MAKINEN'S MIRACLE! The Story of the 1998 Rally GB
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Carlos Sainz seems to be the rally driver with the worst luck. Twice he was denied the WRC title right at the end and in this instance he was denied within literal sight of the line. 500 more yards or so and he'd have been a three time champion instead of Makinen.
So what happened that day in Wales? Let's have a look.
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Luis Moya…
Think I’m having another one of those phases.
0:21 channel 4 because the first ps2 wrc game has a advert for it on channel 4
@@oli_gordonagree. It was actually based on 2001 WRC game of WRC PS2.
Here in Finland Mäkinen being told on a phone call about his WDC is to this day one of the most iconic sporting moments ever
Mitä?!
Carloksen auto sytty palamaan... eikä jaksa työntää maaliin?
Funniest thing about this situation was when Tommi heard that he had won the championship. Finnish broadcaster YLE was interviewing him at the hotel and asked about how he felt that he lost the championship to Sainz. He started to give an answer and said that he was already leaving to airport and take the next flight to Finland, when suddenly his phone rang in the middle of the interview. Tommi answered and the discussion went something like this (roughly translated):
"Hello?" **listens** "Yes?"
**baffled**
"WHAT?!"
"What?!"
"Carlos' car have set on fire 0,5km before the finish line. They have stopped to extinguish it... Really? They can't push it to the finish line. The end result is clear" **starts to laugh**
"I don't believe it..." X3
"Well... I guess I'm not going home after all"
ruclips.net/video/emykANCQLFo/видео.html&ab_channel=Aarreaitta
Depending who you ask, it was either the most iconic or second most iconic moment of Finnish motorsport during the whole year. Only thing disputing this was Häkkinen winning the world championship.
This is also easy to find in youtube, just search "Tommi Mäkinen kuulee maailmanmestaruudesta puhelimessa"
@@TripleAlfafa At the close of the 20th century it felt great to have Finns as both the Formula 1 world champion and World Rally Championship. Mika Häkkinen defended his title in 1999 and Tommi Mäkinen defended his title for the third consecutive year to win a (then) record 4 consecutive titles.
I was waiting for this bit to be included as it's the most iconic part of the whole affair!
For those confused about why Richard Burns was driving a Carisma GT instead, it was an alternate name for the Lancer in Europe. Mechanically and visually (except Carisma instead of Lancer branding), they were exactly the same. Freddy Loix also ran a Carisma GT from 1999-2001, until the Carisma was discontinued. They did it because in some markets the Lancer name was not available so they rebranded it so the people would recognize the car.
6:52 - Mitsubishi entered the second Lancer into rallies named as Carisma GT for marketing reasons during this period, as Lancer was not available in some markets. Instead, in those markets, they named Lancer Evo-models as Carisma GT, despite regular Carisma being completely different car. Weird, I know.
As someone who is a major WRC fan from about 1995-2007 (even if I’m only 30) this to this day is rally’s is that Glock moment, Bruno Thiry comes past minutes later and his reaction is priceless
"mama mia, 500 meters to lose the world championship" , i'll never forget that interview.
-We're expecting Carlos, what happened?
-He's here, 300 metres! Engine!
-But he has to finish the stage...
-No, no, he's in the stage... (Mamma mía), 500 metres to lose the world championship
@@bogdanrus9402well that word still aged well even 25 years later.
I think the Sainz's need their own video. Everytime theres an interesting story, theres a Sainz.
In Spain we know this as "Trata de arrancarlo, Carlos (try to start it, Carlos)", which is what Luis Moya was telling Sainz when they got down from the car in order to try to fix it. It's probably the biggest heartbreak in our motorsport history, slightly followed by the likes of Sainz Sr. himself crashing out of the ¿1994? RAC and handing the title to Didier Auriol or Fernando Alonso losing the 2010 and 12 F1 titles to Sebastian Vettel in the final race.
One thing to add this is Mäkinen was already leaving the hotel and ready to go home and giving an interview when someone called him and informed Carlos had stopped and lost the championship. The interview can be found in RUclips.
His brother called him while he was giving interview for finnish broadcast company YLE. His brother saw it in live feed back in Finland, Tommi himself wasn't paying any attention to the race over the weekend despite being there haha
I love the "meeetaa?" haha. Reminds me of my uncle, he would say it exactly like Mäkinen did everytime he didnt hear something
Mäkinen and Häkkinen in the late 90s were pretty big reasons as to why i grew to respect Finland’s racers
When I was a yoof, I flipped burgers for The Clown in a town north of Auckland NZ, and was fortunate enough to serve a wide variety of WRC cars through the drive through as they went between stages in the north of the country. Always very cool, and got a few autographs, and of course had several conversations with over a few years with a man in a blue suit who I couldn't really understand who said his name was "Golin".
A few years later the parc ferme was a casino in central Auckland, and after drinks in the evening one night I wandered over to watch the cars coming back in from the days action. I knew Tommi had a bad day, and unfortunately for him he ended up in an elevator from the carpark into the hotel with a drunk kiwi (me) who was doing his best to tell the multiple world champion that it would be ok and to keep his chin up.....😊
As a spanish guy, I will translate Luis's words at that moment: Try to stat it up Carlos, try to start it up for god sake!! -Carlos: doenst start up -Luis: doenst start up, FUCKINNNNNGGGG BASTAAAAAAARRRRD!!!
Cabron and puta were the only two words I understood. 🤣
@@AidanMillward Damn you deleted my reply haha
@@Holanduzo haven’t touched your reply
@@Holanduzo it's most likely youtube deeming your comment "inappropriate" and deleting it
The image of Luis Moya yeeting his helmet through the back of the corolla is seared into my brain
Haha, that event had it all. Peak rallying IMO.
Much like CART at the time, I can't find a bad livery in the 95-99 or 2000 WRC lineup.
Find me one. Go on, I'll wait...
Also the cars were absolutely amazing.I'm sorry but a Yaris doesn't get me excited the way an Impreza does or an RS Cosworth, or a Celica or Corolla, or an Evo. The fact the cars were in more than just rallying as well helped out a ton, and the fact you could go to Tesco and see someone with an Evo or a Corrola and so on made it a hell of a lot more relatable. And oh yes, the videogames helped too, not just CMR, but you had the forgotten V-Rally series and the OG, Sega Rally too in the arcades and later on consoles PC and always showed up every year in the Guinness Book of Records year in, year out at Christmas it felt like
"Mitä??" said Tommi Mäkinen when he was informed that Carlos was out ouf the Rally with couple of hundred metres remaining. :D Such an iconic moment in history. Carlos was so cocky and very sure of himself when he was interviewed after Mäkinen was out of the rally and his championship victory was so sure and then his car broke down in the end.
1998 was a good year for F1, WRC and PS1
that's right. From 1999 and on, however, it started to decline.
Real, or main reason why Carlos left Toyota for 1993 was (told by Luis Moya) he wanted to drive for Lancia because Lancia was his favourite team when he was younger.
I get that it was his dream, but by this point, the car was obsolete and the factory team even left the sport. Not sure if he really wished to swap the best car for old machinery run by a private team.
@@ondraspendlik9759 In 92 Lancias were already not official, run by Jolly Club and the car was really competitive, it was just the lack of development through 93 what failed, Carlos did really good times in Monte Carlo, but then there were no real evolution.
The Sainz break down video is a tough watch.
The reason the Celica didn't win in 1995 was because of the late surge in the season. the season were shorter that year so you less time to get ahead. Auriol and Juha had made mistakes that year and Armin had mechanical issues. The car was on a late comeback for the title and probably would have just pipped it, if wasn't for mechanical gremlins. If they had another very talented driver other than Armin (as good as he was) and gave him the keys to try his hand at the title, then maybe just maybe (excluding disqualification). It is important to highlight this as the turbo cheat hadn't had much effect until Sweden as drivers had to get use to the new car as well.
There are 2 moments in my RAC rally spectating past I will never forget. That Margam Park moment and 1995 last stage finish line when Colin was crowned.
As a huge fan of Group B, when it ended, so did my interest in Rallying. I started watching F1 in 1984 as well so I became even more of a fan of that when Group B ended. Watching the videos on this channel, I'm definitely convinced I should have carried on watching it.......
As for the cars of my childhood, I had the Audi Quatro, Lancia Delta, Peugeot 205 GTI, Renault 5 GTI etc. I miss Group B 😢
I come for the story, I stay for the anti-lag impressions. More of that please
I remember watching it on the Beeb! Moya's back windscreen modification was mental!
Surprised it went through
Loving the rally content! More please
Not far away from getting that 100k plaque. I've enjoyed your content for years and it'll be well deserved
Ah, so Sainz broke down a few miles away from where I am from (wasn't living there then). Of all places, they were close to where my Dad lived; Mum was there too, but it's his story. He'd actually designed (along with two mates) the Welsh part (maybe just the South Wales part. Sadly, I can't check with him anymore) of that rally in the early '60s and which continued to be used in part for a long time after. Probably not at Margam, though maybe the roads I'm thinking about weren't as wide as they are now. He taught me how to drive on parts of the course (mostly the forestry. It was... Interesting! And bloody terrifying).
Serious mindf...flip when you mentioned that. All of a sudden I was 17 again, and hearing Dad's voice encouraging me to "put [my] bloody foot down" 🤣 Even my "baby" is ten years older than I was then. Yikes!
What people forget about the end of the 1998 WRC season, is McRae was leading the final two events, and his turbo went in Australia on the penultimate stage, and then more engine woes on RallyGB, meaning another retirement in service in Builth Wells. He could have been in the shout for the title as well.....
However, I was at the Sweetlamb-Hafren stage , run late afternoon, so lights were needed - he went down an escape road briefly, reversed out, carried on and came past noticeably slower than the other top drivers.
Also on leg 3 of rally Australia he started it in 6th and within 3 stages he'd climbed from 6th to 1st before the turbo blew which dropped him to 4th
That was without a doubt the best in video sponsor link I’ve seen so far. Great video as always 👍🏻
Affiliate. Sponsor implies money was paid, which it wasn’t
@@AidanMillward fair play👍🏻
In the 1977 Rally New Zealand Fiat driver Marku Alen was temporarily disqualified after being caught speeding on a public road.
Great to see rally content being covered on the channel. Even more so as I plan on visiting the upcoming WRC round this weekend!
Hope you have a good time
@@JoshuaC923 that's very kind, thank you. I have high hopes for the event. Us Central European rally fans haven't had a close by round for a while. Mix Czech rally atmosphere with world class cars and drivers and we might have a cracker!
I had Colin Macrae rally on the PS1 absolutely loved it brings back memories
That era of racing was unreal between rallying and btcc super saloons was brilliant. That's one of my favourite stories about Tommi he was a beast
i have 4 -95 lancers. the evo 1-3 body, alike Tommis yellow evo. The finnish pundants on yesterdays broadcast were like; "with checo as it with all, it's not about the speed 100%. You gotta keep in mind the 300 million supporting him, and to a drinks company this means loads of sales"
Nice ad :)
I was at Millbrook on that morning. We made it into the rally yearbook in the background of a picture of Tommi on 3 wheels.
As Luis Moya stated, there were a fault batch of connecting rods as at the next day in a press test Auriol had the same engine fairlure for the same reason.
Was on our way to Sweet Lamb in our rented transit in what was always a loooong convoy between stages when makinens evo came barrelling past at plenty over the national speed limit with the co driver hanging forward from the right hand window bizarrely trying balance the car with the wheel missing on the same side. It was about another five minutes later when we and the rest of the spectator contingent were sailing past him with the Welsh rozzers parked next to him on the side of the road. Classic 😂
“Crikey it’s the Heddlu”
@@AidanMillward exactly that 😂
Sweetlamb was on the Monday afternoon - he retired on the Sunday.....
Very much true was a golden era of rally was at the NZ 1998 rally was glad to be able to see this live but i always remembered because Castrol won it lol bring me back please..
The Policeman that pulled Tommi over was asked, possibly by Tony Mason “Did you have any difficulty pulling him over” to which the copper answered, somewhat waspishly, “I had difficulty catching him”
A Canadian likes the Blue Jays hat, even if I'm from the unciviled west, beyond the wall.
remember sitting on silverstone car park waiting for the cars to come back for another stage when the news came over the radio that Tommy had crashed on the oil off a historic car (hillman imp) and yet the fun was far from over, i miss sunday special stages and getting up silly early to stand in -5 weather in some racetrack or old historical house in the midlands (my local stage was either weston park or sutton park)
Super special stages are great.
@@AidanMillward the one at silverstone was superb, alas it didn't last long and its all gone now underneath a porsche handling track
I was pleased to learn recently that Weston's famous watersplash still exists and indeed still gets some use. Unlike Chatsworth...
Massive Aidan Milward W with the Mick's Garage sponsor
I'm spanish and "Trata de arrancarlo Carlos!" still hurts
12:28 -> I'll tell you what happened in Australia: Makinen effectively jumped the start, so he was excluded or penalized not by a Toyota protest, but by the rally organization itself. Then the big heads in the Mitsubishi team found a way to protest the exclusion, which was flawless according to the rules, but really unfair sport-wise (shortly, that year the rules about semaphores at the start of the stage and/or officials giving you the sign with their hands was unclear, and if it was unclear, then the rules were faulty, not the driver). So the protest was accepted and Makinen had no penalties even if he really jumped the start.
From there, relations between Ralliart (Mitsubishi) and Toyota Team Europe deteriorated, with the next episode happened at the 1999 Safari rally, where Makinen was disqualified by a TTE protest for reasons that were fair according to the rules, but exaggerated and a bit suspicious.
This was my era of motor sport. Remember watching Rally Report on BBC2 with the iconic theme tune.
Regarding Toyota 1995, it's perhaps worth saying that the tighter air restrictors for that year really strangled the top end of the turbo engines, and that seemed to hurt Toyota's engine more than the others. Since it was a homologation-based formula, they couldn't just make wholesale changes to the engine. So the hidden restrictor bypass was an attempt to recover lost performance, rather than to gain an additional advantage.
Which still doesn't make it right, but with a short championship (only eight events that year) and the drivers openly complaining about being down on power, one can perhaps understand why they took the route they did.
As for the Mitsubishi "Carisma GT", as others have said already it was purely a marketing thing, it was to all intents and purposes a Lancer Evolution.
I believe Mitsubishi rebadged Burns's car as the Carisma GT for marketing reasons. I hope it helps.
Interesting.
I think they did the same with the Evo 4 in 1997
@@r3uvsgaming I think you're right.
Wasn't the Carisma the pre-Evo Galant?
The Cariama was the platform sharing car built at Nedcar in the Netherlands with its sister Volvo S/V40. Shared the 1.8GDI engine as well.
But they did badge Lancers as Carisma for Richard Burns to boost its image in various rallies.
Richard Burns was a great addition to the Mitsubishi Ralliart team.
Without his strong results Mitsubishi would never won the manufacturers title in 98'.
At this point in the WRC it was also worth mentioning that Mitsubishi were the only team still competing under the old Group A rules, it meant the Evo was far closer to the road cars than any of the other manufacturers.
As for 'Carisma GT' it's literally the same the same car as a Lancer Evo, it was a marketing thing because the Lancer was not sold in all territories.
Ay Jays hat! Also yeah RSF has a 1988 Integrale, so a little before the Sainz one.
To ad to the BSCC point, the Imp won it three years on the trot, which is absolutely amazing when you consider what it was up against, how the points system worked and just what the Imp was made of. Also having read a lot of classic car mags, the Imp story has shown up a few times mostly in letters and articles. I'm not sure where that Imp is today though, but to me it's unlucky the Imp impersonated the Torrey Canyon, and it's on the organizers for not telling the WRC crews.
Just want to clear something up, at the time Tommi was not in a WRC Lancer, that would not come along for another few years, there's a lot of confusion about Tommi being a WRC driver and yet not being in a WRC spec car. To clear that up. Tommi was in the WRC, in a Group A Lancer Evo.
Hello Aidan: Thank you very much using the photo which included Ken Block at around the 9:50 mark. I'm very sad that Ken has gone. However, he wasn't the sort of person who you could imagine going with terminal cancer. Keep up the good work.
The GC8 is still one of my dream cars, alongside the Rx7 FD. A pretty cool thing i found recently was MadMike's Mazda 3 pikes peak, what a car
You don't know much about the Delta Intergrale?
The car that dominated the post Group B era with 6 straight titles?
Oh and it sounded incredible as it blasted around stages with its red mudflaps flapping away.
Do you plan on doing a video covering the Polo WRC programme and it’s abrupt end even though they had a 2017 car ready to go and tested.
Would make a good story.
As far as WRC cars went, Lancer Evo = Carisma GT, despite being different production cars. They did it for marketing purposes, basically advertising 2 cars with... 1 car.
Been waiting for your story on this for a while. Excellent work as ever, Aidan.
Nice Murray/Toyota advert ref' towards the end
The only reason the Evo 5 is my dream car is because of this exact rally
I understand Toyota wanted to axe their WRC program (along with the Le Mans one) in order to focus on F1, but looking at how nearly the Corolla WRC won the drivers championship in 1998 and finally winning the constructors one in 1999 left me a sensation that Toyota Team Europe could push for more in the next millenium.
Makes sense to pursuit new challenges within the F1, but once again we learn that Toyota belongs more to rally and sportscars.
I actually watched footage of that last race of the 1998 season, complete with Luis Moya's helmet throw. That was the most gutting way to lose a World Championship.
I don't suppose you could do a video on the couple of races Nigel Mansell did in the BTCC, please? As I remember, he performed pretty well...
Excelent video, remebr this well.
Hats off for the Sparkbrook joke haha
that Sparkbrook comment cracked me up!
Thanks for doing this one!!!
Blue Jay fan as well!
I know where one of platos vectras is now it looks awesome and still wins in classic
McRae was UK people's champion.
Sainz shouldve won that years title...but Tommi was solid too and just so happened to have luck on his side
1:59 facts this here is exactly what’s missing from rally these days. The cars technically wise are back in the Group B era but the car models themselves are missing the pizzazz that other generations did. We desperately need more rally1 manufacturers, I don’t even know what a modern Ford Puma looks like I thought they were like FWD kit cars that were races in the 90s
I loved Toca 2
3:57 - “NOICE”!!!!!
🎉🎉🎉🎉
You really need to do a video for the 2001 season. It was mayhem.
I did.
My favourite rally story!
Makinen was unlucky in that rally to coming unstuck on the patch of oil on day 1 but Sainz's late misfortune was very cruel. I was 7 at the time and a big fan of the WRC in those days and used to watch the BBC highlights which were in black and white due to our reception in Ireland.
oooo. bit of a west mids nitpick i'm afraid but codies aren't (and certainly weren't at the time) birmingham based, they're out in warwickshire, the far side of coventry and leamington/warwick
I don't think enough praise is given to the Toyota slogan reference dropped right at the end of this video.
If I remember the Makinen/police thing, I think the officer said "you can't drive this car" to which the reply was "*I* can drive this car", which was met with "legally, I cannot let you drive this car".
Or was that Gronholm in Australia? One of the 2.
That was gronholm in wales
@@danielpooley7148 that... makes it even better
Talking of rally drivers getting nicked. I remember on one episode of Top Gear they were talking about a story where so local police set up a speed trap.
For people who talk in spanish, the iconic moment was the "TRATA DE ARRANCARLO CARLOS, TRATA DE ARRANCARLOO" ("get it started carlos") from Carlos's co-driver, Luis Moya, and later his "ME C*GO EN SU P*TA MADREE" ("F*****K IT") throwing his helmet into the car and kicking it. It was painful to see at that moment.
Fun fact Mäkinen found out about Saintz mid interview for finnish sports news. It's on youtube if you wanna see. It's all in finnish ofcourse and 240p but it's real.
Im pretty sure that Freddy Loix and Richard Burns drove Carisma GT's that year. If i remember correctly, Carisma's were like a hatchback version of the Lancer. So, that's probably the confusion.
50 mtrs from the end of Rally and car caught fire, Leob in 2000's had 3 wheels on his wagon and got an escort back to the Service park Which lead FIA saiding 4 wheels and you got super Rally today But back them Bin it and you are out
May of already been said, but did burns not have a sponsor by the name of carisma in yellow down the side of the car, Evo 4 was it not? Iv seen the car a few times at shows, autosportinternational, festival of speed and race retro.
The Corolla arrived at the end of the 1997 WRC.
1,000 Lakes; Gronholm & Auriol.....
Has anyone ever told you that you look like the German HipHop artist known as DCVDNS?
Let's go Blue Jays!
Tomi Makkinen was dominant in the late 90s in that evo5
Although Carlos lost through bad luck, he won in 1990 because of Kankunnens' bad luck sliding off a snowy Lombard Rac stage near the end of the event. Kankunnen waved down the next driver to slow him down before the hidden ice patch. Carlos was the second driver on that stage,. Had he slid off too, Juha would have the title.
Carlos was already world champion before UK Rally in 1990.
For sale Historic Hillman Imp Rally car.
Not been used for many years due to oil leak. Can export anywhere other than Finland
Love your hat bro... 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
Damn remember when we had rallies??
8:20 The same thing would happen to Marcus Gronholm, ironically at the same rally (different year)
The funniest thing about Mäkinen's miracle is that Finnish television managed to get the moment on video when Mäkinen got the phone call about Sainz retiring.
ruclips.net/video/c2aqaElX6ZQ/видео.html
Basically they were gonna make a bit for the television news on how dissapointed he was, but right as they started rolling, Mäkinen's phone rings. And rest is, as they say, history.
Apparently they had a very moist night afterwards and the bar bill that Mäkinen signed off in the morning was about 20 meters long.
#GoFinland.
Can Aidan or someone in the comments talk about the fading away of rally from the mainstream? From where I was at the time it seemed that rally was killed in a meeting at channel 4 when they decided to move the highlights to a graveyard slot. But there’s probably more to it than that!
From a UK perspective; the TV viewing figures weren't good enough; simple as that - Ch4 got more viewers for cricket/Hollyoaks, etc And since then, the highlights on terrestrial TV have moved from ITV, ITV4, Dave, Ch4, Five, ITV4...etc Highlights keep moving as the figures just aren't good enough.
And it also didn't help that our WRC round, RallyGB went from an event all over the country, including the Sunday spectator stages, to a solely Welsh based event....so less casual fans - and the mainstream media coverage dried up
IMO “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” kind of died when the vehicles started using spec engines and drivelines. When manufacturers had to build a couple thousand 4wd turbocharged little rocket ships to sell to regular people, modifying those cars to go rallying showed the public what they could build. Modern rally cars are just something vaguely similar to a production body slipped over the same base
The GR Yaris does carry the torch of homologation rally cars to the modern era. The GR Yaris Rally2 which is planned to debut as early as Monte Carlo Rally next year kept the road car's chassis and the 1.6L 3cyl engine (which was also homologated specifically for Rally2/R5 regulation)
As a longtime diehard fan of Nijigasaki and FIA WRC, what Makkinen did 25yrs before is most unbeliavable!
8:15 - When was “THE MOST RECENT”
“Cop pulling over a WRC car”
“INCIDENT”????
Great video. But the btcc cars are nothing like the road version🤭
You don’t need to add the “Senior” When saying Carlos Sainz over a picture of a Rally Corolla. We know.
For some reason my last comment got removed cause of violation of regs?
Either way, I was at the Milbrook stages and have actual pictures from the corner where Makinen crashed at and a Skoda F2 car ended up doing worse at.
Drop me a PM and i'll be happy to share the pictures.
RUclips cans be funny sometimes. Sometimes abusive comments get through but the innocent ones get deleted as soon as they’re up.
At least I haven’t been accused of deleting it myself this time.
@@AidanMillward Very strange, but anycase, do you have a prefered email? I can drop the link there given youtube doesn't seem to like the imgur link
There's some decent shots which my dad caught on his 35mm camera.
The Charisma thing was just branding (maybe different taillights). Mitsubishi replaced the Lancer road car in Europe with the Charisma from 1995/6, a joint project with Volvo (sharing same floorpan as the S40) and made in the Netherlands not Japan.
The Mitsubishi Group A rally cars were all Lancers. The Charisma couldn't be used for Group A rallying because they didn't make the neccesary 4WD 2L turbo version. Group A was for lightly modified road cars, so you could only use 4WD if the road car had it - hence why Celica GT-Fours, Escort Cosworths and so on existed, they were Group A homologation specials.
The World Rally Car regulations for 1997 changed this (and ran in parallel with Group A, both were eligable). It was designed specifically to avoid the need for expensive homologation specials and encourage more manufacturers. The regulations would allow you to take any car and modify it to become equivalent to the Group A cars without having to produce a road car. You could add 4wd to a 2wd car, add a turbo to a normally aspirated engine, increase the track of the car and so on.
Where's your umlauts from Ä?
How do two countries that share a common language pronounce a car name so differently? The British say suh-lee-ca, while Americans say sell-uh-ca. I'd love to see some old Toyota commercials from Britain pronouncing it that way.