In the late 1990s, even if you didn’t follow rally racing at all, chances were good that you knew two names from the world of dirt-flinging family cars: Tommi Mäkinen and Colin McRae. McRae had been signed to the Subaru World Rally Team since 1991, but he came into his own around 1994 when his efforts helped Subaru place second in the Championship for Manufacturers, behind Toyota (and their cheaty turbocharger inlet setup) and saw McRae place fourth overall in the driver’s category. From 1994-1998, Colin McRae was synonymous with the blue Impreza with the gold wheels and the “555” emblazoned on the haunches. Just in time to line up with the release of the video game “Gran Turismo”, the world of rally and rally rockets from Japan suddenly grabbed the interest of youth across the world. It’s funny how that actually worked…when I flat-out spanked the 1967 Corvette my stepdad used with a very built Impreza WRX of this vintage (which hadn’t been released in North America yet), the discussion quickly turned into finding rally footage on television to watch. You want to see a jaw drop? I’m pretty sure his hit the floor and stayed there as he saw what some little crap-can Subaru could do after it had been worked over and fitted with the ultimate driver modification.

We lost McRae to a helicopter crash in 2007, which took his son and two family friends as well. But the memories, and the cars, remain. Carfection recently got the honor of being allowed to take a crack behind the wheel of the 1997 WRC car, the two-door beast that more often than not was flying as much as it was flinging dirt and rock wherever it went. Check it out: