It has been widely reported on forums and Mini interest groups that BMC Works driver Timo Makinen died yesterday, 4th May 2017.

Here is a Facebook post from his son Tommy, which appears to be a Google translate from Finnish to English so a little hard to read.

Dad passed away on Thursday morning, peacefully in his home. In the last few years forces just slowly ran out and ran out. I'm still glad that in the last two years of his life during confession Timo managed to Finnish Sports Hall of fame the first car and also as an athlete, educational and cultural affairs minister granted athlete pension. I know those things meant to him at the end of a lot, even though the man himself of them little yell. Safe travels, big boy. No more pushing, man.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

RIP....

Rauno told a few good stories about him, one being that he used to travel from Abingdon to Ireland on weekends, people would ask him "did you have a good weekend in Ireland?", he'd reply "yes, it must have been great, I can't remember a single thing!"

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Some great footage in this compilation of Makinen in action, including the famous stage on the 1967 1000 Lakes Rally where he drove with the bonnet up. It's in Finnish but you should be able to get the gist of the discussion.

Here's what the YouTube comments say about the clip.

Legendary 1000 Lakes Rally 1967 when Timo Mäkinen drives a 3rd fastest time of Ouninpohja stage with his Mini Cooper S with bonnet open.

Timo tells, that since the engine was overheating at the previous stages they tried to left the bonnet little open by tying it with a strong leather belt. However, at the middle of Ouninpohja stage the leather belt holding the bonnet broke down and so he drove the bonnet open the latter half of the stage. Still they had 3rd fastest time! They had notes of course, but the co-pilot tells that the Timo was so familiar with the road that the notes were not used. Co-pilot Pekka Keskitalo suggested, that he would close the bonnet, but Timo just cursed and kicked the gas!

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

A nice write-up of Timo's career here.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... n-19382017

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Sorry for the hijack another mini guy gone too https://www.facebook.com/groups/4993235 ... 325396101/

I remember in the 1976 Southern Cross Rally, Timo was a Ford works driver, and with Roger Clark, they drove Ford Escort RS1800's. My father was a rally official in charge of getting progressive scores from the navigators at each service point of the 4 day rally and reporting these back to rally control at Port Maquarie. For the 1976 event, I went along for the ride.

Timo was an absolute star, unbelievable car control, a master of the Scandinavian flick mastered from his mini days. I am so glad that I got to see this master rally driver in action. RIP Timo.

Attached are a few photos of the '76 Cross.

A true Flying Finn...

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"Show me the Mini!"