# Climb Dance - Ari Vatanen at Pikes Peak 1988



## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Ari Vatanen, one of my favorite rally drivers, at Pikes Peak 1988. Stunning video.

:thumbup:

Patrick, how's Ari doing as a politician?


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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

You would have to ask someone from France! He is an EU representative from his home area in France, not Finland.

BTW, he will be driving a VW in the coming Dakar Rally.


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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

Just watched the video. Holy crap.  

Is that a Group B Peugeot 405? :dunno: 

It sounds nasty!

The uh, one wrong move, and it is a looooong way down - especially when driving with only one hand, shfting and shading your eyes from the sun.  

Good grief.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Patrick said:


> You would have to ask someone from France! He is an EU representative from his home area in France, not Finland.
> 
> BTW, he will be driving a VW in the coming Dakar Rally.
> 
> .


Oh, I thought he was elected from Finland. I didn't know that he was in France, it's been quite long since I've heard from him anyway.

Thanks for the heads up on the Dakar Rally, I just checked their website, he's been announced as the fourth factory driver. Cool.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Patrick said:


> Just watched the video. Holy crap.
> 
> Is that a Group B Peugeot 405? :dunno:
> 
> ...


Hehe, yeah that's a 405 T16 GR.B :bigpimp:


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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

Alex Baumann said:


> Oh, I thought he was elected from Finland. I didn't know that he was in France, it's been quite long since I've heard from him anyway.
> 
> Thanks for the heads up on the Dakar Rally, I just checked their website, he's been announced as the fourth factory driver. Cool.


Yeah, I don't know the specifics exactly, but when he was driving for Peugeot, he moved to France. After making a fair bit of coin from driving, he bought a farm (of course, all Finnish rally drivers are farmers) in France. Aside from farming, he started a company that imported Finnish made tractors and farm machinery to France. That also made him a lot of money.

AFAIK, he still has a house(s) in Finland, but lives permanently in France.

The guy speaks Finnish, Swedish, English, French and I think some Italian. In that sense, he is not your average Finnish motorsportsman!

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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

Alex Baumann said:


> Hehe, yeah that's a 405 T16 GR.B :bigpimp:


That car is a monster! 700hp? 

From Wikpedia:

Motorsport

The most famous motorsport version of the 405, the rallying 405 Turbo 16 GR, was very different from the road-going 405. It was built in a coupe body style in mid-engine configuration, had constant four wheel drive with electronically-adjustable center differential like the 205 T16, as it was based on the same technology. Only two examples were made, one raced hill climbs and the other competed in the Paris-Dakar rally. Today, one is in the official Peugeot museum, and the other is in a private collection.

- 1988: Finnish driver Ari Vatanen set a new record in the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. Kankkunen and Piironen win the Paris-Dakar Rally in the 405 T16 GR.

- 1989: Victory in the Paris-Dakar rally by the Vatanen-Ickx team in a 405 T16 GR.

- 1990: Victory in the Paris-Dakar rally by the Vatanen-Berglund team in a 405 T16 GR.

Racing 405s much closer in specification to the road-going models were campaigned for several years in European touring car racing during the early to mid 1990s, most notably in the British Touring Car Championship and the French Supertourisme Championship. In Britain, the 405 did not achieve much success, but the car won the French series in both 1994 and 1995, in the hands of Laurent Aïello.

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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Patrick said:


> Yeah, I don't know the specifics exactly, but when he was driving for Peugeot, he moved to France. After making a fair bit of coin from driving, he bought a farm (*of course, all Finnish rally drivers are farmers*) in France. Aside from farming, he started a company that imported Finnish made tractors and farm machinery to France. That also made him a lot of money.
> 
> AFAIK, he still has a house(s) in Finland, but lives permanently in France.
> 
> ...


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'm trying to envision Räikkonen in plastic boots with a shovel in his hands :lmao:


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## Patrick (Dec 23, 2001)

Alex Baumann said:


> :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
> 
> I'm trying to envision Räikkonen in plastic boots with a shovel in his hands :lmao:


LOL, well Räikkönen is the exception to the farming idea, Häkkinen as well.

However, Kimi is more of a red neck than most Finnish rally drivers that also farm. :eeps:

Heck, his parents' house didn't even have running water until he was 10. 

Bosse (Grönholm) lives on a farm about 25 minutes away from where we have our summer cottage and where my wife's parents live. He also has a very nice island where his summer "house" (it isn't a cottage) is, and he has a few nice motor boats as well.

JJ Lehto's parents have their summer cottage + farm land in the same village that the wife's parents live, and JJ and his dad often swing by in the summer to buy 50-100 crayfish for a Friday evening party.

Juha Kankkunen had a villa in Puerto Banos (Costa del Sol) next door to my god daughter's parents, and we have visited there often in the last 10 years. If anyone knows how to :drink: then it's Juha. Cool guy. :eeps:

Anyway, small country!

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