The Life and Death of Colin McRae

The WRC took a turn in the 90’s, the powerful engines of the Group B era were ditched in favour of smaller engines running lower boost pressures and this led to the formation of Group A rallying which was much safer but at the same time still rather exciting. One of the Factory teams that took part in this was Subaru and they needed soemone to represent their team in this new era, so they found a young Scotsman called Colin, Colin McRae…

McRae was born on the 5th of August 1968 in Lanark,Scotland and was the son of Five-time WRC champion Jimmy McRae and he also had a younger brother Alister. Colin started out on scrambler bikes at the age of seven and showed great talent after claiming the Scottish title in 1980 and continued to dominate for a good few years.

After winning multiple times he then took to rallying in the footsteps of his aforementioned father, starting out in a Mini and took part in his first rally in 1985. In the end Colin was rather successful taking first in class and a 14th overall placing, little did the 17 year old Scot know this was only just the beginning.
The following year McRae aquired a rally prepped Talbot Sunbeam and it required him to work in the family plumbing business so that he could afford to keep competing in rallies. It was during that year that outsiders saw great potential for the young McRae…

McRae then took part in his first official WRC event in 1987 at the Alpine mountains of Sweden Rallying a Vauxhall Nova, to which he came 36th overall with a podium of 3rd in class even though he had managed to hit the snowbanks more than once…

McRae took his first victory in 1988 co-driven by his future wife Alison Hamilton at the Tweedies Rally, Colin continued his fantastic performances over the next two years despite a good few mechanical troubles along the way. He finally got his big break from Ford that year when he took 5th at Rally New Zealand with a RWD Sierra Cosworth against smaller 4WD Rally Monsters that were dominant at the time, McRae was given a spot with Ford driving a Rally prepped Sierra Sapphire to which he would use to great success in 1990.

Meanwhile the Prodrive Subaru factory team had been keeping a close eye on the young Scot and were keen to take him on as he had demonstrated great natural talent in his previous events, and so team manager David Richards, who was formerly the co-driver for world champ Ari Vatanen, decided he would sign him to Subaru for the 1991 Season of the BRC (British Rally Championship). This was, he believed, a huge gamble as he was not sure if McRae could live up to his reputation, fortunately he had not gambled wrongly and Colin went on to take the 1991 BRC Championship with ease.

For 1992 McRae went up against the best Rally drivers from around the world in his first full Season of the WRC driving the Rothmans Legacy, however it was not until the following year that he took his first outright WRC Victory driving the same Legacy, only this time with the infamous L555 livery that would be immortalised in the hearts of Rally fans worldwide. 1994 marked the debut of the L555 GC8 Impreza WRC which was by far his most iconic Rally Car…

Colin entered 1995 with great performances across the championship in the, now battle scarred, Impreza. This outstanding performance earned him the WRC title that year and he also became the youngest WRC Champion ever at just 27 years of age!

He continued to dominate for a further two years in the Impreza, racking up a multitude of Rally victories and taking a consistent 2nd in the championship overall. Toward the end of his tenure with Subaru McRae was overcome with mechanical faults and this led him to leave the Subaru L555 factory team in 1998.

After leaving Subaru in 1998, Colin was approached by Ford to drive for them in the 1999 WRC Season and since McRae was up for the challenge he accepted. M-Sport, who ran the Ford Factory Team at the time had high hopes for him. He would be co-driven by Nicky Grist in the brand new Ford Focus WRC and he performed extremely well with his first event in the new car at Rally Kenya taking a dominant win over the rest of the field,although he was frequently challenged by “Flying Finn” Tommi Mäkinen throughout the course of the 1999 season…

Nicky and Colin were a force to be reckoned with and continued to win Rallies however mechanical problems prevented him from taking more wins. After 2001 Colin’s contract was extended for 1 more year where he took his 25th World Rally Championship victory at the very same Rally he started at with Ford, the Kenyan Rally.

Since his contract had now expired, McRae searched for another team to which he found Citroen and they offered him a place driving the Xsara WRC and it seemed to be another good run for the flying Scot and earned 3 points across 3 events, however revisions were made by the F.I.A for the 2004 Season of the World Rally Championship introducing a two driver team which ended up putting McRae out of the competition, since he could not find a team with an empty slot…

Since he was now officially out of the WRC, McRae gave himself something to do by entering the 2004 LeMans 24h. The car he would be driving was none other than the Prodrive Racing Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, a name he had driven under before, alongside teammates Rickard Rydell and Darren Turner and all three would go on to to take the podium.

He also took part in the Paris - Dakar Rally the following year in a Baja Nissan Navara truck. Having led by 6 minutes it looked as though Colin would take victory at the 2005 Paris - Dakar Rally however he was soon caught out by a ledge hidden away and the Navara ended up flipping end over end, resulting in retirement from the event.

Despite having been out of the Rally scene for over a year, McRae returned to the WRC as a driver for Skoda with the Fabia WRC and gave them their most succesful result yet taking a 7th overall at Rally GB, he would then later return for Rally Australia and was very much in contention for a podium until a clutch repair took up far too much time and put him out of the race…

The X - Games were also something Colin wished to take part in and his wish was granted and joined the 2006 X Games XII. He took part in the X - Games Rally and made it all the way to the final against Travis Pastrana and had a strong start ending up 1 second ahead of his opponent,but on the last lap he transitioned on a jump too early causing him to roll his Subaru Impreza. However, the roll didn’t stop him as you could see McRae downshifting in preparation for the car to come back on its wheels and only lost a couple of seconds to Pastrana and took the Silver…

Colin continued to enjoy what he did and even ended up creating his very own rally car, the R4. The McRae R4 was intended to go into production as an enthusiasts Rally Car designed to provide the best driving experience on dirt trails and Rally stages. It was powered by a 2.5L Naturally Aspirated engine producing 350+ Horsepower. It made a worldwide debut at Goodwood FOS 2007.

Sadly all came to an end on the 15th of September 2007 when McRae, along with his son Johnny and his friend Ben along with Colin’s friend Graeme, died in a helicopter crash not far from his home in Lanark. McRae fans from all over the world mourned the death of a legend and his legacy celebrated.

This incident caused a lot of controversy due to the fact that Colin was to blame since he was not competent enough to fly an air vehicle, but his father Jimmy stated that he was confident in the skill of his son to pilot an air vehicle.

As of today it is still unclear as to what happened…

"We still believe we will never know what caused the crash but we were never in any doubt as to Colin's prowess as a fine pilot." - Jimmy McRae

His death also led to the cancellation of R4 production and the only prototype is owned by the McRae family.

However his legacy has still been enjoyed my many through his video games starting with Colin McRae Rally in 1998 to critical acclaim and now in the year 2017 we have been blessed with DiRT 4, the DiRT series even offers the chance to drive the R4 in-game…

Colin’s influence gave Codemasters the ability to preserve who he was and bring in many new fans as well.

McRae was one of Britains greatest gifts, even earning himself an M.B.E from the Queen, but his life was cut short in a tragic accident that could possibly have been avoided. Perhaps Johnny could have followed in his father’s footsteps to become a WRC Champion one day but alas.

McRae will always be close to our hearts as one of the greatest driving talents of the past 20 years, and I hope he will never be forgotten…

#Blogpost

In tribute to death of McRae use the hashtag #McRae10 to celebrate a legend and never forget…