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Foggy weather seems to hinder most drivers today, but rally drivers have the skills to push through it – even if they can’t see a thing.
As if rallying wasn’t dangerous enough in the ‘80s, this classic footage we found on YouTube shows that it was sometimes far more difficult than we thought.
The video shows a 42-year-old Jimmy McRae and competitors almost flying (and sometimes actually flying) though zero-visibility conditions on the Isle of Man.
Taking third place on a windy stage in a V8 is already a huge feat, but what’s more is that he even had to stop during the race to have its torque tube repaired. Make your own Rover jokes, please.
It’s not certain he would have finished in third place had flying Finn Hannu Mikkola (winner of the previous year’s British Rally Championship) not had gearbox problems which put him out of the race.
Another fun little insight into the perils of rallying comes immediately after Mikkola’s retirement from the stage, When the voiceover announces another driver’s VW GOLF GTI has hit the ground so hard that it’s injured his back.
