To most people, Colin McRae’s only car, ever, was a Subaru. His legend was cemented as the wheelman of the Impreza rally car that was slathered in the blue paint and day-glo yellow markings, the rival of Tommi Mäkinen and the Mitsubishi Evolution, the man who had a ballistic driving style , the man who kicked ass at the Scottish Rally Classic driving a Vauxhall Nova when everything else, including the starter’s stopwatch, outpowered him. Sure, there were the few years where he drove for Ford, that one off-year where he drove for Citroën, and his Dakar trials, sports car racing, ASCAR attempts, BTCC drive, and that wild X-Games finish where he took a very close second place to Travis Pastrana after rolling his car. Seeing McRae in a Metro 6R4 doesn’t seem right, does it? In his early years, he had the Nova, a Talbot Sunbeam and a Ford Sierra XR 4×4, no Metro.
McRae purchased the car sometime before 1998, when he was using the Group B legend as a Course Car for stages named after him. Then it caught fire, went on eBay, and managed to fall into the hands of a collector who restored it and, if you ask nicely, will drive it on the streets. What? It’s legal, UK number plates and all. And it sounds beefy…the 6R4 wasn’t boosted. Instead, it rocked a rear-mounted V6 with cylinder heads that had more than a passing glance at a Cosworth F1 project and a four-wheel-drive system that stuck like a cholla cactus on an unsuspecting tourist in the desert. It isn’t friendly. It isn’t soft, it isn’t a sensory deprivation chamber on wheels. This car is permanently on edge, like that one kid in college you avoided at all costs.
