Audi legend Stig Blomqvist turns 80: From driving instructor to rally ace with his left foot

To get through a bend quickly in a front-wheel-drive car without being pushed outwards by understeer, the driver should brake with their left foot. This causes the rear wheels to lock, the rear axle to lose traction, and the front wheels to pull the car through the bend.

This is how Stig Blomqvist, who celebrates his 80th birthday on 29 July, learnt to drive on snow and ice in his native Sweden.

He had, after all, begun his rallying career in a Saab – essentially a well-behaved everyday car. Yet it was precisely this technique of braking with the left foot that would also stand him in good stead at the height of his career, whilst driving a works Audi Quattro. This car, revolutionary for its time with its four-wheel drive, also tended to drift outwards at the entrance to bends. Moreover, its turbocharged engine – which, due to a large turbocharger, still suffered from what was known as a ‘big lag’ in its response – needed to be kept happy at all times.

So the solution was as follows: the driver’s right foot remained firmly on the accelerator pedal, whilst the left foot constantly danced back and forth between the brake and clutch pedals. The result was constant forward momentum; incidentally, this also meant shifting gears quickly, and thanks to four driven wheels, the car kept moving briskly forward.

Using this tactic, the seemingly laid-back and somewhat taciturn Swede went on to win the World Rally Championship title in 1984 and finish as runner-up in 1985 – his greatest successes, incidentally, always came in cars from the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer.

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Even Walter Röhrl, himself a master behind the wheel, sought Blomqvist’s advice at the start of his time at Audi. He had Blomqvist demonstrate that left-brake technique to him, learnt it quickly and refined it too.

For Blomqvist, his career had begun in a very specialised branch of motorsport in his home country: rallycross. Driving a Saab 96 – that quirky, round car with a Ford engine – he achieved his first successes; in 1973, together with co-driver Arne Hertz, he also won his first World Championship round in this car, the Rally of Sweden.

Further Saab models followed, including those with turbo engines, always accompanied by the left-brake trick mentioned earlier. Prior to this, Blomqvist – something many of his rivals were unaware of – had successfully completed training as a driving instructor at the adult education centre in his home town of Örebro.

He joined Audi Sport in 1982 and immediately caused a sensation, again at the Rally Sweden. Whilst his team-mates Hannu Mikkola and Michèle Mouton struggled with the difficult conditions there and even collided with one another, the quiet man from the countryside pulled away with his distinctive driving technique and won this World Championship round in commanding fashion.

It was to be the first of a total of eight World Championship victories in an Audi Quattro; he drove his final rally in 2006 in a Subaru Impreza Group N, once again on home snow, and once again using left-hand brakes.

By the end of his career, Blomqvist could look back on 122 rallies, eleven top-step podium finishes, and an incredible 486 special stages won.

But he had also made a name for himself away from European rally tracks. In 1983, for instance, he and co-driver Björn Cederberg drove an Audi Quattro at an average speed of almost 190 km/h over unpaved tracks during a rally in Argentina, and a year later, in an 840 PS Ford RS 200 prototype, he claimed victory at the legendary Pikes Peak Hill Climb in the USA.

Blomqvist most recently proved in 2022 that he’s still got it at the famous Race of Champions. On that occasion, he manoeuvred his former Audi company car, with around 500 PS, so masterfully around the track that even an electric supercar with twice the power could only manage second place against him.

Once again, his left-braking technique was a thing of beauty, as was his exquisitely delicate control of the accelerator and that harmonious glide through the tightest of hairpin bends – motoring as an art form.

Even today, the man of few words, with his bear-like build, still gets behind the wheel and, if requested, demonstrates his immense driving skills at the Jokkmokk test track in Sweden, which now bears his name. Perhaps, who knows, he’ll even do a few spectacular laps there on his birthday?