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11-02-2009, 02:40 PM
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#1 | | Banned (ABWS)
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| Ken Block Trax Sti new video and interview
[youtube]nTDNLUzjkpg[/youtube]  Quote:
Ken Block’s STI Tank
Your favorite hoon, Mr. Gymkhana himself, gets ready for the snowy months ahead by winterizing his Subaru STI rally car with tank treads. VIDEO for proof.
It’s hard to keep a secret, and the truth is, friends really shouldn’t keep secrets, so we apologize to you, our faithful audience for not sharing this with you last winter when we first found out about this project. But KB made us take an oath. Yes, in blood. Anyway, here it is: a Subaru STI rally car lifted up onto Mattracks’ 105M1-A1 rubber track system. Yes, Ken built the world’s fastest snow cat, and we caught up with him to talk quick about his newest toy (but we suggest you skip ahead and watch the video first, the Q&A will still be here).
So you built a Subaru tank. Why?
Umm…for fun. Seriously though, I wanted to combine two of my favorite things in this world: driving rally cars and snowboarding powder. It started as a funny idea for accessing back country in Utah, that we actually put into action. We’d seen the Matttracks on other vehicles like trucks and such, but never on anything with performance. So putting them on an STI rally car was clearly going to be amazing—and it is.
You had a quick chance to test this machine at the end of last winter, what’s it like?
Driving the TRAX was a new experience and took me a little bit to get used to. It sounds and feels very much like a regular rally car, yet, there are 400 pounds at every corner making it a bit harder to control. You really have to plan what you are going to do ahead of time.
Do the techniques of rally transfer over?
The basic driving style is the same, it just takes a bit more planning and technique in the execution. It just doesn’t have the same response as a regular car in the snow. The suspension is lot stiffer. It’s a unique challenge.
How rugged of terrain will the TRAX handle?
It all depends on how you plan on pushing it, and of course, I’m gonna push it to the limit [laughs]. It will do a lot of basic stuff really well. Just driving it around the yard of the MTN.LAB, it would tear through basically anything. But once I got it into the backcountry, and I started to climb and descend things I probably wasn’t supposed to be on, it struggled a little bit. It’s a learning process to understand what it can and can’t do. Of course I always want more power, and we added more over the summer, but it still needs to be reliable, ’cause breaking down in car like that in the middle of the back country could really suck.
Speaking of getting yourself into bad situations in the TRAX car, we see that you have a hydraulic handbrake installed.
[Laughs.] Of course, the handbrake doesn’t work exactly like it does in the rally car, just because of the weight transfer, but it does work the same way in general.
So what are your intentions for this Subaru snow cat?
Considering I only had one day to try this thing out, this coming winter I want to try and see how far we can get the TRAX into the back country, then use it to help the DC team go riding and to assist in filming. We’re also building a sleigh [Rendering in new issue of 0-60], since with the roll cage you can only take one passenger in the STI. I worked with a designer and came up with a simple plan, and Vermont Sports Car is bringing it to life. Four Recaro seats, roll bars with snowboard racks, storage compartments and skids with suspension and even an iPod hook up for audio. You can expect to see it make a cameo in the next DC Snowboard video.
So are there plans to jump this thing?
You, know, I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and weighed the limitations that the Mattracks system presents and it really just boils down to…Yes!. It’s a rally car, it has to jump.
And will the sleigh be attached?
[Laughs!]
Check the Winter 2010 issue of 0-60 for more detail and specs on the TRAX STI and if you happen to be at SEMA this week, you can see the TRAX STI in person over at the Subaru booth.
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source: http://www.0-60mag.com/online/?p=20459
Last edited by RC0310_EJ; 11-02-2009 at 07:27 PM.
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11-02-2009, 03:29 PM
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#2 | | Wunder? Wonder?? Wander???
Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Vancouver
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wow wtf lol
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11-02-2009, 04:05 PM
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#3 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Vancouver
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I am out of words.
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11-02-2009, 04:33 PM
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#4 | | Willing to sell body for a few minutes on RS
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 12,074
Thanked 3,186 Times in 929 Posts
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wow
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11-02-2009, 04:54 PM
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#5 | | I bringith the lowerballerith
Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: GVRD
Posts: 1,112
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this drifting shit with ken block is getting ridiculous
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11-02-2009, 05:14 PM
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#6 | | Media Officer / MOD
Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: vancouver
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wow now ken block can go anywhere
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11-02-2009, 05:17 PM
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#7 | | I *Fwap* *Fwap* *Fwap* to RS
Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: North Burnaby
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snow plowing in style lol.
__________________ "commit to the lift" 2008 TSX 6spd 2002 WRX - gone
2008 Honda Civic - gone My Feedback | |
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11-02-2009, 05:56 PM
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#8 | | Rs has made me the woman i am today!
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,066
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wtf.....
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11-02-2009, 07:11 PM
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#9 | | I subscribe to Revscene
Join Date: May 2006 Location: Where? what?
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by ShanghaiKid  this drifting shit with ken block is getting ridiculously crazy | Fixed!
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11-02-2009, 07:47 PM
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#10 | | straight from the fields of squamton
Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Grande Prairie
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win!
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2013 Mazdaspeed 3
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11-02-2009, 07:50 PM
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#11 | | The RS Freebie guru
Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: East Vancouver
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That was a boring video.
Maybe because I'm used to seeing stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRKhJhEgimg | |
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11-02-2009, 07:55 PM
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#12 | | :inoutugh:
Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: ඞ
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wow that thing is soo cool!
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11-02-2009, 08:34 PM
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#13 | | RS controls my life!
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 722
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wow thats amazing
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11-02-2009, 08:45 PM
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#14 | | Banned (BBM)
Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: y
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shit that looks like fun!
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11-02-2009, 08:47 PM
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#15 | | Banned (ABWS)
Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: burnaby
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that looks like so much fucken fun
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11-02-2009, 09:20 PM
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#16 | | RS Operative (G)
Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: GYM
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that is fucking sweet
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11-02-2009, 10:16 PM
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#17 | | I am on the internets
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Vancouver
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idiot
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"As Sir Francis Bacon once said, 'There is no beauty which hath not some strangeness about its proportions'.
And he's right, who ever he is. I mean, look at Keira Knightley.
She's just an ironing board with a face. And she works." - JC on the Alfa 8C
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11-02-2009, 10:30 PM
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#18 | | x_x
Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Vancouver
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that looks amazingly FUN
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11-02-2009, 11:04 PM
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#19 | | RabidMod
Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Toronto
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looks like the car's a little too heavy to do as well as a snowmobile normally would.
watching the video, it seemed to swing really slow and wide when he tried to weave around.
still, looks like it'll get into the back country pretty easy and for what they intended to use it for in the first place, according to that interview!
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11-02-2009, 11:38 PM
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#20 | | Willing to sell body for a few minutes on RS
Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: computer
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lame
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The Mad Scientist reinventing the wheel every day
92 Toyota supra highly modified (The ice cream will never have a chance to melt)
89 exo cage Toyota truck (so many gears to choose from)
I own nothing that is practical hahahaha
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11-03-2009, 12:21 AM
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#21 | | Hypa owned my ass at least once
Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Vancouver
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wtf that looks epicly fun
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11-03-2009, 03:02 AM
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#22 | | Circle Stick Square Mod
Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Burnaby
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imagine if search and rescue had this.. they could probably cover a mountain in no time with that
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