Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block will star in an upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel show ‘Stunt Junkies’. In the episode, which premiers Monday, February 12th at 10pm EST, Ken Block attempts to jump his Monster Energy Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car farther than any other rally car in history. ‘Stunt Junkies’ is a Discovery Channel series which profiles the world’s best action sports athletes as they conceptualize, design, build and execute a mind blowing stunt. Block’s high flying antics were attempted using a motocross style dirt jump with a huge gap and landing ramp. After its premier Monday, Feb 12th at 10pm EST, the show will re-air Feb 13th at 2am EST and again Feb 16th at 11pm EST.
Grainy cell phone video footage has been leaked across the internet already, and photos of the car flying through the air for the stunt have been labeled as fakes. But on Feb 12th at 10pm EST viewers will witness what really happened to both the car and Block upon landing. “I wanted to take a street legal competition rally car and treat it like a motocross bike, attempting to jump as far as possible without destroying the car or hurting myself, I wanted to just drive away.” explains Block. “My final attempt at the jump was much higher and farther than I ever imagined!”
Block’s vision led to the construction of a huge dirt-to-dirt jump,
built over the course of several days at the Lake Elsinore Motocross park in Southern California. The jump was filmed by dozens of cameras both in the car and on the ground by the ‘Stunt Junkies’ crew. As a professional rally driver competing for Subaru Rally Team USA, Block naturally wanted to use one of his competition rally cars for the jump. A Vermont SportsCar prepared 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car was transported to Southern California for the stunt. The rally car was last used by Block to earn ‘Rookie of the Year’ honors in the 2005 Rally America National Championship and features a competition roll cage, gravel rally suspension and underbody protection. Read the rest of this entry »
