RallySport Magazine's Jeff Whitten looks back on the brilliant career of Swedish rally driver, Erik Carlsson, and of riding with the Saab ambassador at Victoria's Winton Motor Raceway.
Erik Carlsson was one of the greats of Swedish and world rallying. (Photo: Wikipedia)It was an experience you could never forget, yet to legendary Swede, Erik Carlsson, it was all in a day’s work.
Powering down the back straight at Victoria’s Winton Motor Raceway, three blokes sitting uncomfortably close to each other in the back seat of a new Saab 96 demo, another passenger in the front seat and the master, Carlsson, a huge man, at the wheel pulling a perfect handbrake turn at 40mph on the bitumen track just a few metres wide.
The group of passengers (of which I was one) turned pale with fright, but Carlsson, emitting a large Swedish chuckle, did it again and again, demonstrating not just how capable the new car was, but what incredible talent and car control he possessed.
Erik Carlsson was the earliest of the list of drivers who took the Trollhatten firm from obscurity to the marque’s incredible string of rally successes in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
There were a handful of drivers who backed him up and took the firm to notoriety – Carl-Magnus Skog, Pat Moss, Simo Lampinen, Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund.
Together they put Saab on the word map thanks to their spectacular results in world rallying.
But of all the drivers, none could command an audience like Carlsson. His path and that of Stirling Moss’ sister, Pat, crossed during their rally careers, resulting in the marriage of the pair in 1963, after which Carlsson moved from his Swedish birthplace to England, a country that he loved.
The pair regularly competed against each other – she won the European ladies’ title five times, while Erik was kept busy with a string of wins, including the 1962 RAC Rally. His list of rally victories included winning the Monte Carlo Rally twice and the RAC Rally three times, plus a host of major and minor events.
Born in 1929, Carlsson was a huge man both in stature and in presence, and was known universally as “Mr Saab”, both in his homeland and around the world. His close friends included the Swedish royal family.
For those of us who remain and can remember the great man in action, we will always associate him with the strange-looking (to some) Saab 96 with its rounded bodywork. According to Carlsson, the car was designed to have that roly-poly look so that the car could be easily rolled onto its side or its roof in the event of repairs being needed during rallies.
There will never be another Erik Carlsson, and the world will be a poorer place for that.
Erik Carlsson: 1929-2015
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