Colin McRae’s 1995 Championship to be remembered at the Festival of Speed

The McRae celebration will be split into two classes, the first will be made up of cars that he himself drove, including but not limited to his title-winning Subaru, his 1993 Rally of Malaysia-winning Subaru Legacy, his 1997 RAC Rally-winning Impreza and the Ford Focus WRC that he won three rallies with in 2001.

Those machines will be joined by many of the cars he was competing and winning against. Expect to see machinery from Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford and more, bringing together a collection of cars that represents a hugely competitive era of the WRC from the 1990s through to the early 2000s.

Colin McRae’s life in motorsport began in the saddle of trial bikes. He won motocross championships at the age of 13, and started rallying at 16 with Minis and then a Hillman Avenger GT. He made a major step in his career by entering the Scottish Rally Championship at the wheel of a Talbot Sunbeam in 1986, and immediately began to draw comparisons to Ari Vatanen due to his exuberant and energetic driving style. It was his natural ability behind the wheel that made him such a popular driver, and saw that his route to the top of the sport was assured.

He made his first entry into the WRC a year later in 1987 at that year’s Swedish Rally, where he finished 37^th overall in a privately entered Vauxhall Nova. He drove that car to the Scottish Rally Championship title in 1988 before upgrading to a Ford Sierra XR 4x4 in 1989, where again he took part in the Swedish Rally to an improved 15^th-place finish. McRae made several more sporadic appearances in WRC throughout 1989, ‘90 and ‘91, scoring points in New Zealand and Great Britain, but his first major triumph came after he signed with Subaru for the British Rally Championship, winning the title two years in a row.

After claiming his first WRC podium in Sweden in 1992, McRae was promoted to the WRC team for 1993 and immediately got up to speed in the Subaru Legacy, taking his first rally victory in New Zealand on his way to fifth in the Drivers’ Championship.

By 1995, Subaru had introduced its new Impreza 555 WRC car and was competing strongly against the established dominance of Toyota. McRae had taken two more wins in 1994, and alongside Carlos Sainz he was set to engage in a battle for the World Championship for the first time.

McRae’s season got off to a frustrating start with two retirements, but his speed told in the second half of the season as he scored five podiums in six rallies, finishing in the top two in all of the final four rounds to see off Sainz and claim the title by five points.

His triumph was the first for a British driver and the first for Subaru, who took the Manufacturers’ Championship. It was a partnership that yielded plenty more success in the years that followed, as McRae became one of the most successful drivers of the 1990s with several more wins as he took the fight to Mitsubishi’s Tommy Makinen.

McRae made the switch to Ford in 1999, but he remained ferociously quick and continued to be a regular rally winner. It was a lack of consistency that stopped him from adding to his Championship tally. Between 1994 and 2002 he won multiple events during each season, eventually winning 25 in all.

His career was brought to a premature end when a rule change meant he lost his seat at Citroën, and McRae was forced onto the sidelines for the 2004 season. He returned with Skoda for a couple of appearances in 2005, but one final appearance at the 2006 Rally of Turkey proved to be his last in WRC.

Colin McRae never officially retired. He kept his eye in with numerous events around the world but continued to chase a return to the World Championship until his tragic death on 15^th September 2007. There were suggestions of a return to Subaru in 2008, but we’d never find out if we’d see the great man back at the team with whom he reached the pinnacle.

McRae remains the most successful British driver in the history of the WRC. He sits fifth on the all-time list of event winners behind Sébastien Loeb, Sébastien Ogier, Marcus Grönholm and Carlos Sainz, and will forever be remembered as one of the most naturally gifted rally drivers to ever grace a WRC special stage. We’ll look forward to remembering his extraordinary career at the 2025 Festival of Speed.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Thursday tickets are now limited. A small batch of extra tickets for Friday–Sunday have just been released, exclusively for members of the GRRC.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.