By Jennings R. Scroggs, Jr.
Rally Finland, previously known as The 1000 Lakes Rally and before that The Rally of the Midnight Sun, is best known for yumps. If you are a rallying fan, all I have to say to you is “Ouninpohja” and your eyes will glaze over, while your head is filled with flying rally cars, like so many Finnish Pavlov’s dogs. Now, I could don a tweed jacket, light my pipe and wax James May for several minutes about how glacial formations carved the Finnish landscape leaving it ideally suited for yumping. But I won’t do that.
Instead, we’ll go back to 1973, the inaugural year of the World Rally Championship, and enjoy this brief documentary about Timo Makinen’s victory at the 1000 Lakes Rally. Feel free to sing along….
Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Escorts yumping or skidding
Or crashing into trees
Finland, Finland, Finland
It’s the country for me
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM3wHdFit4I&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVzP95k6DUk&feature=related[/youtube]
[photo source: unknown]
Escorts yumping or skidding > Pony trekking or camping.
Well done, sir. Well done.
Or just watching TV.
/keeping it going
God bless Finlandia.
Yumps are bad ass. I wish there were more yumps on my commute.
This post is more than appropriately timed, coming right after Wednesday, when we are collectively over the yump.
All it needs now is a little fish-schlapp!
That's Norwegian.
Finland is the capital of Norway. Duh.
[youtube VSbiL725hVQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSbiL725hVQ youtube]
The first car is a Skoda. Shouldn't it be going tail-first? Oversteer forever!
Where's Ralph Nader?
Is that suspension travel in that first pic of the Skoda or is the team running some weird camber?
Suspension travel. It's got swing-axles (because oversteer is awesome) so suspension travel results in really dramatic camber changes.
It's suspension travel, the car was rear engined and the engine was fixed.
Didn't MZS's dad have one of those Skodas? I recognize it from somewhere.
I was trying to identify it via Google Image search and it went something like: "I dunno why, but I think that's a DAF…Ok, no. Let's see, no grille…NSU! Nope, not that either. Wait, does that say 'Skoda' on the flanks? In really big letters? Well shit! I think it was called the Skoda 1000…Crap! *Goes to Wiki…"
It's a Skoda 100L. And it looks great.
Yes, my dad had two, one was for parts 🙂 Also his brother had a different one.
<img src="http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/29280_593235000170_2912893_33998143_8382397_n.jpg"> <a href="http://hooniverse.info/2011/02/09/hooniverse-asks-what-car-would-you-like-to-recapture-your-automotive-youth/#IDComment126956122” target=”_blank”>http://hooniverse.info/2011/02/09/hooniverse-asks-what-car-would-you-like-to-recapture-your-automotive-youth/#IDComment126956122
Yumps, flicks, Skodas and Escorts. Watch the videos drinking some of your finest brefass scotch (I make mine in the bath tub, like any self respecting brefass scotch distiller would) for the perfect start to the day.
That's a great picture of a flying "Skorsche".
Good gravel roads, that's what is missing from the US. I went to see my grandparents last time I was over there. They live on a small farm about 12 miles outside of the town so 2/3rds of the distance is on gravel roads, and half of that the road is so narrow that they have "passing spots" where you can cram two cars on the road at the same time without having to slow down to a crawl.
Anyways, I used to go there driving some tiny coffin on wheels at 50 mph down those roads no problems… fast forward almost ten years, I'm back on the same road with a late model Volvo with ETC and all sorts of techno-crap, doing 25 mph feeling like I'm about to slide off the road. You do lose your touch over time when you drive on nothing but paved roads.
I don't see a single car in that video that I wouldn't (incompetently) hoon the snot out of.
Well done as always, Mr. Scroggs!
You can't mention Ouninpohja without posting a link to Petter's record run. Petter ruined it for everybody by being too good and too fast. The FIA mandated that the organizers of Rally Finland chop the stage in half or otherwise slow the cars down with chicanes (they did both) before eliminating the stage. I think the organizers have used parts of it in the last couple of years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0xFXOB5EHc
With all the focus on the skill of the drivers, and the cars, nothing was said about the third part of the equation. The navigators. Rallying is a team effort, and without that other member of the team the speeds these drivers and cars achieve would be considerably reduced. Having sat in the navi seat a few times (a very few, as I found I had niether the courage nor the stomach for it) I can tell you that seat travels at least 10 mph faster than the drivers. It takes a very special kind of person to sit there, head down, and calmly read pace notes, knowing that the madman next to you is trying to kill you both. Hooning is best done from a position of control, not as a passenger.
Lucas needs to stop nibbling my damn comments.
I have a cottaqe besides the Myhinpää stage which is not on this years Rally but was for the last two years. When they don't race here, that means they test and I've met all the stars during the years. While watching Mikko Hirvonen going airborne at one spot, I drove the same area at about 80kph. and couldn't feel anything. My stomach didn't even get light. It gives you idea on how fast they are going.
It's nice to hear Volvos and Saabs roaring in anger.
Too bad all the Saabs seemed to be 4-strokers. There's nothing like the sound of an angry 3cyl. 96.