CYPRESS, CA – Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp is proud to announce a multi-year partnership with viral video superstar and rally driver, Ken Block and the Hoonigan Racing Division.  Block debuts his all-new Ford Fiesta ST RX43 equipped with Toyo Proxes R1R extreme performance tires in Gymkhana EIGHT.  Part of the wildly successful Gymkhana series of videos, Gymkhana EIGHT debuts on the Ford YouTube channel on February 29th.

“I’m stoked to have Toyo Tires joining me in my ongoing quest to kill as many tires as possible,” said Ken Block. “It’s an exciting partnership for me because I feel like everyone at Toyo Tires understands my mission to be competitive on-track, but to be able to take these amazing racecars and have fun with them off track—which for myself means smoky, sideways driving doing Gymkhana.”

To help introduce the new relationship to the automotive world, as well as debut Block’s all-new Ford Fiesta ST RX43 Gymkhana EIGHT livery, Toyo Tires has partnered with Hoonigan to produce and present Block’s livery reveal video. For Gymkhana EIGHT, Block and his team have created a highly unique, directionally reflective, black-on-black livery that changes looks depending on the angle at which it’s viewed, as well as how light is hitting it. The video serves to give fans their first official glimpse of Block’s Fiesta in Gymkhana EIGHT trim and how it changes looks in the light, but also their first official look of Block’s car equipped with Toyo tires.

“Gymkhana EIGHT is definitely one of my favorite projects that we’ve done so far,” said Block. “Part of what made the process so enjoyable for me was running on the Toyo Proxes R1R which provided good tire smoke, but really good mid-slide feel. They broke away very predictably and allowed me to pull off some pretty tricky maneuvers with confidence.  The off-the-shelf Proxes R1R performed awesome for this project.”

“We are excited to have Ken Block on board as our newest member of Team Toyo and can’t think of a better way to kick off our relationship than with him demonstrating the performance of our tires in Gymkhana EIGHT to his millions of fans worldwide ,” said Amy Coleman, senior director of marketing, Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp.  “Block shares our All or Nothing attitude at Toyo Tires, and we look forward to making more incredible content with him over the years.”

Toyo Tires also plans to feature Block in future marketing including advertising and promotions.