It’s been amazing to watch Lia Block’s trajectory in 2023. Of course nothing can make up for the passing of her father Ken Block in the earliest days of the year. However, Lia was already on her way to a promising racing career in her own right. As 2023 comes to a close, she’s accomplished so many things, from capturing the two-wheel championship in the American Rally Association, to landing a seat in the electric Extreme E rally series, and more recently joining the Formula 1 Academy grid with Williams. Then, just today, Audi dropped a heartwarming video where Lia met up with Audi rally legend Michèle Mouton in San Remo and drove the S1 e-tron Hoonitron.
Some background on the significance of the location and the cars involved is probably worth mentioning. San Remo is where Mouton won her first World Rally Championship (WRC) race back in 1981. To date, she’s the only woman to have ever won a round in the WRC. She also very nearly won the driver’s championship title a year later in 1982, a year where she also nabbed the most wins over any of her rivals.
The car Mouton drives in this video isn’t that ’81 Group 4 version. Instead, it’s a Sport quattro… and not just any Sport quattro, but her 1985 Pike’s Peak S1. The significance of the latter isn’t lost here either, because it marks her final win in an Audi and her over-all win at Pike’s Peak.
Of course, Lia also takes the wheel of a later S1, the car commonly referred to as the Hoonitron. Audi now refers to it as the Audi S1 e-tron Hoonitron, but whatever you call it there’s no question that it’s the car Ken Block drove in last year’s Electrikhana. The Hoonitron is Ken’s last Gymkhana car, which makes it extra special when Lia gets to drive it. In it, she looks like a natural, and not just because it’s got her name written on the side.
Could this mean more activity in the Audi family? Time will tell, but her daily driver is a vintage ur quattro after all.
Worth noting, we caught up with Lia and her mom Lucy to record a podcast earlier in the year. If you’d like to learn more about them, make sure to give it a listen.
Thanks to Audi Tradition and Audi AG for making this happen and sharing it with everyone else. It is no doubt an unforgettable moment.
