Thursday Throwback | A Look at What’s Cooking at the Hoonigan Donut Garage

The Hoonigan name should be familiar to any gearhead who surfs the web. The logo is blatantly splashed through the wild gymkhana videos that showcase Ken Block executing reckless vehicular tricks. The videos were first shot on closed courses but now feature popular urban cityscapes. In some of the more recent videos, Ken can be seen piloting his 845-hp Hoonicorn custom AWD ’65 Ford Mustang in Los Angeles and London.

Ken was one of the co-founders of DC Shoes, and later, after selling off his ownership of the company, he joined forces with CBO Brian Scotto to create the Monster World Rally Team. The team was later renamed Hoonigan Racing Division, and it competes in several rallycross circuits around the world. As a rally car driver, Ken has developed skills to tackle any terrain.

As a part of an online advertising campaign, Ken introduced gymkhana, a style of racing involving an obstacle course. Burnouts, donuts and even drifting are some of the techniques used through the course. The videos went viral, and Ken took things to a new level every time he released a new short. He’s inspired many of us to get out to closed events and start “hooning.”

The Hoonigan Bakery, aka the Donut Garage in Long Beach, California, is the crew’s home base. While scouting for a place to shoot this month’s cover, we settled on the Donut Garage as the best fit because the shop is rich in custom automotive culture. Though the Hoonigan crew is known for using cars to perform their stunts, they’ve started meddling with trucks. For instance, fellow Hoonigan driver, BJ Baldwin, has gotten in on the viral video action. He can be seen driving his trophy truck and doing similar stunts in Recoil videos. It’s a driving style that’s getting noticed in the truck scene.

We discovered a few trucks at the shop, and the one that immediately caught our eye was Ashley Baker’s bump-side Ford F-100. This truck is a patina-style 4×4 outfitted with a Currie rearend, Willwood brakes and reupholstered interior. Another truck that grabbed our attention was Vinny Anatra’s ’69 Chevy C-10. This thing is a straight up daily-driven shop truck that was given a mild drop and a set of custom steelie wheels. The day we were at the shop, Vinny and the crew pulled out the troubled big-block engine. At the time of writing this, the motor was undergoing a rebuild, though Vinny did hint that he wanted to install a diesel engine at a later date.

During our time at The Hoonigan Bakery, sponsored driver Brian Nimmo decided to bring in his ’05 Toyota Tacoma X-Runner drift truck. Brian has completely gutted this truck for weight savings and reinforced it with a full roll cage. It’s a dedicated track vehicle that competes professionally on the West Coast. When he stopped by, Brian insisted on hooning a bit, doing a few donuts in the tight confines of the Bakery’s parking lot. It was such a tight space that he busted the passenger side taillight when he grazed the edge of the loading dock.

IT’S PRETTY EXCITING TO SEE THESE GUYS GETTING TRUCKS INVOLVED IN THEIR ANTICS, AND WE HOPE TO SEE MORE IN THE FUTURE.”

It’s pretty exciting to see these guys getting trucks involved in their antics, and we hope to see more in the future. If Hoonigan does bring out more trucks, we will definitely be there to capture it all.

It’s pretty exciting to see these guys getting trucks involved in their antics, and we hope to see more in the future.”