Janne's Designs

This car made history. This car helped Juha Kankkunen become the first world champion in the history of the World Rally Championship to successfully defend his title. Juha had a good rally in RAC 1987, winning it ahead of Stig Blomqvist and Jimmy McRae. Winning here meant that Juha passed teammates Miki Biasion and Markku Alen in the final championship standings. That meant that Juha became the first driver to win back to back world titles in rallying history. This rally was also Juha's last World Rally Championship appearance for Lancia at the time being as he moved to Toyota for seasons 1988 and 1989 before returning to Lancia in 1990. Later on Juha would go to win two titles more in 1991 and 1993 to become the first four time world champion in rallying history. Later on Tommi Mäkinen and some French Sebastiens have wrecked the records. Of the 4 or more -club I do rate Kankkunen's accomplishments the highest, as he was able to win the titles with three different manufac...

Before you start shouting at me that Juha never drove a Porsche, check Manx International Rally 1984 entry list from ewrc-results.com. This was a one off entry for Kankkunen with Porsche. He was substituting for Henri Toivonen as Henri had injured his back a bit earlier and was unable to drive. In an interview Juha said "Mr. Piironen called me last friday if I could come to England to drive a rally." According to Juha he was allowed to drive other cars despite being contracted to Toyota at the time. Only other "tsapaniis" cars posted an issue. Apparently Juha only had one week to practice for the rally, but it wasn't for much. Juha had to retire on special stage 4 of 49 for oil pressure related issues. Before his retirement from the rally he was running on 6th in the rally. I guess his pace would've improved as the rally would've progressed on. Ah well, now you can go and try to do your best Kankkunen impressions with this car. And no I don't...