Legendary rally car up for auction

Friday, 18 February 2022

The Focus once raced (and crashed) by Colin McRae has been fully restored to its former glory after a long rally career.

If you are still annoyed that you missed out on buying the ‘barn find’ Subaru Impreza that turned out to be a WRC car once driven by rally legends Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz, then you have a second chance to score a McRae-driven WRC icon. Or maybe you did buy the Impreza and this is a chance to add to the set…

Silverstone Auctions’ 2022 ‘Season Opener’ at The RAF Museum in London on the 5th and 6th of March features a 2001 Ford Focus World Rally Car driven by McRae, complete with its iconic Y4 FMC number plates.

Built by M-Sport for the challenging Greek Acropolis leg of the World Rally Championship in 2001, this was the car that took the late Colin McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist to their maiden win for the official Ford World Rally team.

It was in this car, that McRae and Grist, who had also won the Argentina and Cyprus rallies, were poised to win the World Championship going head-to-head with the late Richard Burns.

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But it was also the car that made headline sporting news in the Rally of Great Britain, when it famously launched into a spectacular series of barrel rolls, ultimately costing Colin his second World Championship, forcing him to concede the title to Burns.

The car was subsequently rebuilt by the factory M-Sport Ford team and used again in selected rounds of the 2002 World Rally Championship, before being sold and used in the British BTRDA stage rally on the national circuit.

Now retired from rallying, the car has been returned to its iconic 2001 livery for posterity.

Silverstone Auctions says that for anyone who wants to get behind the wheel, the car is “completely useable, and remarkably easy to drive, still offering 4-wheel drive, a sequential gearbox and WRC-spec suspension and brakes.”

It comes with a comprehensive file packed with information about the car’s history, both pre and post the World Rally Championship, and has a guide price of £300,000 to £350,000 (NZ$610,000 to NZ$712,000).