Ahead of the release of Gymkhana Nine, Jalopnik has revealed that the video was originally going to be filmed in Sydney, Australia.
According to Matt Tuccillo from Hoonigan Racing, film crews originally wanted Ken Block to hit the streets of Sydney’s Central Business District and the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. Other recognizable sites like the Sydney Opera House would have also been included in filming.
However, the New South Wales Police weren’t too keen on Block repeating his antics from Los Angeles for Gymkhana Seven or Dubai for Gymkhana Eight on local streets and refused shut down these areas for filming.
“The police down there started to make things difficult with the permitting process for the locations we were trying to secure, both public and private. Apparently we were going to be ‘bad’ for Australia and as we got closer and closer to filming we started to lose more and more locations that we had secured, ultimately forcing us to abandon the concept,” Tuccillo revealed.
Tuccillo extended on this by saying that the public roads it wanted to film on were near the waterfront of Sydney Harbour and that it could have only used them if speed limits were followed, something clearly not suitable for a Gymkhana video.
Ultimately, the plug was pulled and Buffalo, New York was selected for filming. While it may not be as beautiful as Sydney, Tuccillo said Gymkhana Nine will be one of the most driving-centered videos in the long-running series.
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