Hannu Mikkola, who handed away on Friday evening aged 78 from most cancers, was one of many authentic ‘flying Finns’: epitomising the fearless brigade of males from the frozen north who made vehicles dance and rally followers dream.
He’s in all probability best-known for successful the 1983 World Rally Championship with the legendary Audi Quattro, however his exploits with the rear-wheel drive Ford Escort had been simply as spectacular. He narrowly missed out on changing into the first-ever World Rally Champion in 1979, ending up just one level behind eventual champion Björn Waldegard.
The Escort was additionally the automotive during which Hannu took the primary of his 18 WRC victories, on Rally Finland in 1974. It could be the primary of 4 WRC wins on residence territory; the final one coming in his championship yr with the Quattro. He drove one other, extra cumbersome, Audi to his last WRC win on the 1987 Safari: the 200 Quattro.
Hannu actually burst onto the general public consciousness in 1970, when he conquered the epic London to Mexico Rally with Ford, which resulted within the iconic Escort Mexico. From there, he started a stellar profession that additionally introduced him drives with Peugeot (co-driven by Jean Todt), Toyota, Opel, Mazda and Subaru amongst others – together with the unlikely Mercedes 450 SLC that he placed on the rostrum twice, in Argentina and New Zealand in 1980.
His 123rd and final entry on a WRC occasion was the 1993 Rally Finland, the place he completed seventh with a Toyota Celica in 1993, aged 51.
However he continued to make common appearances proper up to some years in the past, when his well being sadly started to fail him. His final look at a rally was on the Lake Superior Efficiency Rally in 2017, driving a Mark 1 Ford Escort as a course automotive, and he was additionally a daily customer to occasions comparable to Goodwood.
But his lion-hearted achievements don’t come near describing what he was like as an individual. For someone who was so flamboyant in a automotive, he was understated in actual life: the proper gentleman who was at all times so beneficiant together with his time and dialog.
He quietly pervaded each facet of automotive life. My private favorite tribute to Hannu comes from essentially the most sudden of locations: British prog rock. In 1989, cult band Half Man Half Biscuit featured Hannu of their music “Structure, morality, Ted and Alice”.
“The great dexterity of Hannu Mikkola/makes me need to shake fingers with the entire of Finland,” intoned lead man Nigel Blackwell, because the very first two traces of the music. It’s laborious to search out higher phrases that sum up what Hannu meant to us all.
Autocar extends its condolences to Mikkola’s household and buddies.
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