This is Ken Block’s new rallycross car

Rallycross is the premier motorsport for the internet generation, thanks to frenzied Vine-worthy races, plenty of crashes and lots of flames.

To this mix then, please cordially welcome Ken Block’s brand-new rallycross car, and it’s flashy new garbs.

Set to debut on his 600bhp Focus RS at the opening round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross season this weekend, it’s a funky livery courtesy of street and kinetic artist Felipe Pantone.

Having previously used 8-bit zebra patterns and awesome reflective wraps, Ken has never been shy when it comes to liveries. But his latest – that features on his car developed by Ford Performance, Hoonigan Racing (Block’s own outfit) and M-Sport (the folks responsible for Ford’s World Rally Championship entries) – is his most out there yet.

Designed to look like a wall in a trendy part of Shoreditch, the Argentinean-born Spanish street artist spent eight days making the livery at the Hoonigan headquarters in Long Beach, California.

He didn’t just spray straight onto the car, though. Instead, he got his cans out and produced original artworks on canvas, then fed them to a computer to be digitised, before they were wrapped onto both Ken and his teammate Andreas Bakkerud’s cars. 

The livery is a cocktail of geometric patterns, bold colours, intricate fades and trippy kinetic art to convey speed and motion. Or something.

The car is a potty as the paint that cloaks it. Based on our Car of the Year, KB and his chums at M-Sport have collated their nous from Le Mans, WRC and NASCAR projects to create a beast.

The EcoBoost engine is wound up to over 600 horsepower, has a four-wheel-drive system so effective it can shoot off the line and hit 0-60-mph in less than two seconds, and a suspension setup capable of handling both tarmac and the loose stuff at the same time.

If you want to see Ken and his new car’s clothes, you can check out the first round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, taking place this coming weekend in Montelegre, Portugal between 16-17 April.

Given how hard the racing can get, how long it’ll stay on the car is a different story...