In Finland, with its 5.5 million inhabitants, the percentage of motorsport fans is clearly higher than in most other countries, but sometimes this hobby takes on very unusual forms.
Two Finnish racing fans built a life-sized Formula 1 car out of snow. According to Iltalehti newspaper, Julius Käkel and Jaakko Muinonen came up with the idea during evening meetings in a bar.
Winter is quite snowy this year and last weekend the friends realized their project in the courtyard of the house on the outskirts of the town of Lappeenranta. The statue shows off the number 77, under which Valtteri Bottas competes in the World Championship, and in general it more or less resembles a racing car, also because the wings and Halo system are made of different material.
In addition, in the cockpit of the “snowmobile” the “racer” fits perfectly.
According to one of the authors of the monument, friends were watching the sports channel Viaplay in a bar one evening and their attention was drawn to a message about a competition for fans: whoever builds the most original model of a Formula 1 car gets a ride to the Grand Prix of the Netherlands.
“At first we had the idea of building a car out of wood, but the deadline was too tight,” remembers Julius, an engineering student. “Then we thought we had enough snow in the backyard of the house.”
The budget for the project was minimal: there was no need to pay for the snow, and the wooden parts from which the wings were made were found on the site of a recently demolished old house. I only had to spend money on paint and for six euros I bought plastic tubes from which the Halo system is made.
By the way, Julius was once into karting, so he has an idea about racing technology. He and Jaakko were joined by two more of their friends, and things moved quickly, as everyone had a common idea of what the end result should be.
“We had a lot of fun, all our relatives gathered to look at the car,” continued Julius. – Everyone was amazed at how similar it turned out to the real thing. If the owners of the house don’t break it, it will melt in their yard. And the pieces of wood come in handy for the traditional bonfire on the day of the summer solstice, for example.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
