Australia’s answer to Ken Block

WE ALL know by now the story of how Ken Block was planning to film the latest version of his Gymkhana series Down Under until the local coppers put a stop to the fun.

Well, now we have our own home grown alternative thanks to the ripper blokes at SJ Automotive and Brad Day Productions.

The SJ Automotive team had an all-wheel-drive Subaru (dubbed the SJ 1000 for its ability to run up to 1000hp/745kW), and decided to put together a bit of a promo.

With Dan Day at the wheel, the short clip gives us plenty of tyre-frying action, and one hell of a burnout!

Dan has three seasons in the freshly rebranded Super2 category under his belt, along with some tarmac and gravel rallies, so is a dab hand behind the wheel.

The billet engine in the car is currently making 850hp/633kW at 30psi, however builder and owner Sean Day (father of Dan) says with the boost cranked up to 40psi, 1000hp/745kW is possible. Power is delivered to all four wheels via a six-speed sequential PPG gearbox

“It is something we put together last year,” he told Wheels.

“We decided to build a car and put a race car together for local and national events.”

But the car isn’t just for shredding tyres, competing in ‑ and winning ‑ a number of hill climb events already. Oh, and it currently runs standard driveshafts and hubs.

Yes, the all-wheel stationary burnout is clearly inspired by Ken Block’s own version from Gymkhana 7, but, by God, if watching an AWD monster pull gears while shredding tyres doesn’t get you going then your automotive heart must be dead and cold inside.

We got a real kick out of the video at Wheels HQ, and it left us wanting more. Sean says it wasn’t all fun and games making the production, which was filmed by another son, Brad.

“With the behind-the-scenes stuff it is probably not as glamorous as it looks. There is a lot of work, it was too hot one day and raining another day,” he added.

“When we tied it up to the truck it was a lot more work than it seemed.

“Since it was both my sons, one driving and the other shooting, I was very proud of what we pulled off in the three days.”

To the Day family, more of the same, please!