Watch Ken Block, Audi EV tear up Vegas in “Electrikhana”

Ken Block’s “Gymkhana” sequence has gone electrical. Christened “Electrikhana,” the most recent installment dropped Tuesday that includes Block driving his one-of-a-kind Audi S1 E-Tron Quattro Hoonitron up, down, and across the Las Vegas Strip.

Block’s romp via Sin Metropolis has been within the works for awhile. The pinnacle Hoonigan and Audi formally teamed up in late 2021 to convey Block’s tire-shredding sensibilities to EVs. Whereas earlier “Gymkhana” movies featured Subaru and Ford autos, Block claims Audi’s Quattro rally automobiles have been his first motorsports love.

Along with being the primary electrical automotive in a “Gymkhana” video, the Hoonitron can also be the primary automotive constructed particularly for one in all these movies. Audi developed a bespoke carbon-fiber chassis the automaker claims is constructed to FIA security requirements, and Audi’s design division penned bodywork impressed by the Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 of Nineteen Eighties Pikes Peak hill climb fame.

That automotive makes a cameo look within the video, together with a number of different Audi race automobiles, together with an Audi 90 IMSA GTO, Audi 200 Trans Am, and an R18 E-Tron Quattro Le Mans prototype that seem in non sequitur magnificence pictures on the finish of the video. 9-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen might be glimpsed in one in all his race automobiles as a witness to Block’s antics as nicely. And since that is Vegas, there’s an Elvis impersonator, too. 

The electrical powertrain, which is derived from Audi’s defunct Components E program, means there isn’t any engine noise like in earlier “Gymkhana” movies. However the Hoonitron is not precisely silent as Block slides it alongside the Strip and thru on line casino parking garages. The howl of the electrical motors is ever current, and it seems tires make fairly a little bit of noise as they’re tortured to loss of life.

The dearth of engine noise is not the one distinction. In a video on the Hoonitron, Block mentioned he needed to adapt his driving model to the EV. That does not appear to have slowed him down, although.