Ken Block and his Hoonigans built a new rally Ford Escort RS Cosworth

Ken Block is, to many, a drift deity. His flawless slides and smooth donuts on the Hoonigan’s Youtube account put him on a pedestal. Some might believe he doesn’t make mistakes. He never crashes. That’s what we were meant to believe.

Peel back the curtain and you’ll see that Block wads up his stuff. Often. In fact, just last summer Block was racing his newly minted 1991 Ford Escort Cosworth RS Group A rally car through New England. He down-shifted, the car did not oblige, and the two went careening into a boulder. The Cossie rolled twice and caught on fire, and fortunately Block and his co-driver escaped before the Escort blazed to the ground. “Before it was even fully extinguished, though, I knew we were going to have to build another one. Possibly with a bit more flare,” Block said in a Hoonigan release.

The word is that Cossie 2.0 will be even better than before.

Since the incident, Block’s super fans have waited for another Group A rally car with bated breath. Ken Block and his team of Hoonigans just announced that a new Escort is complete and ready for the “Cossie World Tour”. Block was tight-lipped on updates to the car:

“I won’t give too much away, I’ll just say the new Cossie is going to be rad.” More exhibition than competition, the tour is a “multi-stop race and content program, spanning the globe in a newly built 90s era Group A Rally Ford Escort RS Cosworth.” The short version—Block will take on iconic rally courses, worldwide, in his retro-rally racer.

World rally stage trials, rally cross, drifting—Block does it all. He is an all-wheel omnipotent capable of holding a teenager’s attention and shotgunning a can of Monster at the same time. He is an enigma with an extremely successful shoe company, but prefers to focus on “hooning.” He slid up Pikes Peak. He could drift a semi through a paperclip.

But seriously, Block’s Gymkhana YouTube series elevated him to elite status among many enthusiasts. The premise is to take the most badass rally car to a strange location, block off traffic and drift through the concrete playground. Cars have ranged from Subaru Impreza WRX STi to an all-wheel-drive 1965 Mustang. You’re watching this guy toss around a hunk of steel, and you keep saying “oh, he’s not going to make it” (while simultaneously puckering your butt) before each stunt. But he does. Every time.

However, you won’t find the 2019 Cossie World Tour in the Gymkhana playlist. Instead the car and Block will be stars of a new episodic video series that follows the driver from start to finish on the tour, and educates viewers on rallying and rally history along the way.

“Nothing compares to rally,” declares Hoonigan chief creative officer Brian Scotto in the release. “It’s all the things that make motorsport great. It’s fast, it’s dangerous, and the stories that are spawned from it are legendary, which is why I have always been attracted to it from a storytelling perspective.”

The Escort RS Cosworth-phoenix will rise from the ashes in 2019. Keep your YouTube tab opened.