“These were street cars with stickers”

Is it too late for a few more words about Finland? Apologies if you’ve moved on from stories about a 1000 lakes, but there was one more I just couldn’t squeeze into last week’s paper. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed in the last couple of years has been the way Wrc.com’s All Live service has embraced the amazing history this sport of ours enjoys. Whenever there’s downtime during a rally day, it’s filled with highlights from that event some years earlier.

The decision to recycle the 1990

1000 Lakes and 2005 Rally Finland didn’t exactly help productivity from my desk. Had a near decade-long supply of Magnums not dried up in the media centre in Jyvaskyla, I would have set about an Almond version and planted myself in the middle of the auditorium for a full hour of fever. As it was, I made do with a cup of coffee and a pink, wafery-sort of biscuit thing. The refreshments weren’t important. Not with this homage to Group A on show.

The 1990 season was, for me, when world rallying really started to emerge from the post-group B depression.

Lancia, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Ford, they were all there with their growling menace and fledgling trick-transmission.

I think part of the appeal was that these were genuine street cars with stickers slapped down the side. Watching a slowmo of Kenneth Eriksson locking up the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 at the apex of the Kakaristo junction was superb.

And then there was Malcolm Wilson and his cool Q8 Ford Sierra Cosworth RS 4x4. I don’t remember if it had a side exhaust on that event, but I’ll bet it did. I adored that car and its slightly harsher exhaust note.

When MW was being interviewed, I couldn’t resist a picture of the full early1990s spec bouffant look which filled the big screen. A couple of hours later I shared the pic with him, prompting one of the coolest recollections ever. And the reason for finding space on this page...

“We were going well that year,” said Wilson. “But then we had a problem with the gearbox in the middle of the stage. We lost gears or lost drive. We were straight on the radio to the team to tell them.

“Within a couple of minutes, a helicopter was despatched to pick up a gearbox and bring it to us. The chopper landed in a field as close as possible. I’ll never forget the sight of those mechanics running down the stage carrying the gearbox to us.

“They rolled the car onto its side, whipped the old ’box out and fitted the new one. We cracked on, back in the rally.”

Sometimes it’s hard to argue that rallying hasn’t lost its sense of adventure.