Our featured driver this week is yet another legend of our times. Sadly no longer with us, Colin McRae, must be one the biggest names in rallying in the 1990’s which will remain with us for ever. He was the first British person and the youngest to win the World Rally Championship Drivers’ title, a record he still holds. Missed but never forgotten, here is his story.

Colin McRae 1993 with Subaru

Colin Steele McRae, MBE was born in Lanark, Scotland on August 5th 1968. He was the son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae. Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion. McRae was married to Alison, and had two children, Hollie and Johnny. They moved to the principality of Monaco in 1995, partly through Colin’s friendship with David Coulthard. However, as his young family grew up, he spent more time back at his home in Lanarkshire, accepting the higher tax liability of living in Scotland. The couple bought the 17th century Jerviswood House.

He began his competitive career in motorsport riding trial bikes at an early age, despite being more interested in four wheeled machines rather than two wheel bikes. At the age of sixteen, through the Coltness Car Club, McRae discovered autotesting, he soon traded his bike for a Mini Cooper and started competing. A year later, he began to negotiate with another club member to use his Hillman Avenger for the Kames Stages, a single-staged rally venue not far from McRae’s home. McRae finished the event fourteenth; first in his class although he had run most of the event in a higher position.

In 1986, driving a Talbot Sunbeam, McRae entered the Scottish Rally Championship and soon made a name for himself with his speed and exciting style of driving. His driving style drew many comparisons to Finnish ex-World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, whom McRae had always idolised. In 1988 he performed a giant-killing act when he took the Scottish Rally Championship series crown in a humble Vauxhall Nova. Craving more power, his next car was a Ford Sierra XR 4×4.

His first WRC event was the 1987 Swedish Rally behind the wheel of his Nova, and again two years later, driving the Sierra and finishing 15th overall. Later that year, he finished 5th overall at Rally New Zealand in a rear wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. By 1990 McRae was driving a Sierra Cosworth 4×4 and achieved sixth place in that year’s RAC Rally, despite several accidents. 1991 saw McRae turn professional as he was signed by Prodrive boss David Richards to his Subaru team in the British Rally Championship for an annual wage of approximately £10,000. McRae was British Rally Champion in both 1991 and 1992, soon graduating to the Subaru factory team at World Rally Championship level. 1992 also saw Colin McRae make his début in the British Touring Car Championship, with a one-off appearance for the Prodrive-run BMW factory team at the Knockhill round. In the second of the two races of the event, McRae collided with Matt Neal. Race officials found McRae to have caused an avoidable collision and subsequently disqualified him.

He remained at Subaru from 1993 to 1998 when he made the move to Ford. He remained with Ford until 2002 with mixed results over the four years. McRae’s outstanding performance with the Subaru World Rally Team enabled the team to win the World Rally Championship Constructors’ title three times in succession in 1995, 1996 and 1997. After a four-year spell with the Ford Motor Co. team, which saw McRae win nine events, he moved to Citroën World Rally Team in 2003 where, despite not winning an event, he helped them win the first of their three consecutive manufacturers’ titles.

With victory in the Safari Rally in 2002, McRae made the record books as the driver with most event wins in the World Rally Championship. His record has since been broken by Carlos Sainz, Sébastien Loeb and Marcus Grönholm. McRae’s contract with Ford came to an end following the 2002 season, and after reportedly asking for wages of five million pounds a year, Ford decided against renewing the contract, reluctant to commit such a high amount of their budget to a driver’s salary.

Colin moved to Citroen in 2003 where his second place finish on his début in Monte Carlo alongside Loeb and Carlos Sainz whom, aboard the Xsara WRC, helped complete a 1–2–3 finish, transpired to be the finest result he would achieve for the team. The season was to end with him seventh in the drivers’ championship, with no victories.

As the only other potential alternative suitors, Subaru instead eventually chose Mikko Hirvonen to partner Petter Solberg, McRae found himself without a drive for the 2004 season. He instead pursued other interests, including competing in the Dakar Rally and the 24 Hours of Le Mans to name two.

In 2004 and 2005 McRae represented Great Britain in the Race of Champions alongside Formula One driver and fellow Scot, David Coulthard. For the 2006 event England and Scotland entered separate teams with McRae and Coulthard re-uniting to represent Scotland.

Colin’s name was promoted further by Codemaster and other game manufacturers as they made games featuring rallies and driving games. There are many variations available for Xbox, Playstation, etc.

Another surprise from Colin was the McRae R4. He chose the 2006 Goodwood Festival of Speed to unveil the McRae R4, which had been conceived at the beginning of 2005. The intention was to make a cheaper alternative to WRCs (World Rally Cars) with significantly lower running costs. The McRae R4 was designed for use in rallying, rally cross, circuit racing and ice racing events, with the possibility of a one-make race series. Designed by Colin McRae and Dave Plant and built by DJM Race Preparation, the McRae R4’s chassis is based on a steel safety cage with carbon panelling front and rear, and a steel-covered cockpit area. The body styling has been done by Keith Burden and Tom Webster. It appears that some components of the vehicle have been taken from existing production cars, the door line in particular appears very close to that of the Ford Ka.
Alison McRae has said that she would like production of the car to continue following Colin’s death.
The R4 appears in Codemasters titles Colin McRae: DiRT, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 and Dirt 3.

McRae died in 2007 when the helicopter he was piloting crashed near his home. The accident also claimed the lives of his son and two family friends. Jackie Stewart and Dario Franchitti were amongst the large number of faces from the world of motorsport who attended his funeral in Scotland.

Colin was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to motorsport in 1996 and in November 2008 he was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

Colin McRae Vision charity here.

Visit Colin McRae website here.

WRC hall of fame “Legend” here.

Books on Colin here.

Racing Legend film here.
Tribute to Colin McRae here.
Pedal to the metal here.

Click images to enlarge,

More featured drivers here.