What do WRC drivers do once retired?

Tuesday, 22 February 2011 15:45

Bowing out of a sport that you are at the pinnacle of is not something many do.

Some athletes, hailed as legends and icons, remain in the sport only to be outshone by younger talent, and become more of an obstacle than a challenge for competitors. This is not so for Finland's four-time World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen.

After hanging up his rally gloves and helmet, he has had a few forays into the sport but not with aims of re-igniting a career but for personal pleasure. Of course, exhibition appearances help pay the mortgage. Not one to take his retirement easy is Kankkunen. Last year we witnessed him power through the Finnish forests in Ford Focus RS WRC in a one-off WRC appear and he posted relatively competitive stage times to rival the bottom half of the top ten.

Walter Rohrl, the iconic driver of the Audi Quattro S1 Group B machine and World Rally Champion in the 1980s is now a famous and experienced Porsche test driver. A great day job, me thinks. Not to be outdone, the Finn is now sorting out the Bentley marque.

Kankkunen drove a Bentley Continental Supersports convertible to a record-breaking 330.695km/h (205.48mph). That speed, while excessive and dangerous, was not why Bentley called in the driving master. This speed test was performed on "hazardous frozen waters of the Baltic Sea," said the press release. That speed is a confirmed world record for driving on ice.

What was under the bonnet of that Bentley? A 6-litre, 12-cylinder run on biofuel to push out over 600bhp to its four-wheel drive system.

The "road" - and I use that word in a very loose manner - is 16.5km in length and only 70cm thick. Only 70cm separated him from the icy Baltic Sea. Kankkunen, then, was the only man able to take on this challenge.

For the technical boffins out there, the actual top speed runs were calculated in a 1km measured distance with the speed certified by officials from the Finland Traffic Polics (where were these speed-hungry cops when PEtter Solberg was nabbed in Sweden for doing 112km/h in an 80km/h zone?). The top speed was based on the average of two runs in opposite directions with measured speeds ratified by a representative of The Guinness Book of Records.

"The last time, I narrowly missed the magical 200mph mark in a Bentley Continental GT," said Kankkunen. "When I heard about the Supersports I was determined to go record breaking again with the Bentley Boys. This time, with over 600bhp under the bonnet, a Quickshift transmission and the security of the all-wheel drive system, the Supersports convertible was the perfect car to go for the record."

"200mph came up after 5km on sheet ice. Then it was just a question of getting everything right in the timing zone and hoping the snow kept away. There's nothing to beat driving a Bentley at these speeds; the conditions may be perilous, but the car responds so well to the slightest adjustment which gives you the confidence to push even harder."

In the age of "Health and Safety" procedures and regulations, Kankkunen had to outfit his standard Bentley with a "fully-welded, heavy-duty safety roll-cage, along with Pirelli winter tyres (Pirelli SottoZero II 275/40R20) and a rear bumper-mounted parachute provided reassurance in case of an emergency; front and rear spoilers provided optimum high speed stability on the treacherous surface." I'm sure he'd have attempted the run sans the safety equipment: he is, after all, a four-times World Rally Champion!

JUHA KANKKUNEN: BRIEF CV

• Born 1959 in Laukaa, Finland

• Four times rally World Champion: 1986, 1987, 1991, 1993.

• 23 times World Rally Winner

• Won Dakar Rally in 1988

By Evan Rothman

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