Ken Block’s Ford Transit Pays Homage to Rally History
Head Hoonigan hearkens back to rally’s past with a ’90s-era Escort and a pair of killer modified Ford support vans.
Ken Block has achieved fame thanks to his amazing driving antics, highly successful racing career, and tight relationship with Ford. He’s participated in a wide variety of motorsports, but rally racing holds a special place in his heart. So for 2019, Block and his Hoonigan Racing Division have decided to partner up with the experts at Galpin Auto Sports for a very special project.
For starters, Block will be campaigning a killer ’90s Ford Escort RS Cosworth rally car all around the world this year, from New Zealand to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Which, in and of itself, is a pretty awesome way to pay homage to rally history. But Block isn’t a guy who does things halfway. So he’s going all-out in his tribute by bringing along a pair of support Ford Transit vans customized by Galpin.
Lifelong fans of rally racing will undoubtedly remember that during the ’80s and ’90s, support vans played a huge role in the sport. Painted in liveries matching their racing cars, these versatile vans carried a slew of equipment and were equipped to go anywhere the rally cars might travel as well.
“While we modernized the race car, we want to keep the essence of how we run the program how they did it in the ’90s,” Block explained. “Really the ’80s and ’90s. Which really involves service vans.”
“In the heritage of rallying, there’s always been a requirement to employ a number of service vans and support the cars,” added Derek Dauncey, team director.
As Dauncey points out, service vans played a large role in rallying for much of its history. “It’s only been in recent years that you’ve had the central service where the cars come back to one location during the morning, the lunchtime, and the evening. Before that, a team like Ford Motorsport would have 16 of these vans.”
As you might imagine, these vans played, and will play again, a big part in a rally team’s efforts. “The vans themselves were as important as the rally cars,” Dauncey points out. “If a van didn’t make the end of a stage or the start of a stage, then basically the rally car stopped there until somebody turned up.”
The vans carried enough parts that they could “basically rebuild a car on the side of the road,” Dauncey recalled. Thus, the Ford Transit makes a perfect choice for a support vehicle. After all, the best-selling commercial van in the U.S. is already employed by countless plumbers, electricians, and other tradesmen. So equipping one as a rally service vehicle was a snap.
Especially with the vans landing in the capable hands of Galpin, longtime master fabricators of specialty vehicles. Galpin did a masterful job of maximizing the available space in each Ford van. Then, they transformed the exterior to capture the essence of a proper ’80s and ’90s support vehicle.
And unlike those old, slow vans, the new Transit promises to be much more capable. With 300 hp, 410 lb-ft of torque, and four-wheel drive, they shouldn’t have any trouble traversing any terrain.
Block and Galpin have certainly done some incredibly cool things over the years. But this latest effort ranks right up there with the best of them. Especially if you’re a longtime fan of rally racing!
