'm going off.

554. - This is one of the worst places

555. to go to the edge here, too.

556. No guardrails, nothing, and Ken just ran it

557. clear to the edge.

558. - No intimidation.

559. - And, when I got to the end and started slowing down,

560. I called over, "I hope you like that,

561. "'cause I'm not doing that again!

562. "That was as good as I could fucking do it!

563. "So, it'd better be good enough!"

564. - Holy shit!

565. - Dude, I thought it was over.

566. - It was awesome, 'cause it was a little bit of

567. the old days of the dirt driving,

568. combined with the pavement.

569. I mean, I don't know how we could get a more epic shot.

570. And, I mean, Ken, again, just blows me away.

571. Seriously, seriously!

572. All my years, that's the best thing I've ever seen!

573. - Oh, Ken, that is so beautiful.

574. - I've got that from the camera car up there, too.

575. It's so good!

576. - Thank you, sir, thank you!

577. By the way, next year at 50,

578. you can't do this stuff any more!

579. - It was way too good! - 50's the cutoff!

580. - But until then,

581. we got a lot to do before November!

582. - You know, I've watched Ken from afar

583. for many, many years, and you come into a corner

584. rotating a car at angles that I've never even witnessed,

585. and those are the moments, as a director, you just say,

586. "Okay, it can't get any better than this!

587. "We can walk away!"

588. - To me, it's one of the most beautiful shots

589. that we've ever gotten, and it's one of the most dramatic,

590. and the image of it really hearkened back to years ago

591. when that road was completely dirt,

592. and guys were driving that thing flat out sideways.

593. To me, this really is a homage to that level of driving,

594. and that sort of skills that it takes

595. to drive up that mountain.

596. Because you don't have to do that today,

597. but I wanted to do it that way.

598. - I mean, you know, I don't know when it started,

599. but certainly even the fist year I ran here,

600. which was way back in 1990,

601. the reward at the summit was to get up here

602. and have a warm, fresh-made donut.

603. And I swear, it's never a time

604. that I come up here to the summit I don't feel like I gotta get a donut.

605. - The Pike's Peak Evo corner, which, arguably,

606. I would say is now the Hoonicorn corner!

607. - Did we know how rad it would turn out? No.

608. - The whole success of Gymkhana's been based on these

609. iconic moments where you say,

610. "Holy shit, this is incredible!

611. "I gotta share this with someone!"

612. - I mean, that's the thing about Gymkhana Ten,

613. that we're trying to find those moments.

614. We want this one to be the best ever.

615. - It could be something that lives in Sweden,

616. stuff that comes out of Texas,

617. Detroit.

618. - We've set everything in motion for it to be the best,

619. most dynamic one ever, but what are these moments

620. that put it above the rest?

621. I don't know yet.

622. - It's almost like— it's like we're chasing something

623. that we can't get.