1,400-HP Mustang Is Absolutely ‘Frightening’ To Drive
1400HP Hoonicorn V2 FIRST TEST
What’s it like to drive the 1400 horsepower methanol-fed twin turbo Hoonicorn V2? Terrifying. And it takes a LOT for me to admit that! Ha. Check out my reaction to testing this beast for the first time ever, along with some great testing footage, in the video below.
Posted by Ken Block on Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Ken Block’s Hoonicorn is a beast built to perform at Climbkhana.
Most of us won’t ever drive anything close to 1,000 horsepower. Sure, the thought of that much power is exhilarating. But we all know you have to be a seasoned driver to handle all those ponies. And Ken Block has taken power to a whole new level with his latest Mustang, dubbed the Hoonicorn V2. This beast is capable of putting out 1,400 horsepower, and if you listen to how he describes the sensation of driving it, you might think much power is too much.
“It’s a pretty frightening thing,” Block says in a new video released on Facebook, where he shows off this new beast of a Mustang.
You might think an experienced driver used to 800 horsepower cars is being hyperbolic. It would be scary for a novice driver like you and me, but for a professional? Come on! Well, not so fast. As Block describes driving his Hoonicorn, you realize he’s not blowing smoke (pun firmly intended), but actually speaking the truth.
“I have to say, it’s a bit frightening. It’s a tough thing for me to admit, but when I have to go through the gears that fast…there’s so much power. It’s really bizarre,” says Block. “It spins the tires so fast. The things I’m used to doing with an all-wheel drive car, how I point the wheels, how much gas I give to tighten up or change a line. It actually doesn’t work with this car right now. I have to relearn this.”
ALSO SEE: Ford Mustang’s Entire History in 11 Minutes
You can read about the 1,400 horsepower coming from a methanol-fed V8 with custom twin turbos all day, but you truly have to see it to believe it. The amount of tire smoke coming from this car is unlike anything you’ve seen before, outside of drivers purposefully doing burnouts. Just the act of driving it around corners is the equivalent of a massive burnout.
The car’s upgrades come as the team gets ready to perform at the upcoming Climbkhana at Colorado’s Pikes Peak. The altitude there means that cars get less oxygen than normal. That creates a problem when you expect a certain amount of power out of your Mustang. So, the Hoonigan team added the custom twin-turbo system to the Mustang and went from around 850 horsepower to a whopping 1,400 horses to compensate for the different conditions. As Block explains this, he realizes that it was probably a bit of overkill.
No matter how scared Block is as he literally relearns how to drive his Mustang, you can fully expect that his performance at Climbkhana will be one to remember.