Interviews// Colin McRae - Life, Times and Gaming

SPOnG: What’s the favourite car you drove, and team?

Colin McRae: The Subaru has got to be the car, because that’s the one that really made me as a rally driver – I had a lot of really good years from the early 90s right through to the late 90s. The Subaru Legacy, the first one, was probably the most enjoyable one to drive.

SPOnG: What rally cars do you still have?

Colin McRae: I still have my first car, a Talbot Sunbeam. I’ve got a Sierra Cosworth, a Vauxhall Nova, and the car I won the championship with, a Subaru. The Subaru hasn’t been run now for probably six years. The problem is that if you run these cars, you’ve got to keep on top of them, and you almost need a full-time mechanic. Some of them are here, in storage in a dry shed. The Subaru is in Sweden – we’ve got a hotel there. The Sierra still has to be renovated.

SPOnG: What were the worst things you encountered when rallying? What happened to Richard Burns must have hit everyone really hard…

Colin McRae: You always expect there could be a really bad accident, but you never expect someone to go in the way that Richard went. It’s quite hard when you see someone at the peak of their career, fit as hell and doing what they do, then deteriorating over the period he did. It’s really sad. But then there are highs and lows in everything.

SPOnG: How much competition is there between you, Jim (McRae, Colin's father) and Alister (Colin's brother)?

Colin McRae: We’ve never really competed together in equal machinery and the same conditions. The old man’s got an excuse – he’s got his bus-pass now. He started late, so he’s only half-way through his career.

SPOnG: But you were very focused from a young age?

Colin McRae: Right from the very start. Motorcycles were what I really wanted to do, but I didn’t get a lot of support on that from my mother, so I turned to cars – that was more acceptable.

SPOnG: How old were you when you started driving the Talbot Sunbeam?

Colin McRae: Seventeen – as soon as I got my driving licence. I did my first event about a week after I passed my test in 1985. The younger you start, the easier it is.

SPOnG: Thanks very much for your time, Colin.

Colin McRae's family has issued an official statement regarding the death of the great man, it can be found here. If you wish you make your own tributes, we have opened a Forum thread which can be accessed here. You can also leave your condolences at the official site, which can be found, here.