As anybody who knows a thing or two about cars or not can attest, Ken Block’s 1965 Hoonicorn Mustang is a tough act to follow. Tough, but not impossible, as the just-unveiled Porsche 911 Hoonipigasus, which KB calls the “wildest build since the Hoonicorn”, comes to show. And while this completely remastered Neunelfer is proof that pigs can fly (more on this below), it’s actually built to stick to the paved course at Pikes Peak.
With Ken Block having already raced classic 911 rally cars and climbed Pikes Peak for his Gymkhana-derived Climbkhana video of 2017, it seems only natural for the enthusiast to tackle the 2022 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which marks the event’s 100th anniversary, in a Porscha—this is a 964 like his rally car.
Block tasked California-based BBi Autosport with building the Hoonipigasus. And with this being a Porsche specialist, the company took a cue from the German automaker, mixing and matching various Neunelfer bits that have made history or are writing it these days.
Pikes Peak rules are typically more permissive than those of other renowned competitions and with KB tackling the race to the clouds in the Open category, all he needed to do was come up with a race car based on a production vehicle.
So, this classic 911 is air-cooled no more. Instead, BBi took the current 992 GT3’s 4.0L flat-six and twin-turbocharged it—after all, the factory engine is loosely based on the 911 Carrera’s TT 3.0L unit.
And, not unlike the mothership has done with the 911 RSR, the ultimate Neunelfer endurance racer last decade, the engine no longer sits in the back, with the beast being of the midship type now.
Ken Block is an AWD man and that TT GT3 motor sends its 1,400 hp to all four wheels (these are Rotiforms) via a Sadev six-speed sequential gearbox.
And with the car tipping the scales at just 1,000 kg, the thing naturally relies on its heavy aero to stay on the asphalt.
GPS suspension—what?
And, given those permissive rules, BBi used its 2021 data—the specialist introduced three race cars, grabbing two class wins and a podium finish—feeding this into the GPS-controlled active suspension of the Hoonipigasus, so the car knows what to expect from each section of the course. And with at least one of those cars, which in named GT3 Turbo Cup, having been featured in a Hoonigan video (Block is tied to this label, having been named its Hoonigan-In-Chief), the clues for this Porscha build were probably there since last year.
As for the livery of the machine, this was done by artist Trevor Andrew (aka troubleandrew), whose Guccighost work is a sensation of the rising NFT universe. And, as Porschephiles will tell you, this is a tribute to the iconic 1971 Porsche 917/20 “Pink Pig” Le Mans race car.
Now that Ken Block has left Ford and spends his days sliding electrified Audis, using a bad-to-the-bone Porsche to keep the internal combustion in the mix is just what we wanted to hear. Speaking of which, we’ll listen to the TT GT3 roar of the Hoonipigasus on June 26 when the car is going up the hill.
