DEBATE: Ken Block has a new video out

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TshFWSsrn8

And it's ridiculous as ever. That said, I am stopping by Crossroads Ford on Sunday and test driving a Fiesta.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:43 pm

I for one am on the side that states that there is no new Ken Block video.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I'm on the side that states that I could do everything in that video...

If I had the tires and corporate sponsorships.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:33 pm

The guy has skills and is a marketing master, but as James points out, it's a rinse & repeat of the same old stuff. - AB

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

Aaron Buckley wrote:

The guy has skills and is a marketing master, but as James points out, it's a rinse & repeat of the same old stuff. - AB

don't work yourself into a lather over it

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

There's some stuff in this one I need to figure out how to do...

JohnByers · **Posted:** Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:54 pm

I just cringed at what he did at the end to the rim. Maybe I am a softy :roll:

KouroshNeshat · **Posted:** Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:34 am

I can do that in my civic.

No biggie.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:37 am

So what is the deal with the fact that it showed his feet and there was obviously 3 pedals and yet the transmission was shifted via paddles. I don't get it.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:52 am

JamesShort wrote:

So what is the deal with the fact that it showed his feet and there was obviously 3 pedals and yet the transmission was shifted via paddles. I don't get it.

My impression is that many racing sequential manual gearboxes with dog rings including F1 only use the clutch for launch and a few other times. For normal upshift/downshift the clutch isn't used. Most road racers and many autocrossers shift without clutch even with old Hewland H Pattern transmissions like my Mark 9.

The street twin clutch auto/manuals control the clutch with electronics. F1 launch control did also until the rules changed a year or so ago.

I think I would love to have a twin clutch manual/auto with a 5.0 Mustang. Too bad it is only for the Fiesta and/or Focus at this point.

Since I hadn't seen any previous Ken Block videos, this was "cool".

jakepressley · **Posted:** Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:56 pm

Too bad it is only for the Fiesta and/or Focus at this point.

Why go with a Fiesta.... of all the cars they could remake... just WHY!!

Next year he'll be in a Chevy Citation or Dodge Aries...

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

JamesShort wrote:

So what is the deal with the fact that it showed his feet and there was obviously 3 pedals and yet the transmission was shifted via paddles. I don't get it.

Maybe a failsafe if the paddle shift system packs it in and they need to get the car off course? IIRC in the early paddle shift days you could still see a gear lever in the car so they could continue when it failed (cue a Citroen driver cursing loudly from the onboard camera).

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:48 am

More technical info on the car from the Geartronics shift system website.

http://www.geartronics.co.uk/index.htm

Keep in mind that this, and other, racing paddle shift sequential gearboxs shifting systems are dog ring manual gearboxes. They are not twin clutch "automatics" that do not need a clutch pedal. They use a clutch in the normal way for starts/stops. I don't know if the clutch is ever activated during downshifts other than when stunt and rally drivers need to use a rear handbrake (you saw the huge aluminum colored lever).

Ken Block Fiesta info:

http://www.geartronics.co.uk/new.htm#sep_10

Ken Block releases latest "Gymkhana 3" video.

Following on from what was the internet sensation of Gymkhana 2, Ken Block switched from the Subaru STi to a Ford Fiesta for his latest "Gymkhana 3" video. This is no ordinary Fiesta though. It has a 650bhp turbocharged engine driving all 4 wheels through a 6-speed Maktrak gearbox operated by a Geartronics paddleshift system. The car was built by top rallycross team Olsbergs MSE in Sweden, not necessarily to go as fast as possible, but to allow Block to perform stunts in his own inimitable style. It's perhaps not one of our most serious applications, but it does demonstrate that our paddleshift system is more than capable of providing top performance & reliability on some of the highest specification cars in the world.

FYI back in the late 50's through 60's the Renault Dauphene was available with a clutchless manual transmission:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Dauphine

Transmissions: Renault offered a three speed manual transmission for the Dauphine, with synchronizers on 2nd and 3rd gear, along with an optional automatic transmission beginning in 1957 with an electromagnetically operated Ferlec clutch and no separate clutch pedal — similar to Volkswagen's Autostick.[12] Unlike the VW transmission's floor mounted stickshift, the Renault's transmission was controlled by three dash-mounted buttons.

http://www.newcarbuyingguide.com/index. ... event=view

Quite early there was a Ferlec semi-automatic transmission, basically an electrically operated clutch. Touch the gearshift and the clutch was electrically disengaged. You still had to select the gears manually. A fully automatic transmission was offered in 1963. Typically French, it was unique featuring a magnetic powder in place of a fluid coupling. When an electric current energized the magnetic field the powder solidified so the entire unit moved as one piece. The Renault automatic used a push button gear selector mounted on the dash.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:58 am

Wow Dick, thanks for doing to research for me

. That was like a Dickopedia entry right there

.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:07 am

JamesShort wrote:

That was like a Dickopedia entry right there

.

For some reason that brings a different image to mind that was intended James! :lol:

THSCC Forums

DEBATE: Ken Block has a new video out

Who is online