Normally, well I post tons of shit around here.
This is one of the rare occaisons I wont. Posted on another forum, had to share it.
I was a massive fan of Colin.. and this was a reminder of just how good he was.
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I first saw Colin drive a rally car in 1987 when he ran this Group A 1300cc Vauxhall Nova Sport, he was known to finish in the top 10 of international rallies in this car, he did that by carrying more speed through corners than any other driver, Colin always did it his way when it came to attacking a corner, his style was a million miles away from the slow in and fast out technique which most drivers employ. It was obvious even at this stage that Colin was going to be a top driver.
Colin's first outings in a competitive Group A car came in various Sierra Cosworths. Here he is during the 1990 Ypres 24 Hours in Belgium, an early overseas event in his career.
For 1991 Colin signed a contract with Prodrive to run a Group A Subaru Legacy in the British Rally Championship, this was a very successful partnership, gaining them the title in 1991 & 1992. As early on as 1991 McRae led Britain's
WRC round only to crash out, much to the dissapointment of all British rally fans!
1992 saw Prodrive give a limited
WRC programme to McRae, this netted some reasonable results considering Colin's inexperience on the events. 1993 would be a pivotal year in McRae's career, he won the Rally of New Zealand in a Legacy, this was the cars last appearance at top level, so the Subaru bosses were delighted with the result, it also marked the end to a 17 year drought for British rally drivers on the
WRC, Roger Clark being the last driver to win an event (1976 RAC)
Here is Colin on the 1993 Tour de Corse in a Prodrive Legacy, Colin described this car in an interview many years later as his favourite Subaru rally car, he said it had just the right amount of technology without spoiling the driver input, these were the very early days of active diffs etc.
Not sure what this photographer is taking a photo of!
1994 saw the switch to the more compact and nimble Impreza, a poor start to the season almost brought his career at Subaru to an end, the top brass in Japan called for him to be sacked but it was Dave Richards who stepped in and said no, perhaps he saw a bit of Ari Vatanen in Colin (a driver who Richards had nurtured in his co driving days) three
WRC wins came later in '94, including a hugely popular win on his home event.
By 1995 Colin was without doubt the fastest rally driver in the
WRC, he did have a bit of a crash or win reputation but he really did deliver the goods.
McRae made the Rally of New Zealand his event in the early 90's, 1995 saw him complete a hat-trick of wins on the event.
The penultimate round of the 1995
WRC, Colin was leading the champiopnship ahead of his team mate Carlos Sainz, even though they were at the Spanish round, there was no doubt that McRae was the faster driver and as far as he was concerned, beating Carlos in his own back yard was just a formality.
Subaru driver line up for the 1995 Catalunya Rally - McRae, Sainz and Liatti.
McRae set off into the lead, driving at his very best, the way we all love to remember him.
By the last day of the event, team orders were issued by Dave Richards, the orders were for Colin to drop back and Carlos to win, a big argument allegedly went off between McRae and Richards but he had to obey in the end, Richards and his Prodrive team had a deal with sponsors 555 Subaru, if they took the drivers title a huge cash bonus would go their way, if Carlos and Colin finished 1-2 then this would be assured, the question was would it be Colin or Carlos who took the title at the RAC Rally.
It was a love/hate relationship between driver and team boss.
Colin had a storming drive on the RAC and Carlos retired.
It was all smiles as Colin became the youngest ever World Rally Champion. As a schoolboy spectator I had often wondered if a British driver would win a
WRC event, never mind the actual
WRC title, this was the stuff of dreams to British rally fans - Happy days :-)
