Stealth Bomber
Car: 2006 Mercedes CLS55
Owner: Ken Block
“The contrast of gloss black to flat black. I really kind of get that from our shoes too. We do a lot of footwear like that, where we use a flat black material, that’s smooth, and contrast that with a black, like, suede.”
C16 featured Ken Block’s “work” car, the Subaru of America Rally Team WRX STi, in Issue 116 last year. That particular article was a preview into how rally was going to hit the Summer X Games. Since then a lot has gone on in Mr Block’s life. He medaled at the X Games with a third place behind his Subaru of America teammate, Travis Pastrana, and WRC hero Colin McRae. But you probably knew that already. The epic ending to the race with McRae barrel rolling his STi in the second-to-last turn and handing victory to Pastrana, has been covered widely in the motoring press. Ken completed the Rally America season in second place—pretty good for a “rookie” still just in his second full rally season. To cap off a good year, Ken also became a dad, hence the need for a “civilized” daily driver—the car you see here on these pages, and the car that inspired this issue’s theme. We caught up with gentleman racer and DC Shoe boss, Ken Block, to get the lowdown on his supposedly stealthy new ride.
Ken, since we last spoke, we were talking about the X Games, and that’s come and gone. Give me your high point from the rally at the X Games.
Well, I have a couple of high points. One of them was just really hanging out and getting to race with Colin McRae. That was just an incredible experience. I guess the other highlight would actually be getting a medal. And actually there’s another one: I actually beat Colin McRae on one stage. (Laughs) I went up and thanked him for that.
I remember talking to you before the rally and all of you guys, you, Tanner, and the other drivers all said the same thing: “Well, we just want to beat Colin on one stage.”
Yeah. I think he was just being nice to us in the first stage and taking it a little easy. I was hoping to do well, and knowing how good Travis and Colin were, you know, I figured that if I could run with those guys and actually be in the mix with them, I’d be really happy with that, and I was able to do that. I was able to end up third and walk away with a medal, and that that was something I’ll never forget.
So the X Games was quite an experience?
One of the most interesting things about the X Games for me was I’ve never been under pressure to perform at that level, in front of millions of people on TV and 40,000 people live. Like that final stage, when I was parked, you know, to do that one and a half laps—the pressure of right then racing and all the pressure building up to that—I was kind of a mess there for a couple days.
Really?
I’ve gone through a lot of stuff, but nothing compares to the few minutes of being on the spot, where I was in third place, I had a medal, and I was either gonna keep it or lose it in that two minutes. All of a sudden you’re in front of millions of people and there’s a medal on the line; you do not want to f&#k up!
How has your Rally America season been this year so far? You had one big crash this year, right?
I’ve had two. Yeah. I had a rollover. I flipped one and a half times, and I also had a head-on collision with a tree at 60 miles an hour. So it’s, it’s been a struggle, because I’ve been one of the fastest guys, at the races this year, but I’ve also just had some really bad luck. I won the last race up in Michigan and I’m happy to be sitting in third place overall.
(Ken then went on to a second place overall for the 2007 Rally America season)
Let’s talk about your new daily drive—which is actually what we’re here for. Why the CLS?
Well, I had a Bentley Continental GT. Absolutely beautiful car, I really enjoyed it. The problem that I had with it was I’m not used to driving cars that get that much attention. Also, the fact that it was a two door car—that was actually my first-ever two-door car. So I got rid of it and I was looking to get a new four-door car. And I just really liked the CLS. It’s just…the lines of it are much more of an aggressive, sportier looking car, even with it being a four-door. And the CLS 55 is the best performing version of that car. I searched for one in black, found it, and bought it.
Who built it up for you?
A shop called Ai Design in New York actually built it for me. The basic concept behind it was that I was buying the CLS to do the opposite of the Continental GT. The Continental GT was a very flashy car. I wanted something that was a nice four-door, had a lot of very good performance, but was really low key.
You wanted something stealth.
Yeah, stealth. So I’m a big fan of flat paint, like, flat black paint. My idea was why not just make the whole car, a luxury car like a Mercedes, in flat black paint. I’d never really seen it before, so I figured it would be something original and different, and it would kind of get my idea of going the opposite of the Bentley across—going from something very flashy to something high performance, but very low key.
But it seems that has somewhat backfired on you.
Yeah. Unfortunately, the thing is so different looking on the street I think it gets more attention than the damn Bentley! So that sort of backfired in a way. But I love the look of it. And a supercharged engine with close to 600 horsepower is very good to have.
Most of the car is flat black, but I noticed there are also some regular gloss black accents to the car. The rims and some of the bumper accents and stuff like that.
Yeah, the gloss black is actually the original chrome on the car painted gloss black. I wanted certain parts of the car to kind of pop a little more than others, but I didn’t want the chrome on there, obviously. When we were going through the details of doing the car, we wanted to make them pop but still be black, which is the matter of the contrast of gloss black to flat black. I really kind of get that from our shoes too. We do a lot of footwear like that, where we use a flat black material, that’s smooth, and contrast that with a black, like, suede. I take a lot of pride in my company, DC Shoes, and I typically have stickers, DC stickers, on my car. But putting a DC sticker, like, on a Bentley or a Mercedes is kind of tacky. So we actually made a matching DC logo that was the same height and same sort of makeup as the CLS 55 Mercedes emblems.
And then you’ve also got the logos on the upholstery on the headrest, right?
Yeah, just embroidered on the headrest. There’s a Brabus Sport steering wheel with paddle shifters. Ai has a cool radar detector install integrated in the rear view mirror—a Valentine One. And of course they hooked up my iPod into the sound system—very important. Other than that we didn’t need to go too deep on the interior—it’s a Mercedes, you know!
Have you got a DC-branded baby seat for the back?
(Laughs) Not yet. I’m sure there will be.
What about the performance work—I mean stock it’s already putting out around 500 horsepower, right?
Yep, but now there’s more—575 hp supposedly. It’s got the Brabus K8 engine kit and their sport exhaust. To slow it down there’s a Brembo eight piston brake setup. The wheels are from Radenergie. It took a long time to find wheels I liked.
And what about suspension?
Suspension is stock except for the Brabus electronic suspension lowering module. There’s three settings of stiffness on the suspension. The hard setting is really stiff—it handles exceptionally well.
So how come you didn’t just go full bore and pony up for the Brabus Rocket? I know you were really into that car.
Yeah, just realistically, the money. I mean, for the money that I have into this thing, having close to 600 horsepower is plenty, you know? Zero to 60, I think, is like in 4.3 seconds.
How easy is the paint to maintain?
It’s actually not very easy, cause the traditional washing and waxing does not work, so you have to be very, very careful with how it’s washed. It has to be dried with just basic soft towels and that’s it. The problem with it is any type of abrasion tends to make it shiny.
You should work with Jarod and Meguiars to formulate something special--see what they can come up with. Are you planning on running this in any rallies, like the Gumball or Bullrun?
I haven’t really thought about it too much. It’s mainly that the car is my daily driver here in California. Gravel rally is really my passion and that’s where Subaru pays me to be. The current plans are to do all the events with Rally America next year and X Games again in August. I’m going to be doing WRC Mexico in a Group N car. And I plan on building another car—a Subaru, to do three or four events, such as One Lap of America, Targa Newfoundland, La Carrera Panamericana—those type of more tarmac events. But just for fun.
Definitely sounds like fun. Is there anyone you want to thank or plug?
Well, our DC driving shoes come out in January.
Which we covered in our last issue. You know we’re always ahead of the game right? But go ahead…
The guys at Ai did a good job. Brian Scotto, with Rides Magazine, and Tony Harmer, the photographer. Both those guys have done a lot of work, and Brian kind of helped consult with me on making sure that between Ai and I we got the project done well. Of course I’ve always got to thank Subaru for all their support along with Monster and DC.
Thanks for your time, Ken. |