5 Behind-the-Scenes Tricks That Made Gymkhana Seven a Huge Hit

By TMS Editor - June 29, 2016

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Garnering nearly 36 million YouTube views is no easy feat, especially when the focus is on an automobile as opposed to something like a Taylor Swift music video.

Just ask any top marketing exec at any car company, who’d likely die to get that many YouTube hits.

Even for a pro racer the likes of Ken Block, it takes a lot more than popularity to pull in those kind of eyeballs. Of course, it certainly helps when you’ve developed the kind of fan base the champion drifter has with Gymkhana, including the seventh installment of the hit series that showcases his skills in the “Hoonicorn” RTR Mustang.

But a recent Car Buzz report gives us a little more insight on a few behind-the-scene tricks that helped crank up the appeal of Gymkhana Seven, proving once again there’s more to a show than meets the eye. With that in mind, we’ve listed five of the most interesting bits below.

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1. Some of the design inspirations for the Hoonicorn RTR Mustang came from Group Rally Cars, as well as the movie Mad Max, which inspired a number of features like the car’s low roof line.

2. One of the coolest visual effects entailed tuning the engine to dump fuel on deceleration, which later ignited in the exhaust and created a flamethrower effect. There are also gills behind the front tires that extract clouds from the wheel wells.

3. The carbon fiber body panels on the Hoonicorn are as much about enhancing the performance capabilities as the look of the Mustang on camera.

4. To help make it easier to access the car for camera crews, the Mustang was designed with a removable windshield and quick release doors.

5. One of the essential elements of the Hoonicorn RTR project was making sure it could live up to the wear and tear that Block would put it through on camera, which included (among a number of other things) designing a clutch as a fuse so that it can be easily replaced.