Focus RS

Make
Ford
Segment
Hatchback

When you push your cars as hard as Ken Block does, sooner or later the odds are bound to catch up with you. That's what happened when the Gymkhana master crashed and burned his vintage, Group A-spec '91 Ford Escort RS Cosworth rally machine last summer. But true to form, his Hoonigan Racing Division and Ford Performance have built him a new one.

Dubbed the Cossie V2, Block's old-is-new-again Escort has been thoroughly worked over, as if to imagine what it'd look like if it were built today (instead of almost three decades ago).

The fenders and aero kit, for example, are lifted straight off Ford's latest WRC-spec Fiesta, and the track has been widened by more than four inches. The bodywork was designed with Hollywood special-effects/CGI guru Ash Thorp, and coated in a livery by longtime Block collaborator Troy Lee. But there's even more beneath the surface.

Block's Escort is powered by a 2.0-liter Ford/Cosworth YB-series four-cylinder engine – like the one that first motivated the Sierra RS Cosworth, but retuned from 201 horsepower to produce 371 horsepower. That's even with the 34-mm restrictor plate, exhaling through both side and rear-center exhausts.

It transmits its power through a six-speed Sadev sequential gearbox (a more reliable choice over the earlier Cossie's seven-speed unit). The suspension's been completely retuned as well, with a modern roll cage that even uses some of the metal from its burnt-out predecessor.

Block will be taking his new ride on a world tour this year, including rallies in the US, New Zealand, Ireland, England, Poland, Italy, and Switzerland. But you don't need to go to any of those locations to see how it came together in the video above.