Riding shotgun with Ken Block

Some people call him the king of hoons, others know him as the chief brand officer for DC Shoes, but most know Ken Block as the Gymkhana guy, a man who has made a living out of doing burnouts.

He's in Australia for the next week and a half, for two events: the Gymkhana World Tour at Calder Park in Victoria and the Australian leg of the World Rally Championship (WRC) at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, and we were lucky enough to hang out with the YouTube phenomenon, even going for a spin in his 600hp (440kW) turbocharged Ford Fiesta - check out the in-car video below.

Having enthralled tens of millions of viewers on YouTube with his Gymkhana videos, and having competed in several WRC events this year, you'd think Ken Block would have a totally fearless attitude, but he admits he still gets scared.

"Crashing scares me. Racing at the speeds we race in WRC is pretty gnarly. It's one of those things where we don’t have nice barriers around the edge of our tracks, we have trees and rocks. It's about pushing the limit of trying to find speed but staying in control."

Knowing the bloke who is about to drive me through a short gymkhana course at breakneck speeds has a little fear is somewhat comforting, as is the fact that he has Australian roots. "I've been to Australia several times," notes the WRC driver. "I have family here on my mom's side."

More than 18 months in the making, the Gymkhana World Tour is Block's live show, and as well as featuring the man himself do what he does best - hooning - we also spied a number of other vehicles that will be taking part in the event (check the photos).

Kawasaki freestyle motocross riders will pump out backflips as drag cars smoke it up and there's an insane 700hp (514kW) V8 Chevy pickup truck that we saw regularly launching into the air off dirt jumps and slamming over the whoop-whoops. There's even a Harley-Davidson Sportster stunt bike that's been roped in to the event.

After checking out the ear-drum destroying machinery, it was time to don the race suit and helmet for my drive with Block. I clambered awkwardly into the car, and immediately I had to move my leg away from the scalding transmission tunnel. It's damn hot in there!

Block gives me thumbs up and we're away. We hit the main straight on Calder Park and within about 2.5 seconds we're in third gear and in an odd moment of reflection it strikes me that the car sounds like a bucket of bolts. There are rattles, vibrations, pops and shakes and the odd clang, but before I can even ponder the reliability of this vehicle my body is being slammed into the racing seat as the sequential shift transmission blitzes through gears -- then I'm pushed forward violently against the five-point safety harness as he slams on the brakes.

The handbrake comes on and before I could figure out where I was on the track we begin spinning around furiously, tyre smoke the only thing I can glimpse out of the side windows. Motion sickness is not an option...

Despite the intense G-forces attempting to rip apart every cell in my body, I felt remarkably at ease. As we flashed past concrete barriers, with millimetres to spare, I noticed that Block was steering with just one hand half the time, but there was never a sense that he wasn't in control. He's very good at what he does.

As we approached the uber-tight doughnut area and began pirouetting wildly around a barrel, I couldn't wipe the grin from my face. Dreamworld eat your heart out! Just 90 seconds in a car with Ken Block is way better than any rollercoaster.

And with that I shook his hand and wandered back to the car, thinking of what I would write, unable to think clearly -- or wipe the stupid grin on my face for the next half hour...

Check out GymkhanaWorldTour.com for more details on the event.