I’ve known about Hoonigan Racing, Ken Block’s motorsport team that competes in FIA World Rallycross as a Ford factory backed team. I even saw them compete at Lydden Hill last month. But I never really understood just Hoonigan, which is separate from Ken and Ford and is based out of Long Beach, California. I assumed that Hoonigan was a T-shirt company for Ken Block and the drifters. Every time I see cars destroying their tires, there are people wearing Hoonigan shirts. It made sense.
(Editors note: We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you a special bout of insanity from friend of the site and crapcan racer hero, Bill Caswell, who is taking over for us this weekend.)
You would think I might know more about Hoonigan as I went to their launch party back in 2011. It was incredible. Hoonigan throws the best parties in the automotive world. The second year we partied at the Global Rallycross Track complete with drifting, burnouts and kegs of PBR:
So you could see how I thought Hoonigan just threw parties and sold apparel. Plus I wasn’t really into drifting. I have huge respect for drift, but I never identified with the Hoonigan drivers like Chris Forsberg and Ryan Teurck. They’re outstanding drivers, but I don’t wear skinny jeans, black hats, and my cars aren’t powered by Ferrari. I love it all, I just never identified with their racers other than Block.
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Then I got a text from Brian Scotto asking if I wanted to come by and work on a car at their shop. I was confused. Hoonigan is building cars? Naturally I said yes. If they’re going to build cars, I want to be a part of it. I really had no idea all this was going on at Hoonigan.
If you’re like me and skip directions, just start watching below. Be careful though. They’ve uploaded a video every day since March and they have their regular series like The Unprofessionals (my personal favorite), Field Trip, and A Beer With as well. It’s only been 5 months and they have put more content online than seasons of traditional car shows. You need to start watching Hoonigan.
So here’s me and the Sh!t car. A $350 E36 that never leaves the parking lot. Just watch and it will make more sense.
Here’s part 2. They left me alone with a camera for few hours and I managed to capture some of my weirdness as I build things. Like talking to my steel. You have to talk to it before you cut it.
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That’s Darnell with the Donut Garage hat below. He’s awesome and a proper mechanic/ fabricator. Darnell’s hands are dirty. He’s worked on tons of different race cars including desert racing trucks and we immediately became friends. He’s also the reason why a lot their cars run. Except Scotto. His cars never run.
So now that you’ve seen the Hoonigan garage, what do you think? I was blown away. I had no idea that a majority of their space was set up for car projects, building, and shooting video. Now let’s walk through the rest of the garage or video series.
Daily Transmission
This covers all the unusual stuff around the shop every day. People stop by with 1,000 hp cars and do burnouts. There are mini drag races. This is the series I was a part of with the $350 Sh!t Car. Occasionally they play Dukes of Hazard with a Miata:
The Unprofessionals
This is Hert and Rob’s personal little fun house. It’s my favorite series of the group but I think Im just a huge fan of Hert and Rob, Aka Chairslayer. Watch the first 30 seconds and you’ll be hooked too. It opens with a crash!
Field Trip
This video series is cool because the Hoonigan’s spend so much time in their garage. I could care less about the Jay Leno tour episodes, but the last one was about the guys hitting Laguna Seca for a track day. My kind of fun.
A Beer With
This is a great concept. Have your friends over to drink beers and tell stories. I had a beer or seven with Hoonigan as well, just waiting on the edit which might take a while because I drank a lot and told a lot of stories. The camera ran out of battery I told so many stories.
See what I mean? Hoonigan isn’t whatever I thought it was. Look at the gasser on the lift behind Farah. Look at the lift! You don’t need that for T shirts. Something has changed at Hoonigan and its now my favorite YouTube channel. I occasionally find myself watching the latest episode a few minutes after it comes out. I also bought a Hoonigan t-shirt last month, so maybe the whole things really does work. Their hands are dirty and they’re having fun with their friends while playing with cars. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
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