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 by means of Sin Metropolis has been within the works for awhile. The top Hoonigan and Audi formally teamed up in late 2021 to deliver 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.

Ken Block and his Audi S1 E-Tron Quattro Hoonitron in Electrikhana

Along with being the primary electrical automobile in a “Gymkhana” video, the Hoonitron can be the primary automobile constructed particularly for one in every of 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 automobile 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 photographs on the finish of the video. 9-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen could be glimpsed in one in every of his race automobiles as a witness to Block’s antics as effectively. 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 is no 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 demise.

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