We’ve all been there, late for a meeting and looking for a short cut to avoid the worst of the traffic. Finnish prime minister Petteri Orpo found a spectacular solution to just that problem when he made a film to highlight his work with the National Coalition Party.
Travelling from the prime minister’s formal Helsinki residence Kesäranta to a party meeting in Jyväskylä, he took the mode of transport which arguably comes most naturally to his fellow Finns. He took an Audi quattro S1 E2 – the sustainably fuelled evolution car belonging to Secto Automotive founder Matias Henkola.
“I think it’s a given, if your country’s prime minister calls and asks to borrow your car, for sure he will borrow the car,” Henkola told DirtFish. “That’s just the way it goes. But also, as a Finnish citizen, I see this as a real positive that Petteri and his party want to get the message out there that they want to get things done and not just sit there complaining.
“As a lover of the sport, it’s also really good that he has chosen rallying to get this message across. Finland has just won another gold medal in the ice hockey and we might have seen the PM on the ice – that would have been a nice way to send the message as well, but I’m really glad they went with rallying.
“It was very cool to work with the PM on this.”
Stepping out of the Audi, which was run in National Coaltion Party livery, Orpo referenced Finnish president Alexander Stubb’s trip in a fighter plane last week. He said: “What an experience! We have to sit down and compare stories with Alex whether the fighter jet or the rally car was more extreme.”
