Twenty-five years ago today, Britain was waking up to its first drivers’ world rally champion. Colin McRae and Derek Ringer had emerged victorious from a see-saw battle with team-mates Carlos Sainz and Luis Moya on the RAC Rally and a set of icons was forever forged in the public consciousness.
Who can forget those celebratory donuts at Chester racecourse, the 555 sponsorship on the Subaru Impreza, the gold wheels, McRae’s fresh-faced appearance as he sprayed the bubbly on top of his car? Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to watch the rally as it criss-crossed the country, with the sort of wall-to-wall media coverage that would be unheard of today. Life for the WRC’s youngest champion, and its most spectacular driver, was about to be changed forever.
Tribes were created. I was only at school at the time and yet I remain a Subaru-phile all these years later. I'm lucky enough to have driven a selection of both Imprezas and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo cars over the years, but it was always the Subaru that I would have had as my own car.
McRae made double maths bearable for me. I used to sneak a copy of that week’s Autosport magazine into lessons, which was one of the few ways I could keep track of the stages in those pre-internet days. My parents had given me a small radio that year and I obsessively tuned in whenever I could to snatch a BBC 5Live update. It’s not being over-dramatic to say that this moment played a large part in defining my childhood. McRae was that important to me.
And here’s where all this has relevance today: could 2020 be another era-defining moment? The omens are looking good. We’ve got another Brit perched at the top of the championship with one round left: Elfyn Evans is a healthy, albeit not out-of-the-woods, 14 points ahead of his team-mate Sébastian Ogier. Toyota, just like Subaru did, has a brilliant road car to make the most of any rallying ‘bounce’ in the shape of the GR Yaris. Here’s hoping the stars align again.
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Remembering the youthful fire of Colin McRae
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A god behind the wheel of course.
However the 'but' is far too big for any sort of personal reverance.
I don't understand why this magazine repeatadly celebrates a man who, through his own recklessness, killed not only himself, but his son, and another innocent boy.
I have to say I think this brings shame on Autocar, and is the reason why I no longer buy hard copies of the magazine.
A rally hero, and flamboyant, but sadly I can't celebrate this. His legacy is that he was showing off in a helicopter and killed his 5 year old son, a 6 year old friend and his father died too. A tragic waste of young lives.
I'm a Scot, but this tragedy, plus Jackie Stewart's comments about Lewis Hamilton don't make me proud of the two of them despite their obvious talents behind a wheel.
That whole era of motorsport was magical. WRC with the Impreza and Lancer fire breathing saloons that looked like the kind of thing you could walk into a showroom and buy. Similarly with BTCC they looked like the saloon/fastbacks that your dad might be driving.
And video games were coming of age in the mid 90s, Colin McRae had his own rally game series which tried to capture the on-the-edge thrill of rallying against the clock (older rally games were more like Rallycross with other cars to overtake). The Impreza was as famous amongst Playstation game collections as it was on the cover of Rallying magazines.
I could watch videos of Colin McCrae driving rally cars all day. What a star he was - naturally gifted and charismatic, and brave as a lion. Incredible era. How Subaru UK could squander such a legacy is beyond me... there is still a healthy number of Subaru fans in the UK but the official importer would rather insult them than give them what they want.