Hot lap with Mika Hakkinen!

[bennyboy]

Morning all, thought you might like to see a bit of handy car control on a friday morning!? I was lucky enough to spend most of yesterday in the company of Mika Hakkinen at Silverstone - what an absolute legend and utter gent. Anyway, he took me and a colleague out for a very quick spin in one of our C63 estates, fitted with the performance pack. Enjoy!

http://rides.webshots.com/video/3019483630101768910ALhtwF

 

[912UK]

Well thank you that made my day. What a nice guy.....

Impressive striaght out the box and onto the slides wow!!

 

[andrew_churcher]

Ben - that is one seriously tidy 944 T you have there.

 

[bennyboy]

Well thank you that made my day. What a nice guy.....

Impressive striaght out the box and onto the slides wow!!

I can't begin to tell you what a nice guy he is. You always approach someone so famous and successful with a degree of caution I think, but he was just like any other car nut. Signed my helmet too!

Wasn't quite out of the box at this stage. He did 4 half-hour stints of this, and this was in his third stint. He also knows Silverstone and the C63 very, very well!

Ben - that is one seriously tidy 944 T you have there.

Thanks Andrew. It's certainly tidy up to about a metre away, and then you notice the paintwork could do with some work! Last on my list of things to do though as the car has been built for driving, not showing.

 

[Melv]

LOL -thanx for sharing!!!

Walter Rohrls (P3) comment on Mika's first place in the Carrera Cup, Monaco 1992 -'Ja, I think he has a future.....'[]

 

[ukmastiff]

I cant remember what program it was I saw a whole or large portion of a program on him not so long ago.

I think it was about their nations attitude to motorsport as much as about him. He came accross as a car nut and a gent as you describe but I remember thinking his nations love of even the most basic motor sport ( 12 year olds hacking around rally circuits etc ) was so interesting. Can anyone remeber the program .

How did you come by this once in a lifetime treat, im thinking corporate ???

Regards

Mas

 

[bennyboy]

How did you come by this once in a lifetime treat, im thinking corporate ???

His Mas, yeah I'm a Regional Corporate Sales Manager for MBUK. What is frustrating me quick immensely right now, is that the C63 is one grade above me in our car scheme, and up until 3 years ago they allowed us to 'flex-up' a grade, for a pretty reasonable sum. I'm afraid if they let us start doing this again, the 944 will be gone to pay for years of tyre abuse in an AMG!

 

[andrew_churcher]

Mas - was it not when Mika was giving May some lessons on how to drive a rally car over in his homeland for Top Gear episode? Must admit it was a pretty funny segment.

 

[andrew_churcher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8LJx71_9o

 

[912UK]

Arrr Ben then your like my other bit og German metal I have in my collection..

Shame less plug [] but it's an Ex Ca Car Monteray bay car and I owned her in the US for a year before I got her home.. I drove her about Ca before shipping home.. I packed the boot with all my booty from shopping so size was not a matter for me infact it had two Porsche engines in the boot!! 63,000 miles.. But the valve guide in the head went in May and I am just getting to work on it now.. going to replace all the guides just working out abit expensive so if you know any discounts I would be more than greatfull.. also a MBC member as well..

 

[912UK]

My Son on the bonnet under the Golden Gate bridge ... last drive I did in Ca before heading off to Oakland to the Shippers to send her on her way to the UK... Fab pic of my Son totaly unset up just clicked the camera as he did that...best shot ever!! [] all the family have it

 

[andrew_churcher]

thats a great shot...he will be a car fanatic in the future for sure....its in his blood already!

 

[912UK]

Sorry to steal post it was only cos you said about Mercedes..

Yeah he has no choice his first car journey was in my 912 from the Hospital !!

with a rather growing collection of 11 now he has no Bl****y choice [] I even worn down the wife to getting involved..

Although I am no longer active with in club events ( lots of Bollitics wore me down, plus any effort you put in is not regognised ( I feel for organisers more and more for what they do ) we do, do alot of classic car events and GRRC events and it's much nicer no hassles going on just plain old classic car fun.. days out and the like..Although the Mercedes lot are a good 20 years older than us lot [&:] it's still fun.. I am the youngest owner in our group with the oldest car.. work that out [] Nappy changes in the boot of a W108 are roomy shall we say [] but lucky we grown out of that now.. so now we have a VW Camper van with it's own toilet to take to shows i know it's cheating but hey I put a price on it and it works..he's 3 in 2 weeks.. god knows what he is going to think of me when he is older.. man dad is a car nut and he has this many cars!![]

 

[bennyboy]

Very nice! Needs to be dropped on air-ride though[]

I'm afraid all our dealer operations are franchised, so I can't offer any discount though them[]

 

[912UK]

you don't ask you don't get. Oh well better sell some more blinds to the public to fund my car habbit..

Yeah I have to say about the lowering but its a working car.. I don't do many, the odd one or two. As I pimp her out to help fund the collection running costs.. but like I said she is not very well at the mo..

One wedding pays for 3 cars insurance for the year []

 

[Gavin944s2]

Them AMG are f** fun , i had a few. For the money 2nd hand with FSH,a couple of year old, they take some beating, but the 44s2 is top side []......Just[]

 

[os951]

Every finn is better driver than average drivers are. At least that is the answer you get if you discuss with us finns. Motorsport has been popular here always, but i suppose we have to thank you guys in UK what made motorsport even popular. During the '60's guys like Timo Makinen, Rauno Aaltonen etc. had an opportunity to drive factory Mini's. If you have learned your rally lessons you know, the rest is big motorsport history. Later guys like Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen etc. did the same with Ford Escorts. Well, that's what happend on gravel, track is a different story. More or less it was two Mikas (Hakkinen & Salo) who started it all.In UK again ! Both of them went to F1, Salo had not a possibility to drive decent cars, but Hakkinen made it. Kimi Raikkonen was a different type of person, a man who goes his own paths; more like natural child. I suppose if you are not a finn, you cannot understand his mentality at all. He is far better rally driver than Hakkinen is. btw. most finnish top track drivers also attend at least once a year to Arctic Rally which is held in finnish Lappland. That was the place where Raikkonen drove his first rally. Rally is far more popular here than F1, mainly because we have had a lot of succes during the last 50 years on rally. Nowadays couple of frenchmen dominate, but there is a mile long queue of very talented finnish rally drivers waiting their chance to make international break through. I suppose succes in sports usually cause more people to join that particular sports. When Finland won icehockey championship lots of youngsters started to play hockey. I suppose it was the same thing in Sweden when Bjorn Borg was a top tennis player; lots of young swedes started to play tennis. Finnish rally drivers are usually country boys.They have a chance to drive on gravel roads from very young age (illegally of course). Also after harvest they can practice on fields. Then we have about 100.000 lakes (quite big ones), so that's gives a possibility to drive on ice.
btw. That race track May & Hakkinen drove Mercedes, is a Ahvenisto track, which is located about 100km's north from Helsinki. We drive our Porsches there many times during the summer.

 

[Super_Marv]

Thanks for sharing that Ben - I agree Mika Hakkinen is a legend, you're a lucky boy getting to spend some time with him! [8D]