If you have seven minutes today, you need to watch Ken Block live life sideways in Dubai. For those of you who’ve already seen the above video, go ahead and watch it again (here’s the link to the video).
Strapped into his Ford Fiesta WRC race car, the Hoonigan star ships off to the United Arab Emirates to leave (many) marks on Dubai’s wealthy streets, residences, and surrounding sands. It’s hard to believe this is Ken Block’s eighth Gymkhana video, but the production value and level of action continues to rise with each installment.
In this clip, you’re in for some of the best stunts money can buy, including drifts around Dubai’s extravagant police fleet, a drag race against some of the world’s fastest supercars, a 30-foot jump, a tandem drive with light aircraft, pestering of Boeing’s Dreamliner, and a close encounter with Ford’s all-new GT.
Ken Block’s career is an interesting one, and it might surprise some that he’s 48 years old (I hope I’m half as cool as he is when I’m that age). Block was a co-founder of DC Shoes while he competed in several action sports, including skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross.
In 2005, Block entered the world of rallying, joining Vermont SportsCar team and racing a Subaru WRX STi. That season, Block held five top five finishes and earned a third place overall in Group A. The following year, Block and Travis Pastrana signed a deal with Subaru to start Subaru Rally Team USA (which Bucky Lasek now races with as well). Also in 2006, Block raced in the first X Games rally event, where he took Bronze.
In 2008, Block entered the Canadian Rally Championships, continued to race in the WRC, and won second overall in the Rally America National Championship. Block’s first Gymkhana video also debuted that year. In 2009, Gymkhana 2 became the most viral video of the year. The following year, Block signed with Monster World Rally Team (which later became the Hoonigan Racing team) and won the 100 Acre Wood race in the Rally America Championship for the fifth consecutive year. Since 2010, Block has continued to race in various rally series while investing more time and money in Hoonigan.
For 2016, Block has committed to racing in the WRC full-time.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.