Hannu Mikkola is reunited with his very first, original Audi

[Skaala]

Hannu Mikkola is reunited with his very first, original Audi quattro rally car at Goodwood Festival of Speed. The car was completely rebuilt by a specialist team, based in the North West of the UK, including the current owner John Hanlon, main technician Glen Nightingale who is an automotive genius that loves working with historic Audis. James Jones worked round the clock and researched archives too! There are many other people and companies who helped out, so thanks all of them, especially photographer Reinhard Klein for supplying original period rally images. The main website is www.slowlysideways.com More information on this project can be found very soon at www.slowlysideways-gb.co.uk. In addition, Audi UK have the car on their homepage at http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/experience/motorsport/motorsport-news/aaaa.html Audi press release says "Audi celebrates a landmark anniversary in style at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next weekend (24-26 June 2005) with a fitting reunion. One of the world’s greatest rally drivers, Hannu Mikkola, will be reunited at the annual speed event with a car that changed the face of the sport forever. In October 1980, the “Flying Finn” tested an Audi quattro rally car for the very first time in public - a prelude to the remarkable 25 rally championship titles won worldwide by Audi between 1981 and ’85. Mikkola will drive that very same pioneering Audi quattro, which rattled the sport to its core, at a motorsport event for the first time since the Portugal test 25 years ago. The Audi, which has been beautifully restored by Manchester-based quattro enthusiast John Hanlon, changed the face of rallying forever. Whether on dry or wet tarmac roads, snow and ice or indeed muddy forest stages, four-wheel-drive rally cars became the norm the world over and to this day still dominate the sport. Audi used the 1980 Algarve Rally as a test, Mikkola running as a “course car”. Had he been an official competitor, he would have won by a staggering 30-minutes. In the ensuing years, the German prestige car manufacturer which today offers numerous quattro model derivatives to British motorists accounting for a third of Audi’s total UK sales, claimed a host of accolades"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9007001698286864893&q=sport+quattro