From the archives...

Lunch with: Ari Vatanen December 2017

“Life without sideways is monotonous.” So goes the motto of off-road legend Ari Vatanen, a driver who might as well have had headlights in the side doors – such was his approach to cornering.

Forty years have passed since the spectacular Finn’s final WRC win, scored in the winter wonderland of the 1985 Rally Sweden. At that point in his career, it seemed the affable Peugeot driver could do no wrong, Sweden representing his fifth world rally victory in a row.

A few months later Vatanen suffered a near fatal crash in Argentina, putting him out of action for two years. His long road to recovery eventually culminated in a stunning string of Paris-Dakar victories from 1987 to 1991 (if you exclude 1988 when his Pug 405 was nicked and held ransom while leading the rally) as well as winning Pikes Peak in 1988 – later featured in the celebrated Climb Dance film.

In 2017 Vatanen sat down with our then deputy editor Joe Dunn – today’s editor – to look back at life on the loose stuff, making for a fascinating interview subject.

As a child he witnessed the death of his father – a Bristol Blenheim pilot in World War II – at the wheel when the Vatanen family car hit an oncoming vehicle.

Rallying then became an escape for the young Ari: “I wanted to tame the car.”

After initial struggles in the junior categories, the brilliant Finn would win the British championship in 1976, before doing it again in 1980 with future Prodrive supremo David Richards as co-driver. The pair would win their first international round at Acropolis that year too, before securing the 1981 world title in a Ford Escort RS1800 run by the David Sutton team – still the last privateer to do so.

The horrific Argentina crash four years later – where his seat broke free and he was thrown around inside a somersaulting 205 – left him with broken legs and internal bleeding.

Lying semi-conscious in a rundown hospital, Vatanen describes himself as being on “death row”, but extreme fortitude saw him fight back to more rally wins, as well as a life in politics as an MEP thereafter.

“I love to be alive,” he says. “It is hard for me to say ‘no’ to things.

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IN THE SPIRIT OF BOD AND JENKS

On this month… spark plugs, cheap eats and Rindt’s gait

Bright Sparks
April 1967

We’re at Brands Hatch for the 1967 Race of Champions, although with no Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart or Graham Hill on the grid it’s short of champions. “However,” spots Jenks, “it was a race of Champion plugs; they were used by the first three drivers.”

Grub’s up
April 1981

An AA book listing 999 places to find a meal for less than a fiver gets a thumbs up. It includes Applejack in Ledbury run by former F1 driver Bob Evans. Over in the test section, editor Bill Boddy is on wintry roads in a Porsche 924 Turbo: “It justifies the term ‘thoroughbred’.”

Get a grip
April 2005

Sir Jackie recalls first meeting Jochen Rindt, who would become a great pal: “I remember thinking he didn’t walk well.” Elsewhere, Jack Brabham is vexed about his crash at the 1961 German GP. “Dunlop had only six rain tyres and gave four to Moss – an unfair advantage.”