There has been much joyous celebration and revelry over Ford’s newly revealed Focus RS which can’t come to US shores fast enough. Most people are just so darn happy that it’s actually coming here that they’ll cut Ford some slack and wait however long it takes, but Ford gets that we’re all kind of anxious. They’ve taken pity on us and created a little video to tide us all over until the Focus RS arrives.
It features the amazing, slightly crazy, unbelievably skilled Ken Block behind the wheel of a Focus RS prototype. Ford apparently decided it would be a pretty cool idea to hand the man a set of keys and have him do his thing at their plant in Cologne, Germany. Ford was right.
Of course, the plant is closed during filming which I think has less to do with safety and more to do with the fact that having a whole bunch of autoworkers standing on the line with their jaws dropped would distract from the awesome that is Ken Block’s driving skills. It starts with him revving the engine, like you do, while he waits for the garage doors to close.
This is Ken Block. No need to drive out the doors when they’re wide open. It’s far more fun to wait until there is what looks like not nearly enough room and then bolt through the doors and out onto the road. He then puts the 315 horsepower car to the test, drifting through the factory leaving a wake of smoke and burned rubber.
There is a near miss when a little factory robot strays into his path, but Block hits the brakes and the little guy narrowly avoids being nothing more than a yellow smear on the factory floor. There is also a moment where an interior camera shows Block cringing as though he’s cut one corner too close. I don’t even want to know what counts as a close corner for that man. It’d probably have the rest of us screaming in terror.
It’s a fun video to watch, and hear, as there’s plenty of high speed driving through the echo-filled spaces within the factory. The whole thing comes to an end as Block drives the car onto the stage for its unveiling to European media, who try really hard to look cool and unimpressed as they stand there with cameras out to record it all.
