I suppose he has told you a thousand times the Monte Carlo '85 comeback. That's for to tell it to his great-grandchildren, I hope he can do it. Due to facts like that your father was the "fucking master" of the rally show. The pilot who made more rallying fans for sure, hence his charisma. Greetings, from Spain.
It was an honour to meet Ari at Colin McRae's funeral and at Ignition show in Glasgow many years ago. What a legend and insperational man. A true rally hero.
Nämä sinun tekemät videot ovat kyllä mahtavia! Hienosti olet editoinut ja valinnut sopivat musiikit taustalle. Uskoisin, että jos videoiden tähdet näkisivät näitä niin olisivat otettuja. Mielestäni nämä klipit tekevät kunniaa heille ja kyseisille lajeille.
Considering the camera technology available at the time, the footage of this event is amazing! Thank so much for putting this together. We got the Sierras here on the race track, but never in the forrest.
Excelente video, vi correr a Ari en Argentina con el Escort RS, increíble piloto, siempre al limite. Su accidente en 1985 fue a pocos Km de mi casa en Córdoba y aun se recuerda en la zona que en el Rally de 1994, fue a la salita de primeros auxilios donde lo atendieron luego del accidente a saludar a los médicos que aun trabajaban allí. Aparte de un increíble piloto un excelente ser humano por su gesto.
Beautiful piece of history. The 80s was years of epic battles, very nice cars, and giants as pilots. Thanks for share this video with so amazing footage.
"Never race a competitive group B rally again" For pittys sake, get someone who knows rallying to write these scripts. Ari is a mega star from my era, please handle his story with respect.
The man is a class act, an artist in a car, an athlete and an entertainer all rolled into one. It was my privilege to have seen him many times in his heyday and there was always a palpable sense of excitement when he was in the mix. Great guy.
14:40 calling Tony Mason out like that was awesome. Also great to hear Steve Rider again. Great video, he’ll of a guy. Even made the ol Jelly Mould look good 😃
That was the legendary Barrie Hinchliffe of BHP who produced so many rally films that will never be surpassed in quality, editing and being able to be in the right place at the right time + camera locations. The team did recces of the stages too. A true classic this event with Ari's return. Ford actually brought in team orders and Stig was told to "cool it" towards the end, as can be seen in the stage times in leg 3. Not taking anything away from Ari but he lost a lot of time compared to Stig with little offs, clouting kerbs etc. It's not correct that Ari never drove a Sierra again, both him and Stig took part in Hong Kong to Beijing with factory built XR 4x4s.
If there is a driver in the rallies of the 80s who is still remembered today, he's Ari Vatanen. You still hear about him today, for a reason, there were more effective people, with better track records, people like Röhrl, Alén, Mikkola, Blomqvist, even someone that all of us who lived through that time have in our memory (Toivonen), perhaps the best of all. Even in spite of everything, people have Vatanen's spectacular nature in their minds, his comebacks (in that rally, 1000 Lakes 1987, to his teammate Blomqvist, being the first time he drove the Sierra Cosworth), even if they ended up in a ditch, his bravery, his way of fighting for such a risky victory, that! people value it a lot. After the accident, at the Group A era he was left a little on the sidelines, perhaps because of the time he was without competing, perhaps also because of his determination to continually take risks, even knowing that his mounts were not winners.
This event and Ari and Stigs driving is when we all let out our breath we'd been holding since December 1986 and we knew "Group A would "be alright"..The cars could be quick and exciting. 10 years later I had my own black Cosworth Sierra gravel car...even got 2 pairs of the Ford 909 magnesium bodied Bilstein shocks off of Stig Blomqvists Escort Cosworth when he converted it to World Rally car spec before he sold it to Mats Jonsson--who went on to win 10-11 Swedish Championship titles with it. Just had 'em rebuilt..One pair is water cooled for Safari and Acropolis rallies....wonder what they're worth? 8)
I can't wait to see how far the electric car age will stretch ... surely an electric group B is bound to arrise, only to be banned again. I'll be an old man but still ... can't wait. And yeah, we'll get used to the sound of high powered EV's, eventually ... because the performance bonus will be so big that the racing will be epic.
True legends of Rally ! Ability natural skill of which IMO I’ve never seen since Group B .It was the pinnacle of Rally driving I do think crowds and the common sense to not make it dangerous for them by literally standing in there path shows the skill level they possessed The fans who did this around the world killed Group B IMO ! . What an Era !!!
@@Akumarb26 Group A rules were very strict. The rules required stock original intake and exhaust manifolds, original turbocharger, valve sizes, water pump, flywheel and a long list of other things had to be original or if an alternate was wanted to be used, it had to be homologated...and listed in the Homologation form... Additionally there was a rule for the maximum size of the turbo inlet so a restrictor of specific dimensions had to be in place and in the early days, like 1987 it was max diamter of 40mm...This cuts off airflow---and I've reviewed dozens of 40mm restrictor dyno charts for the YB Cosworth and they were pretty consistently between 390 to 395 bhp.. The thing about the FIAs "max 300 HP in Group A" rule is FIA did not prescribe a test procedure...they essentially said "It's gotta be max 300, m'kay?" and miraculously everybody from 1 Jan 1987 suddenly had 300... We all know the 3 door Cossie was really conceived and built to do the old BTCC and WTCC, the "touring car championships" which meant beating the Volvo 240 turbo cars.. Now in 1986 Volvo was telling the press that their 2,1 liter Group A racer had "330 HP" and then during 1986 Jean-Marie Balestre, the announced out of the blue that for 1987 300 bhp was the limit... So up in Sweden when Volvo was presenting their new for 87 240 WTCC racer, they said and printed that there had been no real changes and the max hp was 300...Trouble making journalists asked the pointed question "You say you've done no changes but last year the car had 330hp, and now with no changes its max 300, how do you explain the change"....Coughing and distractions and no real answer..The truth is the FIA just accepted whatever the factories said... It was all to quiet the people saying the cars were too fast and dangerous.. On my YBG 4x4 powered car I had a nice Ahmed Bayjoo chip and injectors (803 Greens) the right actuator (-31) and the 3 bar map sensor, all for about 330 bhp (because the gearbox was "safe" to about 330) and it was as docile as a standard road car---until you opened the throttle and made boost..The goal in turbo cars is not merely more hp, its more ft/lbs --torque---because the cars are relatively heavy (Group A min weight was 1230 kg for a 2,0 turbo car) The 40mm restrictor would strangle revs but boost was left.. In the following years the restrictor for the turbo in Group A went first to 38mm, then 36mm and finally 34mm...And the cars just got quicker and quicker...because the engine builders concentrated on torque rather than HP.. After all HP is just torque x rpm..
@@hbtm2951 It "got banned' because the rules changed to 2.0 liter non-turbo, with 8500 rpm limit for the BTCC and WTCC..Why the rules changed is probably because the grids were filled with 35 Ford Cosworths and maybe 2 BMW and all the other manufacturers cried to FIA that they had no chance..It was pretty odd to see the grids nearly 98% one car. AFTER the rules went to the BTCC 2,0 non turbo and 8500 rpm limit, suddenly there were 6-9 teams with cars which were in fractions of a second per lap. So close that a car could be clear winner one event and next event be a few tenths of a second out in qualifying and that meant 15th on the grid..Tight racing, good formula.
It was an honour to meet Ari at olin McRae's funeral and at Ignition show in Glasgow many years ago. What a legend and insperational man. A trus rally hero.
The week of this in 1987, I was an exchange student (American) in Aarhus Denmark. Had I been aware (pre-internet era), I would have crossed the Baltic to watch Ari return to full form.
Nowadays if you have a puncture then you are probably out of a podium place, back then they fought back to podium like 3 times in one event. Great time, sad i didn't get to see that with my own eyes bc im olny 19. Sierra is my dream car, currently owning a 3dr sierra with cossie bodykit that i swapped to 2.0 efi, plan is to do turbo street legal rally car
