A few times when he was with us we saw him do some really impressive work on the car. He was, of course, an incredibly mechanically minded driver. “He drove a car beautifully without stressing the gearbox or anything unnecessarily.
#Colin mcrae rally subaru drivers
“Colin was one of the smoothest most mechanically sympathetic drivers I ever worked with,” said M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson. A greater understanding of what made Colin tick involved looking behind the speed and the headlines. His swashbuckling speed was fabulous headline fodder for any number of stories which quickly found their way around the world once he took to the stages. īeyond the natural ability, starting on bikes and between the cones helped to enhance the young McRae’s innate understanding of what a car was doing. And autotesting was a way he could start on that road at 16.”Ĭelebrate the 25th anniversary of Colin McRae's World Championship title back in 1995 as he became the youngest ever world rally. “Colin wanted to go rallying,” said Jimmy, “that was all he ever wanted to do. The 1985 West of Scotland Autotest title was testament to his ability on the handbrake. “I thought he’d be more keen to go flat-out on a motorbike than handbraking a Mini around cones in a car park.” Instead, he took to autotesting – a basic form of gymkhana. Back in the early 80s, there were no such openings for an impatient McRae.
#Colin mcrae rally subaru series
These days, the likes of Kalle Rovanperä and Oliver Solberg are engaging ‘stage’ mode for the first time aged 14 in series such as the Latvian Junior category. The move to four wheels came quickly, but in an unexpected form. “I’d always rather he’d been in cars than on bikes.” “I wanted to keep him away from motorbikes,” said his mother Margaret. That wasn’t a move which went down well in the Lanark family home. But the foundations of Colin’s global recognition came from what he could do with a rally car.īorn as the son of five-time British champion Jimmy McRae, Colin cut his competitive teeth on two wheels, trials riding. He fronted a Ford television commercial and helped to develop his eponymous computer game. In the mid-to-late 1990s, he became a household name. If anything, the Scot’s legend grows stronger year on year. More than 13 years since he died in a helicopter crash, the 1995 world champion remains an iconic figure in the sport of rallying. How’s that? How come it’s Scotland’s Saltire that’s painted on the rocks and the road on the Fafe stage? And what makes a blue T-shirt with a yellow ‘MacRay’ (sic) fading fast – but still just about legible – such a popular choice in the South American hills above Cordoba? McRae built his WRC career at Subaru before switching to Ford
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Type those two words into your favourite search engine and you’ll be offered close to six million results in six-tenths of a second.Īs far as Google is concerned, McRae’s more popular than both the WRC’s superstar Sébs rolled into one. I wasn’t directly involved in the sport, but I came away from there thinking: ‘Oh, you are quite famous, aren’t you…’”Īny lingering doubt about Colin McRae’s popularity would be put to bed by a simple search of cyberspace. All these people were shouting his name and asking for his autograph. “There were people everywhere,” said Stuart. The door opened and, in an instant, Stuart got an insight into Colin’s world. “When we get out of the car,” said the older of the two, “follow me.
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Approaching the media centre in Cardiff, Colin had some words of advice for Stuart.