Finnish Rally Museum Alive
Driving in the tracks of Timo Salonen and Seppo Harjanne
The Rally Museum Alive is a project that takes today’s historic rally cars to the rallies where the Finnish rally stars drove them. The Rally Museum Alive follows the journey of the Datsun Violet 160J (1979) and its driver and owner Ilkka Kalmanlehto and his team in the tyre tracks of Timo Salonen and Seppo Harjanne in similar rallies in which the role models drove in 1980 and 1981. The Flying Finns Salonen and Harjanne were driving for the Datsun factory team at the time, and the car they used was mainly a Datsun Violet 106J. Naturally, the colours and decals of the race car faithfully reflect its role model.
You can follow the Datsun’s race journeys on the Rally Museum’s Facebook page facebook.com/rallimuseo.
Rally Museum Alive project’s competition calendar 2024
26.–27.4.2024 HUE Rally Festival, Belgia (with Peter Lüdicke’s Datsun)
15.–17.8.2024 Eifel Rallye Festival, Saksa. CANCELLED
https://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/en/home.html
10.–13.10.2024 Rallylegend San Marino, San Marino
https://www.rallylegend.com/en/home-en/
8.–10.11.2024 Historic Acropolis Rally, Kreikka
https://historicacropolis.gr/en/
Past competitions
17 June 2023
Kielder Forest Rally, UK
Driver: Ilkka Kalmanlehto; co-driver: Richard Wise
The Salonen-Harjanne duo competed several times as Datsun factory drivers in the famous RAC Rally in the UK. The best RAC finish for the factory Datsun was in 1979, when the Datsun 160J Violet finished third. At the time, however, the co-driver was Stuart Pegg from the UK. Harjanne was Salonen’s partner from 1980 to 1982.
The special stages in the Kielder forests were often seen as the deciding stretches in the RAC Rally. The Kielder Forest Rally, which still takes place on the same roads, was a perfect fit for the team of the Rally Museum Alive: a day of the original RAC Rally.
In the style of Timo Salonen, the rally was began with a local co-driver. The experienced Richard Wise was a great help, as pace notes were not allowed, which is customary for this rally. The organiser provided videos of the special stages and readymade pace notes, but it’s one thing to drive through the stages yourself and make your own pace notes. Fortunately, Kalmanlehto had experience of using English notes from previous rallies, but the mystery was how and what symbols the organiser would use to describe the road. With the roads still brand new and the quality of the surface and the grip of the tyres a big question mark, he was a little nervous going into the race. However, all went well and he learned a lot – at least if Richard’s feedback is to be believed. The most difficult thing for Kalmanlehto was definitely understanding the pace notes. Ilkka uses descriptions in his pace notes, for example “slow” or “easy”. The words immediately give you an idea of what kind of bend it is. The ones he got now were numerical notes, with 1 being the slowest and 6 being full speed. When Richard read “Five Left”, for example, he didn’t have a clear idea – what speed can you go in the bend? The higher speed categories from 4 to 6 were particularly difficult. The Kielder Forest Rally was a great experience and another great example of the “rally family”, where you can feel part of a community regardless of your nationality. Many thanks to Richard – we will meet again!
The Salonen-Harjanne pair abandoned all three of their joint Datsun Violet RAC rallies. The Rally Museum Alive team finished in 41st place (although you can’t really compare the two). A total of 68 teams entered the competition.
Photos: Andrew Scott
12 to 15 October 2023
Rallylegend San Marino, San Marino
Driver: Ilkka Kalmanlehto; co-driver: Jaana Salopuro
Although Salonen and Harjanne never actually drove a Datsun in this rally, we decided to go to San Marino in the “spirit” of the Sanremo Rally. Timo and Seppo raced the Violet there from 1979 to 1981. In 2022, problems with their fuel supply had forced the Rally Museum Alive team to abandon the race. Now they went into the race with confidence. This time Jaana Salopuro, who used to drive rallies herself, took over as co-driver. For Jaana, this was her first ever pace noted rally and a bigger international event. There was excitement but also courage! Also with Jaana we used English notes, partly supplemented with Finnish.
The San Marino Rallylegend is an event like no other. Despite the showy nature of the rally, the special stages are demanding. The Pirelli Power Stage at the Misano circuit on Friday evening, where three or four rally cars would be on the track at the same time, was awaited with great anticipation. However, the race started in a horrible way. Immediately after starting the first stage, the car stalled and lost power. What on earth? Everything worked perfectly in Kielder and there were no problems with the little asphalt tests in Finland. However, we got through Special Stage 1 and moving towards Misano everything worked again. Another disaster in Misano: no power and poor performance. When we should have driven the track three times, our car stalled on the second lap and all we could do was roll along the track “Formula style” and climb over the fence for cover.
When the special stage was over, the organiser towed the Datsun to be inspected. The fuel line was OK, there was a spark, the engine was running but the ignition coil was piping hot. Feverish efforts to get a new coil began. The race director decided that we could continue with the Super Rally rule (you can continue the next day but you get a time penalty). Luckily for us, the third spare parts shop we found in Rimini was open on Saturday, and we managed to find an old-style coil (Magneti Marelli). Tutto bene! The first special stage of the day didn’t start until 1.39 pm, so everything was fine.
The race with Jaana went really well. The note-reading improved all the time, confidence increased and the spirit in the car was really good. On Sunday, we picked up the pace a little. At the Piandavello special stage, Ilkka received the best feedback ever: in the middle of note-reading Jaana started laughing out loud and explained her laughter with the words “It’s going so well” and continued reading the notes. The finish was emotional, with wet eyes and congratulations from the service team and loved ones. The rally family – once again!
Our 12th place in the historic cars’ overall competition (34 starters) was good despite Friday’s disruption. The attitude of the Rallylegend San Marino organisers was great: The Super Rally rule and the “great that you’re here and we want you to drive” mentality would be something we would like to see in other rallies too.
Photos: PH24
4 to 6 November 2022
Rally Legends Luso–Bussaco, Portugal
Driver: Ilkka Kalmanlehto; co-driver: Tiago Neves, Portugal
The Rally Museum Alive team set out to take revenge for last year’s unsuccessful performance, full of spirit. The livery on the Datsun again matched the Salonen & Harjanne look in Portugal in 1980. This time, both the car and the English pace notes worked fine. It was decided that in the future the notes will always be in English. The car had Pirelli medium compound P7 Corsa Classic tyres, which performed very well on tarmac, even in the wet. In Kalmanlehto’s words: “It was the first time that I felt like I was really rallying on tarmac. Until now, all races have been ‘accelerated transitions’. At the same time, I realised that this is where the work begins.” The result was an excellent performance: 5th place in the overall competition out of 37 historic cars.
13 to 16 October 2022
Rallylegend San Marino, San Marino
Rallylegend San Marino, San Marino
Driver: Ilkka Kalmanlehto co-driver: Jens Hilden
San Marino’s other contestants included Jari-Matti Latvala, Kalle Rovanperä and Harri Rovanperä, who drove three historic Toyota Celicas. Markku Alén also participated in the rally with his Lancia 037. The Datsun entered the competition in the colours and decals of Salonen & Harjanne’s competition in Sanremo in 1981.
All of the special stage roads were really nice and demanding. The industrial area with its chicanes and tight bale bends proved to be difficult. During the pace noting phase, it was difficult to understand the true nature of the route from the signs painted on the road, and this was reflected in the race performance. We noted that more practice in handling the car is needed in the future, especially with the bale bends.
Driving pleasure was dampened by new problems with fuel supply. The engine crackled and stopped time after time. On Saturday evening, we had to stop the race when the Datsun was blocking the road. The fault was eventually found. After some important improvements, the supply of air to the tank was not sufficient, and the vacuum in the tank caused the pump to operate at low pressure. Due to running problems, we couldn’t really test the Pirelli tyres, which were compulsory in the race, so we decided to continue to Portugal.
8 to 9 April 2022
Rally Internazionale Storico Costa Smeralda–Trofeo Martini, Sardinia/Italy
Driver: Ilkka Kalmanlehto co-driver: Jens Hilden
As the Salonen-Harjanne duo never raced in Sardinia with the Datsun, the race started exceptionally in the colours of Peter Geitel and Juha Piironen’s 1981 Datsun in honour of Peter Geitel (1945–2018). The race started with problems when the fuse of the fuel pump blew. Apparently, the “wire” inside the glass tube fuse had broken off its hidden end and was not connecting properly. The problem was fixed. The special stages were all on asphalt and were driven twice. There were many kinds of roads, but few serpentines. The result was a decent 25th out of 53 starters. The tyres were the same as in Portugal.
5 to 7 November 2021
Rally Legends Luso–Bussaco, Portugal
Driver: Ilkka Kalmanlehto; co-driver: Tiago Neves, Portugal
The Rally Museum Alive’s first competition was held in Portugal, where the race unfortunately ended after only 16 kilometres of special stages with hitting a tree and abandoning the race. The tyres were Toyo 205/13 semi-slicks, with a slightly round 60 profile. The Datsun’s livery was similar to the 1980 Salonen & Harjanne Portuguese racing look, and won an award for the best design.
