Skip to main content

Put your foot down, get home early from the office this Friday

Many cities want to show off their tourist credentials by driving tour operators around well-maintained, scenic routes and even make a video to lure travellers. But sometimes it pays to take a somewhat different line, as the Californian city of San Francisco did in 2012. San Francisco’s hilly streets became a global image for the Pacific coast city after the 1968 Hollywood blockbuster movie Bullitt. The star Steve McQueen, driving a fastback Ford Mustang, pursued at breakneck speed the villain, who was d
June 4, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Many cities want to show off their tourist credentials by driving tour operators around well-maintained, scenic routes and even make a video to lure travellers. But sometimes it pays to take a somewhat different line, as the Californian city of San Francisco did in 2012.

San Francisco’s hilly streets became a global image for the Pacific coast city after the 1968 Hollywood blockbuster movie Bullitt. The star Steve McQueen, driving a fastback Ford Mustang, pursued at breakneck speed the villain, who was driving another iconic American so-called muscle car, a Dodge Charger. Few can forget the thrilling chase through the streets where the cars would become airborne only to slam down on the road with parts falling away due to impact.

If you want a more modern version, %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal click here Visit Ford Fiesta rally car video false http://www.traffixdevices.com/blog/2013/01/traffix-devices-featured-in-ken-block-video/ false false%> to see a custom-built 485kW (650-horsepower) Ford Fiesta rally car charge through the city’s streets.

According to a New York Times newspaper article in 2012, the video was created for use in the Japanese motorsport genre gymkhana: drivers hurl their cars around obstacles, often in controlled skids or drifts, and are awarded based on the speed with which they dispatch the course’s mandated challenges.

The video is the fifth in a series of gymkhana-style productions financed by DC Shoes, the apparel company co-founded by the driver Ken Block. Watch him execute 360-degree drifts around cones, people, vehicles, moving trolley cars and much more.

To read the New York Times article with an interview of Ken Block, %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal click here Visit ken block on the making of gymkhana page false http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/ken-block-on-the-making-of-gymkhana-5/?_r=1 false false%>.

Related Content

  • VIDEO: Kangaroo takes out cyclist down under
    July 25, 2016
    It caught all the cyclists by surprise when a young bounding kangaroo decided to hurl itself at the peloton during a bicycle race in Australia. A fellow racer trailing behind took the video. The targeted cyclist was severely bruised from hitting the deck and he needed stitches. But the marauding kangaroo apparently died from its injuries when it slammed into the bike at a right angle. Cyclists being taken out by kangaroos is more common than most non-Australians would think. Click here to see one cycl
  • California redefines the term carpool
    April 14, 2015
    California is home to many weird and wonderful home-made vehicles, some more useful than other. But few can be as useful as the car pool table car which can do up to 160kph on the freeway. As shown by this – complete with all the double entendres you could wish for – the owner can drive to the beach, park up and proceed to play pool, which apparently attracts a lot of beach bunnies. http://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/watch/video/vi-AAaCRoj?ocid=OutNUK&from=OutNUK&FORM=BWVOLC A late model Chevrolet Mont
  • Losing your car ain’t as hard as you would think
    April 29, 2015
    Thankfully it doesn’t happen too often, but forgetting where you parked your car can be an embarrassing moment, or several days, as one man in the UK recently found. Jason Matthews, 40, ran the Manchester City Marathon on April 19 in five hours and 11 minutes and then spent an additional several hours looking for his Saab 93 Sport. He said he couldn’t recall where he had parked the vehicle. He walked back around some of the 26-mile – nearly 42km - course, before driving around in a taxi for 40 minutes an
  • Chinese inventor puts together vacuum cleaner-size petrol car
    December 15, 2014
    Traffic congestion and the cost of running a car have been pushing Chinese car manufacturers to think small, especially for electric vehicles. Electric scooter and motorcycle have long been popular and in the past several years more and more small electric cars are appearing on crowded urban roads One popular three-wheel electric vehicle has a large retractable bubble top, making it look like a futuristic car from a low-budget 1950s Hollywood movie. It may have a top speed of only 30kph, as the BBC report