Kievari Rantapirtti, positioned about 30 miles outdoors Jyväskylä within the coronary heart of Finland’s ‘1000 Lakes’ area, is often known as the ‘House of Kalle’.

Rovanperä, that’s: the double World Rally Champion grew up simply minutes away and honed his preternatural driving abilities on the forest advanced, on each its gravel tracks in summer season and its frozen ice lake in winter.

Now it’s my activate that frozen lake – and I’m behind the wheel of a Toyota GR Yaris besides. Ice is the proper canvas on which to showcase the new hatch: energy onerous right into a nook, dab the brakes, flip the wheel, then hit the accelerator, utilizing the throttle pedal to regulate the slide.

So supremely balanced is the chassis of the GR Yaris that I can nearly hear an enthusiastic Finn roaring his approval. “Turn, turn, brake, power, power, power. Yessss, more power!”

Except the enthusiastic Finn isn’t in my head: his identify is Cedric and he’s sitting within the passenger seat of the GR Yaris, providing tuition meant to show me from Bumbling Brit into Flying Finn. Cedric is the son of Esko Reiners, who runs a rallying elements provide enterprise and college that has a fleet of such Toyota scorching hatches.

He additionally has some expertise right here: the primary automobile he ever drove was a Group N Subaru Impreza. On this frozen lake. When he was 10.

That form of ardour for rallying and the necessity in winter to deal with tough driving circumstances on slender, undulating roads maybe explains why this area – dwelling to Finland’s spherical of the WRC – has produced so many rally drivers. There’s Rovanperä, after all, and his dad Harri.

Then there’s Mikko Hirvonen, Henri Toivonen (plus his circuit-racing brother Harri) and four-time WRC champion Tommi Mäkinen, amongst others.