Here’s the story of Timo Salonen – The most underrated rally driver

Timo Salonen is a former rally driver from Finland. He was the driver of Peugeot team in the Golden Age of rallying, Group B, which separated the men from the boys. Unlike other rally drivers, he was overweight, wore glasses and he was an avid smoker (as seen in picture below). He had also relaxed attitude, and that’s where his nickname, Löysä (“Slack”), comes from.

“So what makes him otherwise so special?” you might ask. The thing is that he drove that Peugeot 205 T16 Rally car really damn fast, with only one hand. Yes, I’m not kidding, he really drove that monstrous, fire-spitting and probably deadly machine single-handedly. This is another reason why his nickname is “Löysä”, it comes from his relaxed driving style, but nobody really knows why he drove like that.

Unfortunately I can’t find any videos of it- since cockpit cameras weren’t really that common in the ‘80s - but here’s another clip that shows how skillful of a driver he is!

As said, he was driving that Peugeot hella fast, but also really smoothly, almost like he was figure skating with his Peugeot on the rally road.

Check out this tribute to Timo Salonen made by MrZegerov: It sums up quite well what I’m explaining.

He achieved one world championship victory in 1985 (and it was the first world championship victory by a Peugeot driver) and 11 rally victories which 7 of them were achieved in Group B. Because of that, he was the most successful driver of Group B era!
He is an outspoken guy, and he never bragged about his achievements (which is quite Finnish, I must say).

You should also check this interview of Timo Salonen – at a summer cottage! (Turn the subtitles on)

Tell me if you want more information about legendary Flying Finns (Henri Toivonen, Ari Vatanen, etc.) in the future, and I’ll make another article!

#Blogpost