My Job, My Passion
At what point does a hobby turn into a lifelong, all-consuming passion? For Mika Särkelä, Communications Manager at Nissan Finland, he clearly remembers what sparked his fanatical love of cars from an early age. "I wanted to have a nice looking car, which clearly no one else had. My individual idea of how my car should look like."
Inspired by watching circuit racing on TV as a child, as soon as Mika reached his late teens, he was buying up bargain automobiles and restoring them at his countryside home in Finland. However, he remembers his first real project wasn't a runaway success: "It took so much time that my aunt gave it away. It was trashed!"
But for Mika, this only fuelled his desire to try again. One of his next projects, converting a campervan to travel the wilds of northern Finland with his girlfriend, had slightly better results: "Not long after, we got married!"
In the years since, Mika has amassed a small armada of 19 unique and wonderful cars, some of which have been restored and tuned up by himself. "The whole hobby for me is doing everything, and learning everything. If you don't know something, then you just have to take it apart and figure out how it's made."
Among his collection of cars, one brand continually features in his collection: Nissan of course. "Some of my favourite cars to work on are 90s Nissan Primeras" Mika says. So much so, in fact, he's worked on three! One of these includes a special eGT version, which Mika is modifying to be a replica of the factory Nissan Primera ST from the Japanese Touring Car series. "Completely stripped and restored to meet touring car standards, the engine is a legendary Nissan SR20VE that has been rebuilt to have more than 200hp – perfect for racing," notes Mika. "Even though these cars [are] from the 90's, the engineering is still really modern."
Out on the racetrack
Along with the Nissan Skyline, the engineering of these models has made them perfect for tuning up for Mika's other love: racing. "It's so satisfying when you start with these old cars and tune them up to get the maximum performance out. I am rebuilding the whole suspension and powertrain when converting these to suit racing," Mika adds.
With the addition of a Nissan GT-R engine and sequential race gearbox to one of his legacy Skylines, Mika says these now-decades old vehicles are soon fit to race even against the strongest competition. "It's really simple and nice technology – and I have built the engine and still you can win!"
Victory is of course that much sweeter when you have built the car yourself. And living in Finland, the country's climate makes it the ideal place for restoring cars as a hobby. Following a busy race season in summer, Mika typically uses the long cold winters to plan new projects and get his latest cars in shape. "After the last races and hobby car meetings are done, then I get a crazy need to work on something new," he laughs.
Looking ahead to the next season's races, there's always one track that sits at the very top of his mind: Nurburgring. In fact, when asked to describe his top route anywhere on Earth, Mika still says: "I would have a road trip to Nurburging and drive there for one week. That would be insane!"
To race there, Mika clarifies you need certain licenses. "I currently have my Nurburgring B licence, which I got after competing at the RCN race series. To get my A licence, I must attend at least 3 VLN races. After that, I'm able to start racing in a bigger class with a more powerful Skyline, that's got 500hp. So, with that, I'm licensed to race with the big guys!"
The Micra Race
Mika stresses the most important aspect of his hobby is to have fun. And for that, he says you don't have to have the most powerful car of all time. This is what gave birth to the Micra Race.
Initially organised by Mika for Nissan employees, dealers and journalists in Finland, numerous teams of racing enthusiasts now compete to tune up and race their versions of Nissan's trusty Micra hatchback, attending several events held on Finnish circuits throughout the year. "The races usually take about 6 hours and involve 5-6 drivers, so it really feels like a team effort and we have so much fun racing together. Thanks to its 16-valve engine, it's such a modern and easy model to work with. With tiny modifications, you get a really fast track car!"
The level of enthusiasm for the Micra Race has been so great that Mika says he's already got a calendar of several races lined up this year (pending health regulations).
Working for Nissan, Mika says there are always more like-minded automotive fanatics among his colleagues who are willing to share tips on improving cars. "There's an insane amount of knowledge here: people are quite proud of what they are doing. So if you ask them for tips on your restoration projects, they will tell you what you want to know!"
