Timo Salonen: The Unlikely Champion 

There's so many fun stories that he's told over the years. One of which was when he was driving with Nissan/Datsun in the early 80's before going to Peugeot. He was in Argentina Rally and during one stage, there was multiple kilometers of straight road, so he asked Seppo Harjanne, his co-driver, to light up a cigarette for him (Seppo was also smoker). He smoked that all thru the straight and when they came into the long curve at the end of it, there were japanese photographers taking promo pictures for Nissan/Datsun and they were furious when they saw that he had Marlboro in his mouth. Fantastic guy, and a great sense of humour. Thanks for this video too!

Hi from Finland! Timo certainly is rather underrated in my opinion so it's cool to see that people are finally starting to recognize his brilliance!

He was rocking a physique, diet, and lifestyle similar to the Olympic Curling teams of the 80's

I think Timo is one of the most natural talented drivers ever there. He was very fast even with his extra-weight and the smoking. Walter always said that the Finns(and Stig) back in those times where drinking much, going to bed lately and when they get into the car the other morning, the had to sober, when he was always going the bed early and never touched even a single beer. So like all the scandinavians Timo was naturally gifted with sheer driving talent, esp. on gravel. And he was not only able to drive with the midengined Peugeot very fast, he was also very fast with the frontengined and understeering Quattro as you can see on the results at the races of champions where he competed.

He is also well known for one-hand driving most of times. Another reason for his "Loysa" nickname. And Timo is the most modest champion ever, probably.

Salonen´s only complaint about the 205 was that it did not have an ashtray😁

At last. About time somebody made a video about Timo. Looking forward to more videos. Keep it up !

One of my favorite drivers.

Great video, really well done! This channel is criminally under-viewed but I wouldn't be surprised the views will flood in with quality of content.

My favourite racing driver of all time. I hold him above Senna, even

Amazing video.. very well researched and executed.. perfect 🎯🎯💯... reminds me of a VHS 📼 I used to own, called "RALLYMASTER" , narrated by one of your fellow Americans 🇺🇲... I'm from England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 myself, aged 37... but my favourite period of WRC is 1979 to 2002. Btw the 80s background music 🎶 is spot on. Many thanks for brightening up my Sunday morning 🌄 🙏 😀

I knew this one will be all out, such a great video, thank you!

Wonderful wonderful commentary in this one. It’d have made me a fan if I wasn’t fond of this rallying gym teacher to begin with

The john daly of rallying 😂

What a machine, what a driver, what a video.

Most successful driver in Group B Era !!!!

Awesome video! Looking forward to seeing more!

thanks for the video

Beautiful video man, Salonen indeed is one of the true icons of this sport. Also, what's the song at the end of the vid?

Yes, that's me in a background!!!

By modern standards, he was not fat at all, just a small hint of overweight.

Teimo was cool before My Summer Car

Very good video of unlikely champion .

FIRST!! VIDEO GOES HARD

The drivers from the greatest era of rally did not use a handbrake thus i shall never resort to one in my sim racing

Excellent video!! Timo is a masterful driver. Btw, what is the name of the song that plays at the end?

What the fuck? There was nothing "unlikely" about Salonen, he was the fastest man in group B, end of story.