Colin McRae giving it laldy

They have dedicated spectator spots?? Wow, I’m out of touch. I remember course marshalls clearing the outside of bends before stages started but otherwise you could just wander through a forest until you found a corner you like the look of!

I must be in further out of touch – back in the day you could just stand where you wanted and marshalls wouldnt give a stuff.

That Escort looked beautiful, a very distinctive sound, you can always tell it was an Escort before you could see it.

The only time I saw Colin McRae was whilst he was testing pre Monte Carlo rally up at Val D’Isere. I’d just finished race training for the day and was waiting to be picked up at the side of the road with at a que of traffic.

Along comes a pimped up Impreza, which looked normalish (in a pimped up Impreza way) until I saw the narrow snow tyres on it. It pulled along side and there was Colin with Co Driver in full gear, headsets etc, small window thing open. So I said any chance of a lift? He just said, yeah sure if you can find a seat and somewhere to put your skis!

Ooh the echo of the BDA through the forest gave me goosebumps. Those were the days. EARS in Macclesfield used to run BDA Escorts on Derbyshire road rallies too. I think that may have been the death knell of pre-plot events.

This guy is just down the road from me (caution, navigator maybe NSFW)

I remember EARS, Mike Harwood as well.

My mate still dabbles in rallying after a few decades – some in-car footage but external footage is better – Escort RS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo1sgHD8O6g

Jesussin’ ‘ell that sounded fantastic. My spleen was oscillating!

Not Mike Harwood, it was Ian Harwood. Still going till 2015 it seems.

Fond memories. That was my dad sat next to him as he ran course car on the McRae stages. Always have a soft spot for the way he drove. Everyone has him pinned as a flat out and balls to the wall sort of driver, however the deftness of touch to perpetually slide a mk2 escort through gravel stages and the reaction times to keep the metro 6r4 on the tarmac through Donegals narrow back roads are such different and equally impressive skills. He was adaptable and able to turn his hand to all forms of racing. When him and Rossi swapped equipment for the day, much like Hamilton did recently, Colin was within a couple tenths of Vale’s lap time by the end of the day. When he tried his hand at rallycross and only lost to Pastrana in the x-Games not due to rolling the car on the last jump but because (In Colins words..) he pushed too deep into the braking zone and understeered on the last corner. The noise his 6R4 used to make when sat in it was raucous!!Hope that the Impreza ends up somewhere that it will be driven and enjoyed rather than just stored for value, I would venture to suggest thats what he would have preferred.