Travis Pastrana canes the Global RallyCross Dodge Dart: Video

While Erik Carlsson showed the world that lunacy had an appropriate place in rallying—they didn't call him "Carlsson on the Roof" for nothing—it took Ken Block's marketing savvy and the paste-it-anywhere-and-watch ubiquity of YouTube to get a broad swath of American kids amped on the antic fun that can be had with an all-terrain compact car.

In a bid to get that same group excited about the new Dodge Dart, Chrysler enlisted Travis Pastrana to pilot its Global RallyCross entry. And in a sort of low-budget, less-elaborate version of Block's wacky-upon-zany Gymkhana videos, Pastrana puts the Dart through its paces, losing the passenger-side rear corner of the bodywork in the process.

Can Pastrana and the Dart out-hoon Block in his Hybrid Function Hoon Vehicle Fiesta in the 2012 Global RallyCross series? Will Dodge insert "Hoon" somewhere in the rally Dart's name for an additional 15 hp and 45 more degrees of yaw angle? When is somebody going to build a rally version of the new SRT Viper? Where's Susan Powter when you need her?

By Davey G. Johnson