Rallying - Timo and Tommi?

[Martin Ursua]

Recently I saw an episode of Legends of Motorsport that highlighted the
197x 1000 Lakes Rally. At the end of an episode, Alain de Cadenet said
something like "Today Timo Makinen is a respected Member of Parliament.
Meanwhile his son Tommi is upholding the tradition and quickly becoming a
legend in his own right."
I've read in the past that the two Makinens aren't related, least
of all as father-and-son. What's the truth?

Finland?

Martin
Nigel Mansell RIP!

[Christian Ehrnrooth]

Timo Makinen and Tommi Makinen are not related. Timo Makinen is not a
member of the Parliament either. Makinen is a quite common name in
Finland - in the top five IIRC!

X-ian
Finland

[Vegarus]

Martin Ursua kirjoitti viestissä <7b5ig8$roq$1...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>...

> Recently I saw an episode of Legends of Motorsport that highlighted the
>197x 1000 Lakes Rally. At the end of an episode, Alain de Cadenet said
>something like "Today Timo Makinen is a respected Member of Parliament.
>Meanwhile his son Tommi is upholding the tradition and quickly becoming a
>legend in his own right."
> I've read in the past that the two Makinens aren't related, least
>of all as father-and-son. What's the truth?

As others have pointed out Alain de Cadenet seems to be an unreliable
source. There has been only one Finnish international level father and son
combination in rallying, namely Pauli and Henri Toivonen. Pauli won the
controversial Monte Carlo rally in 1966 and his son Henri won Monte exactly
20 years later in 1986. Pauli's other son Harri was also a promising rally
driver but he never succeeded to get a position in a good works team (I'm
talking about late 1980's when the world championship rallying really went
down and there were only few positions at the works teams). IIRC Harri also
raced sports cars (Le Mans, I believe, but Niko probably knows better).

-Jamo (note the crosspost)