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How to jump a rally car by Kalle Rovanperä
Learn the fundamentals of flying through the air with the Mozart of rallying, 18-year-old Kalle Rovanperä.
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Rally Finland is famous for its spectacular flat-out jumps, where the cars launch their way into the air off the endless roller coaster crests. A jump in Finnish is called a ‘hyppy’, but there’s not much peace and love about these gut-wrenching trampolines.
Get it right, and you execute a perfect aerial ballet. Get it wrong and you can face plant your car into hundreds of pieces, if you're lucky – or have the sort of accident where you end up in Norway, if you’re unlucky.
Fortunately, we have an expert on hand to show us exactly how it’s done. Enter Kalle Rovanperä, the Mozart of rallying, who first started throwing rally cars around when he was just eight. Now aged 18, and on the verge of a factory WRC contract, he’s almost an old hand – especially when it comes to his home rally. So here’s how you jump a rally car, according to Kalle…
Approaching the crest
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
1. Have an accurate mental picture of the crest and what comes after it
“The crests are blind, so you have to know in your mind what to expect. If you hesitate, it can be a crash. You need a plan, so you have to think before about how far you are going to jump and what you’re going to do when you land. Then you can go to the jump with confidence – and confidence is everything in Finland.”
Pump the brakes
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
2. Brake before the crest
“You have to brake with your left foot before the crest, but only a bit, to balance the car. If you’re accelerating the nose is up; if you’re braking the nose is down. You want the car to be as level as possible, so that’s why you just balance the car gently with the brake before taking off.”
Take your foot off
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Come off the brakes
“This is really important: if you’re on the brakes as the car takes off you’ll come down nose-heavy, and that’s how some big accidents have happened in the past, with the car going end over end. So you come off the brakes in the last few metres before the car leaves the ground and then go to the throttle.”
Straighten up and fly right
© Pasi Salminen/Red Bull Content Pool
4. Steer straight
“Another really important thing, steer straight when you’re in the air. If you come down with some steering lock, you can roll. So you need to land cleanly with straight wheels. There’s only any point in steering when you have some road under your wheels to steer on.”
Reach for the sky
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
5. Brace for impact
“If you have judged your jump properly, the impact shouldn’t feel any bigger than you expect. But still sometimes it can catch you out, so you just have to relax and breathe out. You want to be full throttle when the car lands, to get as much grip as quickly as possible. A jump is just one part of the stage, and you have so many jumps on a Finnish stage. So the most important thing is to enjoy it and move on quickly to the next thing. Don’t get distracted!”
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