Getting to drive one of Colin McRae’s WRC cars is rather special, more so if the vehicle in question is the 1997 Subaru Impreza WRC which won the Safari Rally of that year.
Carfection was given access to the treasured rally car, which recently underwent a complete restoration that brought it back to the condition McRae drove it.
Colin McRae was one of the most popular rally drivers, mostly thanks to his ball-out driving style and his general fearlessness behind the wheel. His only title in WRC came in 1995 but he was instrumental in Subaru’s three consecutive manufacturer titles during that period.
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Back in 1997, FIA introduced the new World Rally Cars that replaced the Group A cars at the top of the food chain. Subaru’s first WRC rally car is a pretty analog thing, as it comes with a dog-box manual transmission, a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and of course all-wheel drive.
The car you see here was driven by McRae in three rallies: Safari where it came in first place, Argentina (second place) and Indonesia where it retired after McRae tore a wheel off it. After its stint at the hand of the demigod McRae, the car was sold to Italy, where it participated in numerous local events.
Perhaps another highlight of this iconic rally car is that is fully road legal -as all of them-, which means you could drive it to the shops should you want to.
Watching the blue-gold Impreza sliding around on tarmac, turbo fluttering and all, is how you get the hair stand up on the back of your neck.