These days, rally driver and social media stunt driver Ken Block is rolling with Audi—yes, it EV form—and yet there are many fans who would love see him returning to the Ford side of things. And digital artist Rostislav Prokop is among them, with the pixel master having pixel-built a second-generation F-150 Hoonitruck for the athlete.
Over the years, the various forms of motorsport have seen countless occasions on which carmakers battled to bring aboard a certain driver—this is how NASCAR’s Dodge Charger Daytona/Plymouth Superbird infamos aero cars were born five decades ago. So you can consider this 1999 F-150 a way to lure KB back to the Blue Oval.
These days, the idea of a race truck being used in scenarios that would normally involve, say, a coupe, seems natural. And part of the credit, at least for the modern side of things, goes to Ken Block and his Hoonicorn truck. Having debuted back in 2014, this is an ode to the 1977 F-150, which is just a fancy way to say that the toy didn’t have too much in common with your grandpa’s truck.
The Hoonitruck evolved over the years, while naturally being featured in Block’s internet-breaking Gymkhana video series. Its final rodeo was 2019’s Climbkhana Two (you can find this installment of the the spin-off series in the YouTube video below).
The tube chassis supporting the 1960s Mustang-tribute carbon fiber body panels was only part of the fun. The rest came from the all-aluminum 3.5L V6. Similar in spec to the motor Ford GT racecars used to one-up Ferrari at Le Mans, the twin-turbo engine churns out over 900 hp and 700 lb-ft of torque. Channeling all the muscle we have a Sadev six-speed sequential tranny, which is linked to a rally-bred AWD system.
The second-generation Hoonitruck brings a 1999 F-150 body
For this contraption, which we decided to call “second-generation Hoonitruck” (not to be confused with the Hoonitruck V2, which is one of the said evolutions of the actual rig Block used), the digital artist mostly decided to change the body and the wheels.
So, we can still see the tube chassis, the TT V6, and even the cabin bits and pieces. However, there’s a massive age gap between the two bodies—as mentioned above, the second-gen Hoonitruck rendering is modeled after a 1999 F-150—hey, this is the year when the second-gen F-150 Lightning entered production, but that’s another story for another time.
This happens to be Prokop’s 1,000th Instagram post and it shows—the attention to detail is one of the virtual build’s strongest assets.
And, given that 1999 also happens to be the first year of the second-gen F-150 Lightning—the Gen 3 is the recent all-electric truck—the nostalgia is strong with this one. As a result, we could see somebody attempting to bring the build to reality, which is why we’ll give this one an 8/10 as far as the RPM (real-world project in the making) Potential is concerned.
