Ken Block made his FIA World Rally Championship stage return at Rally Mexico earlier this month in his modernised Ford Escort Cosworth rally car, which ended earlier than expected.

Entered in the National class that allowed him to compete with his 90’s car against the top modern WRC and R5 cars but with an restrictor. This was his first WRC rally in almost 2 years as he was competing in a M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC in Spain 2018.

At the start of the event the car was misfiring and he was forced to drive his ‘Cossie V2‘ in safe mode. The team fixed the issue over-night but on the Friday’s opening-stage he had to retire from the rally as the car started to overheat.

Credit: WRC

“It’s been very frustrating, we’ve done lots of testing to come here to Mexico prepared for the altitude. This is typical rally, it pummels you to the ground. We’ve had nothing but problems all week. From the test on Monday to the super specials where we had the misfire.” Block told wrc.com.

“This is actually the second engine (we’ve lost). This one’s the spare in the car now after the original one ingested some dust on the test,”

“Seventeenth overall on the splits against these World Rally Cars and R5 cars is not bad for this old car being pushed out on the stages.”

It was previously revealed that Block will be entering the Rally New Zealand with his ‘Cossie V2’ but now he is scheduled to enter in WRC3 class with a Ford Fiesta R5 built by M-Sport.

“I’m looking forward to that, those roads are just beautiful. I love the place, the culture and the people.” Block added.

Rally New Zealand will be returning to the FIA World Rally Championship calendar this season and the event is set to be held on 3-6 September.