How Walter Röhrl prevented chaos in an unusual position
12/25/2013
There is an old saying that all good things come from above. This may often be the case, but certainly not always.
At the photo shoot around 20 years ago with Walter Röhrl and Keke Rosberg and the then 4x4-powered vehicle collection in Saalbach for the magazine "sport-auto", help definitely didn't come from above for once.
Various funny moments characterized this test day on snow and ice. Imagine, for example, the long Walter Röhrl in the Fiat Panda 4x4. On this day, it became clear once again just how bad we normal consumers are at driving compared to a Walter Röhrl car.
I looked for a bend with the right background, focused (at that time everything was still without autofocus) and let Walter do the rest. He knew this kind of "shooting" and only asked where I had the absolute sharpness. And then drove every vehicle, no matter how different, through the bend at exactly this point as crosswise as possible. After two passes, the pictures were in the can. With Keke Rosberg, things got a little more complicated. It took several passes and the cars never really seemed to be under control compared to Walter.
But the highlight came later in the afternoon. The test cars were lined up on an icy mountain road ready for the last picture and all that was left to do was wait for the beautiful twilight.
As is always the case with photo shoots where space is tight, at the crucial moment a road user came along in the belief that this was a blockade of complete idiots. The approaching farmer tried to stop his car while swearing, but this was not easy on the completely icy road. In any case, his car never really came to a standstill. With the side window open, he started swearing loudly at us all. Gradually, we realized that his slow slide would almost certainly end in one of our test vehicles.
In response to Keke Rosberg's statement: "I don't think that's going to be good", Walter calmly walked up to the vehicle, which had still not come to rest, took over the wheel from the outside and directed the visibly surprised driver: "Now let's get off the brakes, I just said don't brake, now brake very lightly, not so hard, yes, just like that."
Walter walked along with the bewildered farmer and skillfully steered his car past the test vehicles before bidding a friendly farewell to the angry driver. The farmer, still beside himself with rage, disappeared around the next bend, still swearing loudly.
Laughing, we were finally able to complete the last shots of the day.
