Doing so, he also saved the automaker from bankruptcy. However, Vatanen nearly lost his life before the Rally of the 1000 Lakes even began. Rally Finland was known by that name from 1959 to 1987.
It has been 40 years since the French automaker Peugeot felt the substantial impact that success in the World Rally Championship can have. The company was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy as their cars were not selling fast enough.
However, the brand had one ace up its sleeve; the 205 model, which was to become the savior of Peugeot.
Participation in the World Rally Championship was essential, and in spring 1984, Peugeot introduced the first development version of the rally car named the 205 T16.
Ari Vatanen, who had become the first Finn to win the World Rally Championship three years earlier, was hired as the driver.
The car’s debut in Corsica secured a fourth place under the control of Jean-Pierre Nicolas, who would later become well-known as a team principal. However, when Vatanen took the wheel, the results started to come.
Vatanen blasted the 205 to victory in Finland, San Remo, and Great Britain.
Yet, it was nearly a disaster as Vatanen and his co-driver Terry Harryman‘s lives almost ended during the recce for the Rally of the 1000 Lakes in the Urjala region.
Vatanen recounts the events in the latest issue of Hanaa! magazine.
“It was a very close call that I am here to tell the story of that year’s Rally of the 1000 Lakes. My and Terry’s death was a hair’s breadth away—if even that,” said Vatanen.
By this, Vatanen refers to an incident after the finish of the Raitoo special stage. At that location, there was an unguarded level crossing which the duo approached in their Peugeot, chatting with each other.
The driver of a car coming from a side road tried to warn Vatanen about the fast-approaching freight train, but was unable to alert him. The co-driver Harryman’s scream, as he coincidentally turned his head toward the direction of the train, saved them.
“The sight was horrifying. It was as if a monster swept over us. Without Terry’s scream, I would have driven straight into the level crossing, and we would have been crushed by the train. Death was really close,” Vatanen recalls in Hanaa! magazine.
