This 1977 Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800 Group 4 rally car has been driven in the past by three members of the McRae family: father Jimmy McRae and sons Colin McRae and Alister McRae.
Sporting the Eddie Stobart livery, this car is one of the most instantly recognizable and competitive Historic Rally Cars ever mad. Built by specialists Prepfab Motorsport Engineering, the car was driven by five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae on the 2006 Roger Albert Clark Rally, which it won by a large margin. Before that event, the late Colin McRae also drove the car in the Stang Forest to test it.
In 2007, it won the pre-1981 category of the British Historic Championship with Jimmy McRae and co-driver Andy Richardson and a year later it was driven to victory by Alister McRae in the historic category of the 2008 Colin McRae Memorial Rally.
Jimmy McRae sold the car in 2009 to Jim Whelan, who commissioned a full nut-and-bolt restoration and entered it in the 2010 and 2011 Rally Clasico Isla Mallorca. The car is sold with MSA stage rally logbook and Historic Rally Vehicle Identity Form in period category 3 class D5, plus MoT and tax until May 2014.
The RWD Ford is powered by a 260 hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder Sherwood engine, mated to a ZF five-speed direct top race gearbox. Silverstone Auctions will offer it at the Race Retro & Classic Car Sale on February 22, 2014, and estimates it will fetch somewhere between £65,000 ($106,550) and £85,000 ($139,330).
By Dan Mihalascu
PHOTO GALLERY
