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COLIN MCRAE: A FORD MOTORSPORT ICON

One of the most iconic characters in motorsport, Colin McRae will forever be remembered as a true Ford hero. Here’s why…

Feature first appeared in Fast Ford magazine. Words: Graham Robson. Photos: Ford Photographic

It’s been 22 years since Colin McRae won his first rally event in a Focus WRC, the Safari of 1999. It may have been of shattering importance to Ford, and to M-Sport, which had built the car, but for Colin it was just another step along the way – he had, after all, won his first world championship round six years earlier, and had been world rally champion in 1995.

As a personality, an icon, and, above all as a fiercely competitive driver, we’ll never forget him. Colin, who tragically died in a helicopter crash near his home in Scotland in 2007 (along with his son Johnny and two family friends) had no time to do anything slowly. Everything in his life seemed to be enjoyed at top speed, and his career certainly reflected that. Maybe his top-line rally career was already over by the year in which he was taken from us, but as far as he was concerned there was still much more motorsport to be enjoyed.

Famous son of a famous father – Colin McRae’s dad, Jimmy McRae, was British Rally Champion several times in the 1980s, twice in Sierra RS Cosworths like this

Before he took up rallying, Colin had indulged in motorcycle trials and scrambles, but it was after watching his famous father, Jimmy McRae, win so well, so often and so stylishly in a rally car that he took up the sport. He never let his rallying life be dull, and his sport was never tackled cautiously.

Along the way, he notched up an impressive total of bills to repair crashed cars and seemed not to care how much this was sometimes costing his employers. It was a perhaps slightly arrogant attitude, which eventually weighed against him.

The first time I saw Colin McRae on a British rally in the 1980s, he was picking tree branches out of the bodywork of his battered Vauxhall Nova. The second time, he was doing the same to a Sierra RS Cosworth, and the third… Well, why do you think that his long-standing nickname was McCrash? His one-time team boss David Sutton described Ari Vatanen’s progress as ‘crash, win, break the car, crash, win…’ and Colin was like that in every way. And just like the flying Finn, Colin matured and became a hero to millions of rally fans all over the world.

Colin McRae and Nicky Grist celebrate their 1999 Safari victory

“With McRae’s ‘if in doubt, flat out’ attitude, there’s no wonder he’s regarded as one of the most-loved Ford motorsport icons of all time”

Colin was the eldest son of five-times British Rally Championship winner Jimmy McRae, who along with Russell Brookes, had dominated British rallying events during the 1980s. It was when Jimmy was at his peak, driving works-blessed Ford Sierra RS Cosworths, that in 1986 Colin (then only aged 18) started out in the Scottish Rally Championship in a Talbot Sunbeam, soon turning to a Vauxhall Nova (with financial help from Dealer Team Vauxhall).

Ford, which had Jimmy McRae on a long-term contract, then decided to encourage Colin too. The Blue Oval provided him with a Group N Sierra RS Cosworth for the British Rally Championship (where he often crashed) but at this early stage his most astonishing performance was to take fifth overall in New Zealand in D933 UOO, an elderly ex-works Group A Sierra RS Cosworth RWD (on an event where four-wheel-drive cars were already considered essential).

Ford, still indulging him in spite of his frequent costly crashes, then gave Colin full backing in 1990, where he started the year in a rear-drive Group A Sapphire Cosworth, and ended it in one of the first Cosworth 4x4s. Although he took second place overall in the British Rally Championship of that year (a seven-event series in which he had one victory, two seconds and two third places), his first Ford works contract came to an end immediately after he had badly damaged yet another works Sapphire Cosworth 4×4 in the RAC rally.

Despite taking sixth place at the end of that event, his car was really a rolling write-off following a typical McCrash excursion and Boreham seemed relaxed when hearing that he had decided to join to Subaru (and Prodrive), where he would stay until 1998.

To be honest, it was at Subaru that Colin firmly cemented his relationship with the British rallying public. Not only did he win the British Championship twice in the four-wheel-drive Legacy, he began winning at world level, using steadily-improving Imprezas.

Not that his demeanour, nor his treatment of his cars, improved in that period, for although he became world rally champion in 1995 and finished second in the championship in 1996 and 1997, he was often at odds with his team management, with his teammates, and even in the car itself; he also dumped co-driver Derek Ringer in favour of Nicky Grist in 1997.

Richard Burns and Colin McRae – rivals but still friends

By that time he had become something of a media hero, as his Colin McRae computer game sold in its millions, making him richer than any previous British driver. His demands on the team and, coincidentally, his financial demands on Prodrive, eventually led to them releasing him at the end of 1998.

By then, though, he had already concluded a mega-contract with M-Sport and Ford for 1999; he was made team leader at a then-colossal fee of reputedly £3 million-a-year. You may be sure that Martini, which was the headline sponsor of the newly-developed Focus WRC cars, had to spend much of the budget on McRae.

No matter, the financial outlay was soon seen to be worth it; grappling with the all-new Focus WRC, he startled everyone by winning the 1999 Safari and Portugal events in his first few months. They were only the third and fourth rallies ever tackled by that complex four-wheel-drive car.

Colin McRae was famous the world over, and the fans loved him – as this shot confirms

Nevertheless, Colin McRae always seemed to be very hard on his cars: he expected them to put up with his methods, and expected the team to put up with his sometimes sullen temperament. When things were going well, he could reputedly be the best of hosts and the soul of any party. But when the gloom descended (which it sometimes did) he was said to be better avoided.

Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport organisation, which loved him because of his unstoppable ambition to win and ability to keep a battered car going, rose above McRae’s attitude, as the car kept on improving. Colin was always on the pace unless the Focus WRC let him down. Sadly it did that more often then he or M-Sport would have liked in 1999, with 11 retirements in that first year; three were due to crashes, but whenever and wherever he appeared in the Focus, Colin McRae set standards and, usually, fastest times.

His second season with the M-Sport Focus (in 2000) was so typical of his flamboyant career at Ford. Having started all 14 world championship rounds, Colin won twice (Spain and Greece), and took second on three occasions. But his cars suffered four engine failures and had two big accidents. He was apparently so unhappy about this that he threatened to leave at the end of the year.

“He had become a media hero, as his computer game sold in its millions, making him richer than any previous British driver”

Colin McRae was supremely fast – and brave – on any rallying surfaces

Things got much better in 2001 when McRae won three world events, all three on the run: Argentina, Cyprus and Greece. And amazingly, there was only one accident – in front of his adoring fans in the Network Q Rally at the end of the season.

Even so, Colin always seemed to give everything to his sport and his employers. In fact, he came close to death after a high-speed crash in Corsica in 2002, which left the car upside down in the trees and below the level of the road, with him trapped inside and fuel dripping onto his overalls. It was a miracle that co-driver Nicky Grist was able to get out of the wreck and summon help.

McRae was always the darling of the national and motorsport press (like Nigel Mansell, they didn’t necessarily like him as a man, but he certainly provided them with many good headlines). It was especially a great thing for his personal publicity, especially as the media encouraged the myth of his rivalry with Richard Burns (in fact, the two were friends and thought the idea of a feud was laughable). With a total of 25 world victories and many other podium placings, it’s easy to see why.

Bargaining on his worth to the sport, Colin soon became rallying’s richest driver, and because more than ten million copies of the PlayStation Colin McRae Rally video games were sold, he wisely became a tax exile in Monaco for some years.

Nevertheless, it was his financial demands (he reputedly demanded £5 million for the following year) that eventually forced McRae out of Ford at the end of 2002, and he was never happy, nor successful, with Citroen the following year.

When he lost his Citroen contract after only one season, there were no other substantial rally offers, and because of his known character he found it impossible to gain any further works drives.

Apart from dabbling with the design of a new clubman’s rally car – the McRae R4 – which he personally demonstrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2006, a one-off drive in the Le Mans 24-hour race, and the commissioning of an ultimate Mk2 Escort ‘just for fun’, his motorsport career was effectively over.

But his legacy will live on forever. Rally fans aren’t as pragmatic as team bosses; they don’t care about coming second in a pristine car ready to do battle again next week. No, they want to see a do-or-die attitude, going all-out for glory and to heck with the consequences. And with Colin McRae’s ‘if in doubt, flat out’ attitude, that’s exactly what they got. No wonder he’s regarded as one of the most-loved Ford motorsport icons of all time.

Colin McRae: Driver Profile

Born:

Lanark, on 5 August 1968. Killed in a helicopter crash on 15 August 2007.

Rallying achievements:

World Rally Champion in 1995, second in World Rally Championship in 1996, 1997 and 2001. British Rally Champion in 1991 and 1992.

Raced works Ford Focus WRCs from 1999 to 2002, winning nine world events (including twice in the East African Safari, and three straight victories in the Greek Acropolis) during that time.

Outright World Rally victories:

1993 – New Zealand (Subaru Legacy), 1994 – New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain (Subaru Impreza); 1995 – New Zealand and Great Britain (Subaru Impreza); 1996 – Greece, Italy and Spain (Subaru Impreza); 1997 – East African Safari, Tour de Corse, Italy, Australia and Great Britain (Subaru Impreza); 1998, Portugal, Tour de Corse and Greece (Subaru Impreza); 1999 – East African Safari and Portugal (Ford Focus WRC); 2000 – Spain and Greece (Ford Focus WRC); 2001 – Argentina, Cyprus and Greece (Ford Focus WRC); 2002 – Greece and East African Safari (Focus WRC)

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May 11, 2021
Edd China gets a driveable orange back on the road in “Workshop Diaries” episode 6

For the latest episode of his “Workshop Diaries” YouTube show, former “Wheeler Dealers” host Edd China starts work on one of his more unusual projects. It’s an Outspan Orange, a fruit-shaped vehicle built in the 1970s to promote a South African orange grower.

China acquired his driveable Orange directly from the company, restored it, and has driven it occasionally ever since. Because it’s been acting up recently, China puts aside his other projects temporarily to focus on it in Episode 6.

The Orange is based on a classic Mini, though with a tiny 48-inch wheelbase that matches the track. Owing to the unusual bodywork, the engine sits under the dashboard. So if it breaks down at the side of the road, China will be sheltered from the weather while working on it, at least. The spherical interior has a definite ’70s vibe, with a smattering of Mini gauges and controls.

Edd China’s Outspan Orange

After removing a bird’s nest from the engine compartment, China finds a leaking fuel line. Fixing that smooths out the previously rough-running engine, seemingly addressing the problem, but because the Orange had been sitting for awhile, China also replaces the air filter and the spark plugs.

The work gets the car back on the road—a dirt road in this instance—and a short test drive reveals plenty of other problems, including a hesitant engine, a bearing in need of replacement, and steering that pulls dangerously to the right. China plans to tackle those issues in future episodes, so instead he segues into a segment answering viewers’ questions, which in turn leads him to briefly pop the hood of his ongoing Land Rover Range Rover project to make the sure the engine has oil pressure.

This episode also continues the story of the world’s fastest electric ice cream van, which China started building in 2018 for a successful Guinness World Record run. He started out with a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and has spent the past few episodes focusing on how he got the stock transmission to couple with an electric motor. That continues in this episode, where China discusses machining down the flywheel to save weight, and machining an adapter to allow the motor to fit with the transmission. That leads to the next issue, which is the need for a bellhousing of sorts. The finished product will certainly be included in a future episode.

Watch the full episode for a complete explanation of the processes China uses to work on all three of his ongoing projects.

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May 10, 2021
TUNED MK1 GOLF VAN: THE M POWER STRIKES BACK

If the forward-hinged bonnet doesn’t pique your interest, the presence of a BMW M Power engine certainly will. This tuned Mk1 Golf van is one build which keeps striking with surprising body blows, over and over…

Feature first appeared in Performance VW. Words: Dan Bevis Photos: Matt Woods

In this line of work, we’ve got pretty used to seeing engine-swapped cars. The Mk1 Golf in particular is a tuner favourite for heart transplants – VR6s, 1.8Ts, 16v KRs, ABFs… you name it, it gets shoved in there. But even the most world-weary serial show-goer is given pause when the forward-hinged bonnet lifts on SMD’s tuned Mk1 Golf van. Yes, stop rubbing your eyes, that is a BMW straight-six. An S50 from an E36 M3, no less. And the fact that the van’s running a sodding great motor longitudinally suggests there’s mischief at play throughout the chassis too. You’re right to make these assumptions. But perhaps you’d be surprised to learn just how deep the rabbit-hole goes. You see, this is only pretending to be a Golf; in the same way that an Escort RS Cosworth is only pretending to be an Escort (because, of course, it’s all Sapphire underneath), this retro commercial has been artfully placed upon the guts of an M3. It’s not just the engine – it’s the gearbox, diff, brakes, suspension, the works. So if you’ve seen this thing tearing it up at the Brighton Speed Trials or elsewhere, and had to shut your eyes and shake your head to clear away the troubled voices, fear not: this isn’t a glitch in the Matrix. What it is, in fact, is just about the most astounding retirement present any hard-working van could hope to receive.

Vans, it almost goes without saying, generally have a pretty crappy time of it. Sure, a small percentage get bought by loving owners who pamper and cherish them, but the vast majority are viewed simply as workhorses, blunt instruments, tools to do a job. Cargo gets thrown in with abandon, dents and scratches are a daily occurrence, and when it comes to the end of its useful life, the van gets thrown away. But not this one. No, this Mk1 Golf van has served its time in the realm of commercial usefulness, and is now enjoying its day in the sun, gloriously reborn by the artisans at Southern Motor Developments.

SMD has extensive form with carrying out wild projects like this, and head honcho Brent Crooks is keen to point out that this build has been one of evolution. “It all started out as a very different project,” he explains. “The customer, a carpenter, had bought a very tatty van for work purposes. The standard 1.9 diesel engine wasn’t quite doing it for him, and he had approached us about installing a 1.8T BAM engine. He had already bought a Mk4 Golf GTI donor car to carry out the conversion…” However, the inevitable spectre of mission creep reared its head at this point, as the potential of the engine swap came under analysis. The conversion all started according to plan, with the Mk4 being stripped down for all the required parts and fabrication beginning on the Mk1 to ready it for the BAM heart. With the engine mocked into position, the owner cast a quizzical eye over it and asked Brent what he felt the end result would be like. “Awesome,” was the response, “although a lot of people have done 1.8T conversions, and if it was me I’d want to do something a bit more unusual…”

This sentiment evidently struck a chord, and as the lads glanced around the workshop searching for inspiration, their eyes settled upon the tired and sad-looking E36 M3 sitting in the corner of the yard. It was a real lightbulb moment.

“After some discussion, and a lot of measuring, we decided that it was possible to fit the entire floorpan and all the running gear from the BMW into the Golf,” Brent grins, like the mad scientist he is. “At this point the project basically started again. The Golf’s body was removed from its floorpan, which was reasonably straightforward, but getting the BMW’s floorpan unstitched was a little trickier – although it came out well in the end. The M3’s wheelbase was 280mm longer than the Golf’s, so we had to lose that somewhere; as the Golf was a van, there weren’t going to be any rear seats so we removed a 280mm section of the floor where the rear passengers’ feet would usually be and, after some strengthening was added to the Golf body, the two were married together.”

Oh, simple as that eh? Of course the entire process is way more complex than Brent’s modestly making it sound, as there’s a huge amount of measuring and remeasuring and precise calculation work involved in making a success of a madcap scheme like this. Impressively though, the biggest hurdle the guys encountered was that the rear trailing arm mounts were wider than the Golf’s body. But they managed to get around this without too much drama by widening the lower section of the rear quarters to accept the new floorpan. The SMD method is all about solutions.

“Most of the other fabrication in getting the body mounted to the floorpan was fairly straightforward,” Brent continues. “Additional strengthening was added, as well as a custom half-rollcage. Custom seat mounts were made, and a reverse bonnet opening was achieved using the BMW boot hinges – which worked surprisingly well! The battery box was also fabricated into the floor where the spare wheel in the BMW would have been, and a set of wide Berg Cup wings and rear arches were fitted.” This last flourish serves two purposes: firstly, the extra girth is necessary to accommodate the markedly wider track of the M3. And secondly – well, it just looks great, doesn’t it? And as the build progressed and more and more pieces began to slot into place, it was all starting to appear rather rosy. Until, that is, the owner dropped a bombshell: “He just had too many other commitments, so the project totally lost momentum,” Brent recalls. “We were a bit gutted, as we were worried that the van wouldn’t get finished. But luckily his brother, Piers, decided to take the project on, so the work started again!”

Disaster avoided and with fresh impetus, the SMD team redoubled their efforts. All of the fabrication work had been carried out by this point and it was basically a restoration project, so the whole shell was stripped back down, soda-blasted and painted. All of the original BMW and VW bolts and fixings were re-zinced, the suspension items were stripped down, sand-blasted, repainted and re-bushed, and new brake pipes and fuel lines were made up. When it came to the engine and transmission, everything was fully refreshed to ensure it was all in tip-top condition – new seals, gaskets, boots and everything else one could wish for, along with a lick of paint.

“Once the car was back to the point that it was rolling again with the engine and transmission in place, we fabricated a custom 2.5” exhaust system and made a start on the wiring,” says Brent. “We used the original BMW loom, but cut out any unnecessary wiring. We even managed to retain the BMW ABS system, which was a bonus! The BMW clocks and lighting switches were modified to fit the Golf’s dashboard, so that basically just left us with wiring in the lights. We made a flat floor for the back of the van to keep it looking tidy, and the floor, doorcards and roof where all lined in black. Some additional panels had to be made on the lower section of the dashboard, as well as a steering column cowling, and the interior was finished off with some Corbeau bucket seats and 4-point harnesses.”

Now, you might think that the short wheelbase of the Golf would make it a bit, er, frisky once it’s been amped up to run 320bhp through the rear wheels, but Brent assures us that it’s surprisingly stable: “It’s as wild as you want it to be,” he shrugs. “If you drive it with a little sympathy, it will just hook up and go like a scalded cat, but if you’re a little more aggressive then it will quite happily turn into a drift monster…”

The concept here really is remarkable, and it takes an outfit with the unparalleled expertise of SMD to turn such a notion from the kind of idea that you might sketch out on the back of a beermat into something that actually works in the real world. And not just functions adequately, but works phenomenally well. The idea of shoehorning an M3 inside a tuned Mk1 Golf van is utterly, completely deranged… and yet somehow, thanks to the engineering ingenuity involved here, it makes absolute sense. If you treat the van with respect, it’s friendly enough to use every day. And if you abuse it – well, it’s a short-wheelbase M3, so bonfired rears will be your just reward. And all through the process, the focus on engineering cleverness has been mirrored with an insistence on an impeccable finish. It’s the ultimate fusion of show and go.

“I love seeing people’s reactions to this car,” Brent beams. “I was always worried that we would upset a lot of VW fans as well as BMW fans, however that doesn’t seem to be the case. We often take it to car shows and meetings, and I think the fact that the bonnet opens up the wrong way instantly gets people curious. They tend to come and have a look in the engine bay, then have to step back and take a second look just to confirm that it is a Mk1 Golf!” And that, really, is the ultimate accolade for a project like this. It’s clearly one thing, and yet also quite another; a clever fusion of styles, approaches and eras, taking two entirely disparate entities and making them work as one. It’s not just another engine-swapped Mk1 Golf. It’s a whole new world of retro VW modifying.

Tech Spec: Tuned Mk1 Golf Van

Engine:

BMW E36 M3 S50B32 3.2-litre straight-six, ITG air filter, custom exhaust system, custom radiator setup, E36 M3 gearbox and differential, c.320bhp

Chassis:

17” Rota Grid wheels, 205/40 Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres, E36 M3 brakes – uprated with EBC discs and YellowStuff pads, E36 M3 suspension

Exterior:

Berg Cup wide wings and rear arches, GTI chin spoiler, crosshair headlights, custom front indicators, smoked taillights, custom VW/M badges

Interior:

Custom 4-point rollcage, flush rear floor, Corbeau bucket seats, 4-point Luke harnesses, custom dashboard, OMP steering wheel

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May 10, 2021