Of course Tommi was quick in Finland, winning his home event four times, but unlike many of his countrymen he was also fast on Tarmac, taking four Monte Carlo wins as well as victories on the mixed surface Sanremo. At 22 he became the the youngest ever British rally champ, while in partnership with his co-driver, Robert Reid, he set new standards for preparation and professionalism, his detailed pace notes in particular allowing him to build up in his head a 4K HDR picture of the stage ahead, a fact that was most starkly illustrated on the RAC Rally.
He even caught and passed a bewildered Didier Auriol in the middle of the stage the onboard footage showing the speed differential between the two is mesmerising.
The Reading driver was at his imperious and stage-dominating best in various Subaru Impreza WRCs , winning eight events and the world title between and He also had a longer career than most, his immense talent allowing him to keep winning when others had long since retired.
His last win came in , 21 years after the first, when he conquered the gruelling Safari Rally in a Toyota Celica GT In fact, despite being brought up on the snow and gravel of his native Sweden, Waldegaard was most at home in the dust of Africa, with a total of four wins on the Safari and three on the Ivory Coast.
His love affair was so strong with the Continent that he continued to compete in the East African Classic Safari well into his sixties, winning the event outright in and His 14 wins and two world titles speak for themselves, but you have to dig a little deeper to unearth the real genius. Advertisement Back to top For example, he notched up three consecutive Monte Carlo Rally wins with three very different cars rear-drive Opel Ascona, mid-engined Lancia and turbocharged four-wheel drive Audi Quattro.
He was also the only driver able to wrestle the fearsome, fire-breathing S1 Quattro to a win Sanremo Well, for all his talent Rohrl chose to skip events he felt were too specialised or required too much local knowledge, such as the Lakes in Finland and the RAC in the UK. Like a Stirling Moss of the stages, Markku Alen is arguably the greatest driver never to have won the world title. He spent nearly twenty years driving for Fiat and Lancia, leading to a temperament that was more fiery Latin than typically ice-cool Finn.
The hype around the rally was immense. Into the rally and McRae dropped two minutes in the Scottish Borders, fought back, overtook Sainz through Wales and went to Chester as winner of the rally, and Britain's first ever World Rally Champion.
It was epic. David Evans on Colin McRae. McRae's unwavering refusal to settle for second when there remained any possible chance of victory is what stands out about him for me.
He was the fastest driver in the world and he wanted to prove it on every corner of every stage. My lasting mental image of McRae is his blue and yellow Subaru Impreza on its lock-stops, a rear wheel in a ditch, with the steely Scot's head inclined slightly, urging the thing on. Brave, ballsy, belligerent and brilliant. What made Colin McRae so good? Watch a masterclass in driving from the man himself in the video below.
Iconic car: Lancia Delta Integrale. Because he's an Italian Finn. He combined the raw speed of the Finns and the passion and drama of an Italian. Aged But Group B rallying, and in particular, was his heyday.
In the late Eighties Lancia had won three drivers and manufacturer titles on the trot and was widely expected to do the same in Naturally he won the championship by a huge 45 points. He should probably have won in , but a huge accident in Argentina put him out for 18 months. Instead his single crown was won back in , driving a privately entered Ford Escort RS There is no doubt that in and Lancia was as dominant in rallying as McLaren was in F1. Across two years the Italian marque lost just three rallies.
Biasion was definitely in the best car, but even with talented teammates most notably Didier Auriol, who would go on to become champion in his season must surely go down as one of the most dominant ever contested. Of the six events he contested, he won five. While all of the mentioned drivers could be considerd to be the best of all times, some realistically don't quit fit the bill. All fair points Becher. Thank you for reading and commenting, it means a lot!
What an absolute bunch of legends. Still maintain rally driving is the hardest discipline of all. Yeah, it does take something truly special to master the rally. All amazing and highly skilled drivers. Tim Rodie. Joe Boater. Yash Agarwal. Jesse Billington.
Carzin Lightz. Patrick Redmond posted in Rear View Prints. View gallery image. Join In Want to add something? Comments 13 Popular Latest. Tomi Pearlman.
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