A tribute to Ari Vatanen, 1981 World rally champion. A great character and a gentleman by all accounts. I do not claim ownership to any of the clips in this video
the drivers from the 70s and 80s were the best ever ari was a true genius and the escort was the perfect car for him . he could make it dance and he was on the limit . with the technology of the time :-)many thanks molesport rallying
Just double checked my old photos, you are correct guys, Ari was driving a Rothmans Escort and Kullang was driving an Ascona. Both were sensational! Definitely February 1980, says on the back of the photos.
Vatanen and a Mk2 'scort, skill, precision, and sheer guts......nice bloke too by all accounts. I grew up on the edge of my seat watching Ford clear up so many events with Mk1 and 2. Great days, simpler times. Loved rallying my Mk1 Escort Sport, Renault 12 and finally a Talbot Sunbeam.
E à mais,McRay,Sainz,Ari Rovampera,T. MAKKINEM,JARI MATI LATVALA,S. LOEB,JHIUTA KLEINSMITH,etc. Big pilots,in big races...Tanks,forever...Congratulaçiones for vídeo,please more...Tanks...
When they decide who was the best driver ever, this is a name that must be right up there for the top spot. This guy is an artist, the likes of which we can only dream of seeing again.
pzkw108 The drivers from that era were very special, they didnt have the driver aids of today and yet they drove on the edge all the time. We each have our favourite drivers for what ever reason we have and to pick a definite best driver EVER could never be a fair assessment in any event. Remember them in their glory days, we won't see what they did ever again.
***** I challenge you to find a driver who can drive a two wheel drive at the same speed as a 4 wheel drive on an unsealed surface. The basic rules of physics rule that out. Having said that I never said that Ari was the greatest of all. If you re-read my initial comment I simply said that Ari should be rated up there with the best. There were many great drivers, Stig Blomqvist, Juha Kankkunen, Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz just to name a few and lets not forget the modern era. I just commented on a video about Ari, if it had been about Stig or Juha etc I would have rated them equally.
A superb driver but just pipped to the number one spot by the real gentleman. That being the true legend of Roger Clark. I often wonder just how good the modern day rally drivers would be if you took away the sequential gearbox, paddle shift gear change, traction control and all the other modern technology. Would they beat the older generation of drivers like Roger Clark, Russel Brookes, Malcolm Wilson, Ari Vatanen etc etc, who drove cars with a clutch pedal and a floor gear change? Also, how would they fare with the 1970's International rallies which, as was the case of the Lombard RAC rally, sometimes lasted up to 5 days with 40+ special stages. We will never know.
+Mal Hutchinson They are all hugely skilled,modern day drivers would manage just fine, seen a few clips of then testing older cars, believe me they were fast in them too.Drivers of the past would be the same in the the modern stuff too. To day the pool of skilled drivers should be much larger, far more kids taken part in the sport, from many more different countries, but it would be very hard to say, even seen that the pool is larger, if the top skills would any higher. As for fitness levels, with personal trainers and top dietitians ect, modern day drivers would definitely be ahead, so 5 days should be no problem.
Mal Hutchinson ... Once the driver gets a feel for the car it becomes an extension of themselves. Swap cars, swap drivers; new or old, they are all the highest level professional and would perform fantastically no matter what they’re driving.
A couple of mistakes, since the 205 with the blue circle on the roof it's not vatanen... It's salonen... Ari had the red circle. Plus, all the images of the 205 with the big back wing that's not Ari either. That's the 205 t16 evo 2 and vatanen never got to drive that one on normal rallys because a) vatanen had a terrible crash in Argentina 1985 but with the first 205, not the evo 2, and after that he returned a year and a half later for the Dakar b) first normal rally with the evo 2 was Finland and this rally was after Argentina so it is impossible that Ari could have drove the evo 2... Other than that... Nice video
All cars should be forced to be backwheeldriver and 1000hp at least.. this current really is not rally. Cars drive like trains on track.. not enough skill -> not so fun to watch
+Migo Elmigo Well don't watch it. I for example will watch WRC because it's awesome! And even if it was allowed, no team would make 1000hp car. It would be way too much power for rallying. Especially if they were RWD. I'm just hoping that one day people would learn that it's not just power that makes the cars fast. Todays cars are very fast around corners, lot faster than Group B cars were. So you need extremely fast reflexes to drive them. So yes, todays drivers do have skill, much more than you can even imagine.
+Migo Elmigo I don't think awd is that bad. Group b used them anyways. Although maybe a smaller separate series for them could be nice. Atm they can't be found on tv :/ And definitely don't ban tarmac rallies. The whole point of rally is diversity. Maybe if they had couple with mix of tarmac and gravel would be great, but tarmac only rallies are great as well
