Ari, and most of the other Vatanens are ridiculously good rally drivers. That part of the world seems to breed them.
Another great video from that era is Walter Rohl infamous footwork video :
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdy8CG09rSU[/media]
"Climb Dance" is so synonymous with awesomeness that even the late Ken Block plays tribute to it in his Pikes Peak video where he shields the sun from his eyes with his hand.
Since he unfortunately was killed in a snowmobile accident - his 16 year old daughter (Lia) is picking up the torch. The car he had built with audi/porsche was piloted up the mountain by her this year.
Those 1980s Group B cars, and the PP versions were amazing machines.Ari is an a Peugeot T16 which was basically a Group B car modded for PP. All the guys/gals who drove Group B cars had huge balls/ovaries. Michelle Mouton who drove for Audi did Pikes Peak in a S1 Quattro. On her scouting run up the hill, the organizers said she was going 10kph faster than the rules, and she should start the race outside the car as a penalty - she fought that, and they then told her she could only start the race if her mechanics push started the car across the start line.
“I said to them: ‘Okay, maybe it is important for you I don’t kill any child but what happens to me if I kill myself, because I am not in the right condition to start a race like this?’”
The PR stunt rustled the organisers who came back to Mouton with a compromise: she would be able to start the race the next day inside the car, but in neutral with her mechanics pushing her off the start line.
“I thought to myself: I will show that this is not the thing to do. I will be even faster.
“I was so motivated. In the middle of the stage, you have four corners on the left side where you have the big drop to the right.
“On the middle one you have to lift a little bit. When I was there, I decided not to lift, I was so motivated. I could feel the car pulling towards the drop. I thought I was going off and I accelerated even more, trying in my mind to go out with the back of the car and not with the front.
“I was accelerating so much I managed to stay on the road and the next corner was a hairpin right – I braked even later than during the recce. I was so motivated. I wanted to show them that anything they could do they would never stop me.
She annihilated Al Unser Jr's record which prompted his son Bobby to say some rather sexist things about ol' pops being beat by a Woman. She offered to race him down the mountain if he wanted. He declined.
Racing was so much cooler back then.
As much as I enjoy modern Pikes Peak and rally - the 60s-early 2000s where amazing. I watch a lot of HillClimb racing (mainly in europe) because it still feels like "old" rally in a lot of ways.
