Ken Block’s Climbkhana crew takes us behind the scenes

“The Grand Tour” producer Andy Wilman said the show’s crew captures 1,000 hours of footage for every hour-long show. That helps explain why, when Ken Block’s “Climbkana Two” was just under nine minutes, the team that created the spectacle has already released two behind-the-scenes videos lasting a combined 48 minutes. And there’s a third behind-the-scenes video on the way. What the two vids teach us so far is that planning a Climbkhana up China’s Tianmen Road entails trying to hold a drift ballet on strange ground up a long tendril of deadly spaghetti masquerading as a public road that’s still open to the public while half the event officials don’t speak the language. Not easy.      

Admittedly, it seems there were a few diversions, like going to check out the Stunt Masters Team in some place called “Burnyard” and getting a ride on two wheels, Chinese chicken nuggets, a couple of Big Luck ceremonies, and Panda Man. The guy in the suit didn’t speak English and was like the Kimi Raikkonen of animal-suited extras, not wanting to be bothered with instructions when it was go time. Alas, he knew what he was doing.

Check out the two vids (one above, the other below) to see how much work it takes to make art. There are plenty of tidbits about the creation of the Ford F-150 Hoonitruck, too, like the fact that one of the development engines for the Ford GT retired from the Blue Oval to take up a position as the 914-horsepower screaming piece under the Hoonitruck’s hood. 

And there won’t be many vids in your life where a shoot is interrupted by a mutiny of tourist bus drives, or you hear someone command repeatedly, “Cut panda, cut panda.”