My Favorite T From DC

September 29, 2014 — Leave a comment

This is my all-time favorite T from DC Shoes … Back when Ken Block was still driving for Subaru … DC sent me other colors of the SRTUSA shirt but my good friend Steve bought this for me when he was in the US at the time … Which means I have every color of the SRTUSA x Ken Block T … That’s what friends are for!

The kicks I’m wearing are a Not For Sale/Friends & Family ultra-limited pair from DC Shoes designed by the legendary Hommy Diaz … Only 43 pairs ever made – 43 is Ken Block’s racing number.

(btw I’m at the workshop on Monday morning coz one of my side skirts is coming off … Driving too hard I guess)

Instagram: @badboyben

Holy Shit! Ken Block Fired By DC Shoes! (Worldwide Exclusive)

April 3, 2013 — Leave a comment

Holy Shit! Ken Block Fired By DC Shoes! (BBB Exclusive)

Just got the news from a VERY reliable source in the US – Quiksilver (that owns DC Shoes) has dropped DC’s whole Auto Division and let Ken Block go.

For those who aren’t clear about Ken Block’s relationship with DC Shoes – he co-founded the company with Damon Way in 1994. In 2004, they sold the company to Quiksilver for USD87 million. However, Ken Block was retained by Quiksilver as DC’s Chief Branding Officer.

No one from Quiksilver had the balls to call Ken and tell him and passed the responsibility to DC’s VP of Marketing to do the honors.

DC Shoes will also be discontinuing their Surf and BMX lines too as part of a company-wide cost-cutting exercise.

Travis Pastrana’s under-performing line has not been spared the axe either as had DC’s very generic-looking women’s line.

DC’s Southeast Asia HQ, situated in Singapore, is also shutting down. Southeast Asia will be managed by Australia from now on.

I honestly can’t say that I didn’t see this coming. In fact I did voice my concern to some of the higher-ups at DC a while back, but my opinions/advice fell on deaf ears.

A company can’t possibly be profitable if you hire too many incompetent people for the job.

Or people who aren’t qualified.

The people working at DC Singapore know absolutely nothing about skateboarding or motorsport.

Neither do the distributors in Malaysia.

In fact, DC’s Malaysian brand manager had NEVER EVEN HEARD OF DC SHOES before being transfered from another department in the company to oversee DC Malaysia.

This pattern is repeated in many of DC’s offices and subsidiaries all over the world.

How can you possibly do anything good for the brand if you don’t understand it’s core values?

Holy gymkhana!

Remember – you heard it HERE first!

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Thank you!

Crawford Performance Gymkhana Exhaust

December 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

Crawford Performance Gymkhana Exhaust

Crawford Performance Gymkhana Exhaust

This exhaust was designed for Ken Block and the Gymkhana Cars, but was originally inspired by the Crawford Performance Time Attack Race Car with one main reason behind this system, to be heard.

With a life-long background in racing, Quirt Crawford came up with an exhaust design that adds reverberation to the sound. The result is a doubling of the sound amplitude in effort to make the exhaust audible over the rest of the race track. It produces a loud, but deep sounding rumble, unlike anything on the market.

The engine soundtrack is audible on the track, even with a helmet on. This is a great advantage for those racers that drive their cars based on the sound and feel of the engine.

Everything that stated above is an extreme understatement.

This exhaust is LOUD.

Racecar loud.

You can hear everything that’s happening in your engine.

So can all the other cars around you.

I’ve had it installed for a few days and hear is my description of how the exhaust sounds at different rev ranges:

Idle – 2500RPM: Angry Growl

2500RPM – 3500RPM: Menacing Snarl

3500RPM – 5000RPM: Unholy Howl

5000RPM – 6500RPM: Chaos & Pandemonium

6500RPM – 8000RPM: Armageddon

I’d like to thank Quirt Crawford and Crawford Performance for believing in me and supporting my racing endeavors from halfway across the world.

I’m proud to be running the first Crawford Performance parts in Malaysia/Singapore and I look forward to a new and exciting relationship with one of the most revered tuners in the world!

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This Is Gymkhana – Launching In A Few Days!

September 4, 2012 — Leave a comment

This Is Gymkhana - Launching In A Few Days!

Yep! The new Conemasters video – “This Is Gymkhana” is launching in a few days.

It will be launched on gymkhana.com (yes, THE gymkhana.com that’s in all the news right now haha)

For those who don’t know, gymkhana.com is run by Joshua and Matt Martelli of Mad Media, and they are best known to car enthusiasts worldwide for being the directors of Ken Block’s Gymkhana Practice, Gymkhana 2 and Gymkhana 3 videos (which everyone agrees are the best in the series).

To have the Martelli brothers take an interest in what we are doing at Conemasters is an honor for me as I have an enormous amount of respect for how they have revolutionized motorsport cinematography. Yes, Ken Block was the star of the videos, but no matter how good the driver, if you don’t have a good director – you will look like shit (take Robert De Niro for example)

For this video, I wanted to show people what a real gymkhana event is like, and footage was shot at Round 1 & Round 2 of the 2012 Conemasters International Gymkhana Challenge. I wanted to show people that there are a lot of very talented drivers out there and not just in the few high profile videos that exist on YouTube.

Hopefully those who watch the video will get an idea of how much fun we have at every Conemasters event!

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