Hannu Mikkola

This factory owner's son from Joensuu in eastern Finland learned to drive at the age of 14. At 18, he contested his first rally in a Volvo PV 544. Between 1963 and 1965, he completed a degree in engineering. At the same time, he successfully participated in rally events, first for Volvo, later for Ford.

In 1979, when Mikkola was already one of the established stars of the rally scene, he was engaged as a guest driver for a few events in the large Mercedes-Benz SLC Coupé and was able to achieve impressive success right from the start. Together with his regular co-driver Arne Hertz, he took second place in a 450 SLC 5.0 at the Safari Rally in Kenya, and six months later he even managed to win the Bandama Cȏte d'Ivoire Rally with the same vehicle.

In 1980, now driving a 500 SLC, he took second and third place in two world championship races, the Rally Codasur in Argentina and the Motogard Rally in New Zealand. After Mercedes-Benz announced its withdrawal from rallying at the end of the 1980 season, Mikkola started driving for Audi in 1981, where he became World Rally Champion in 1983.