COOL RUNNINGS

ETU TUPALA yells a stream of expletives as his home-built rally car slams violently into a snowbank. He’s been leading a race across a frozen lake, gunning his ramshackle engine to the limit only to fishtail into a corner. Now, after wrestling madly with the steering wheel to regain control, his car is wedged into the snow and facing the wrong direction.

“Vittu, vittu, vittu,” shouts the 16-year-old in Finnish (best translated as ‘fuck, fuck, fuck!’). He scrambles from his car only to see rival teenage drivers hurtling past, their battered cars hissing steam and throwing up flecks of grimy snow in their wake.

This is Rokkiralli: a Finnish DIY rally scene and a tight-knit community made up of passionate petrolheads, eccentric tinkerers and family teams. The cost of each car is capped at €650 in order to create a level playing field – one where creative ability, driving skills and an appetite for chaos are the only things that matter. What you’re left with is a competition that distils racing to its purest form.

In the junior series, 15-to-18-year-olds race on icy roads and frozen lakes around Finland each winter. Teenage car culture