Colin McRae’s Private Collection for Sale at Silverstone Festival 2023

One wonders what a rally ace like Colin McRae chose to buy in the way of cars for himself, rather like wondering where travel agents holiday or estate agents choose to live. It’s illuminating.

In the case of Colin McRae, the Scottish rally driving genius, it was in fact not surprisingly the following three cars that he chose for himself: a 1992 Subaru Legacy RS Group ‘A’ rally car; a 1977 Chrysler Sunbeam Ti Group ‘A’ rally car; and a 2005 Ford Escort MkII McRae. These three cars come direct from his family, entrusted to Iconic Auctioneers for their Classic Sale at Silverstone Festival. They will be sold on Friday 25th August in the Race and Competition Car Sale, which will be followed by a Collectors’ and Classic Road Car Sale on Saturday 26th August.

The remarkable career of Colin McRae MBE has filled volumes and is too long to list here, but it did include becoming Scottish Schoolboy Motocross Champion at 13, the Scottish Rally Championship in 1988, winning the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Championship and, in 1995 he became the first British driver and the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship Drivers title, a record which stood for 27 years.

Success continued with a total of 25 wins in the WRC, a third place at Le Mans in the GTS Class, a win in the Baja 500 Portalegre, stage wins on the Dakar and many other rallies worldwide.

Despite the passage of time, Colin McRae is still one of the biggest names in the world of rallying, the most recognised. Colin was an iconic figure at the time. “Everybody took a step back when they heard Colin driving. He was just using the road as a rough guide. His style and approach were something to watch. At one time he held the record for the most rally victories. His ‘never say die’ attitude, always flat out, it really sat with people and endeared him to them”.

But people often forget that he was a mechanic, too. He worked well with engineers and understood how to set a car up and its mechanical limitations. He is frequently discussed in terms of his wild, aggressive style, but if you watched him drive on tarmac at Le Mans or ASCAR at Rockingham, he was really quite smooth. He won two Safari rallies, which takes a lot of mechanical empathy and an intelligent approach as to just how much you can get away with.

Here at Iconic Auctioneers, we feel truly privileged to have been entrusted by the McRae family with the sale of three of Colin’s favourite cars. They are significant cars in the history of rallying and will be available to view prior to our auction on Friday 25th August and on Saturday 26th August, before the sale starts.

This is very special, Colin’s 1992 British Championship-winning car and a personal favourite being offered to market for the first time directly from the McRae family, a unique opportunity.

In 1991, Colin turned professional and was signed by Prodrive principal, David Richards, to join his Subaru team in the British Rally Championship. 1991 was to prove a bit of a learning curve but a combination of his youthful exuberance and exceptional talent enabled him to add his name to the title his father had won five times in this, his first full season as a Works driver.

For the 1992 British Rally Championship, a fresh Legacy RS, J314 PWL, was built by the factory Prodrive team to full International ‘Group A’ regulations with a Works 2.0-litre turbo boxer engine (with charge cooler) developing some 350bhp fed through a 6-speed Prodrive manual dog gearbox and the Prodrive 4-wheel drive system, once again generously supported by Rothmans and endowed with that iconic blue and white Rothmans livery, known to motorsport enthusiasts the world over.

The 1992 RACMSA British Rally Championship was the 35th year of the British domestic championship and Colin and Derek Ringer in J314 PWL dominated the whole season with wins at the Vauxhall Sport International, the Pirelli International, the Perth International, the Elbow Ulster, the Manx in September and finally the Elonex International in late October. The Elonex was a particularly tough event running through the night and despite the fact that they were assured of the Championship even if they finished second, Colin was determined to win and complete a set of six. Starting the final stage at Weston Park, one second down on Tommi Makinen in the Nissan, he managed to take three seconds out of him in just under 2.5km. Having won all six rallies in J314 PWL, Colin was the first-ever driver to achieve a clean sweep of wins.

This legendary rally car was restored around 15 years ago and has had very little use since. In terms of the restoration, the emphasis was on recreating the car as it looked during the all-conquering 1992 season and this was achieved with incredible attention to detail. The car is simply breath-taking in its presentation and is finished, of course, in its evocative original Rothmans livery. It’s fully complete and runs well but is not event-prepared and the safety equipment, seats and belts etc. are no longer current. The car has been looked over and checked by Ian Gwynne of BGM Sport in Brackley and is being stored by him until our sale at the Silverstone Classic on the 26th/27th of August. He is a friend of the McRae family and seriously interested parties are welcome to speak directly to Ian and view the car prior to the sale if they wish.

This delightful Talbot Sunbeam Ti is the first rally car that Colin owned, a special favourite and one that he would probably have kept forever. The legend began here.
For sale for the very first time and offered directly from the McRae family, a unique opportunity.

Colin competed in his first rally, the 1985 Kames Stages, in a borrowed Hillman Avenger, and despite dropping off the side of the road, finished 14th overall and first in class in his first event. He was eager to go rallying regularly so sold his autotest Mini and paid £850 for the Talbot Sunbeam Ti, YSG 980S, on offer here. The car’s first event, the Galloway Hills Rally in December 1985, ended in a tree so that winter was spent repairing the bodyshell, fitting a new engine and generally preparing the car ready for an assault on the 1986 ‘Group A’ Scottish Rally Championship. The first round of the Championship was the Granite City Rally in Aberdeen and with co-driver Nick Jack, Colin entered eight rallies, finished six, came eighteenth in the Championship and was awarded a Jaggy Bunnett Flying Brick for being the year’s ‘hardest trier’.

With hindsight, YSG 980S is regarded as the car that started Colin’s career and its importance is illustrated by the fact that it was modelled by Corgi as part of the “Colin McRae Tribute Collection" and as a slot car by Scalextric-Passion.
During the early 2000s, this legendary rally car was carefully restored and rebuilt in to a new shell by Barry Lochead, McRae family mechanic, who built the car originally with Colin, and who ensured that every detail of the rebuild was correct, enabling YSG to retain its original 'Group A' identity. Colin was keen to replicate YSG as it looked and felt during that first full season in 1986 and the remarkable level of accuracy and attention to detail can be seen in our images. It’s fully complete and runs well but is not event-prepared and the safety equipment, seats, belts, extinguishers etc. are no longer current so consequently the car will need complete preparation before any events are entered. It has been looked over and checked by Ian Gwynne of BGM Sport in Brackley and is being stored by him until our sale at the Silverstone Classic on the 25th of August. He is a friend of the McRae family and seriously interested parties are welcome to speak directly to Ian and view the car prior to the sale if they wish.

The Talbot Sunbeam Ti from the 1986 season and this remarkable Escort last used by Colin in 2007 effectively ‘bookend’ his career and make these cars so special, particularly as they are for sale for the first time and directly from the McRae family.
For some time Colin had been thinking about building a really special Mk II Ford Escort, the fastest rally Escort ever built. In Colin’s own words, “The Mk II is the rally car of all time. When my father started rallying, these were the type of rear-wheel drive cars that were at the top level of the sport. I remember watching in the forests and they always sounded the best and looked the most spectacular – sideways. Ever since then, they have stuck in my mind”.

So, in 2002, Colin made the decision to start the project and recruited Dave Plant of DJM race prep in Newark to build it. In Dave’s own words, “In late 2002 we were asked by colleague and friend Gordon Birtwistle of Proflex UK Ltd if we could convert a Mk II Escort into independent rear suspension instead of the conventional live axle, for a rather special customer, this being the late great Colin McRae and of course, we were only too pleased to take up the challenge. The donor car was supplied to us in early 2003 and after numerous telephone conversations with Colin, the project commenced. The original specification was to be an ultra-long wheel travel, gravel rally car. With fully independent front and rear suspension to our own design and using our own aluminium uprights, finished off with a T45 roll cage to support the modifications.

Colin first visited our workshop in April 2003 to see how his ‘toy’ was shaping up. He took a particular shine to our brand new 4WD tarmac-spec KA rally car and it became apparent to him that we were a ‘one-stop shop’ and were able to bring WRC attributes to any vehicle. This led to us doing more work than was initially intended and it was decided on that day that the project was now to be a turn-key rally car designed to be as lightweight, compliant and agile as we could make it.”

With the rear axle replaced by independent suspension and weight saving throughout the car, the Escort weighed in at a healthy 930kg further enhancing the car’s remarkable handling and agility.

Over the next couple of years many hundreds of miles were covered in testing and on rallies and the car may have played a small part in rekindling a well-known partnership between Colin and Nicky Grist who shared the car on the Scottish and the Pirelli. Lots of magazine articles about this amazing car can be found online and there are also several YouTube clips, including one of Colin tackling the famous “Molls Gap” stage on the Killarney rally in Southern Ireland. In common with all of Colin’s famous cars, the Escort has been modelled in 1/43rd scale by Trofeu Models and Corgi as part of their Vanguard Tribute Collection.

Accompanied by its 2005 RAC Logbook, ONM 804V has been prepared to the highest standards and presents superbly. It runs and drives well but is not event-ready and the safety equipment, seats, belts, extinguishers etc. are no longer current so consequently the car will need complete preparation before being run in anger.