The new McRae

HE HAS THE MOST FAMOUS SURNAME IN RALLYING, BUT IS COLIN MCRAE’S NEPHEW A CHAMP IN WAITING? WE STRAP INTO ‘555’ TO FIND OUT

- JAMES MILLS

Fast family feud

WHICH MCRAE IS QUICKEST?

Colin gets most of the attention but driving quickly runs in the McRae family. Jimmy ‘Gramps’ McRae won the British Rally Championship five times, while Alister (also a British champ) was a World Rally Championship mainstay through the 1990s and mid-2000s. Most families are competitive but get these three together and it wasn’t long before they were setting timed laps in Colin’s 1997 Subaru WRC car. In an added twist of nostalgia, Colin’s long-time navigator, Nicky Grist, was strapped in to deliver the pace notes. Alister was quickest with a time of 2m07s but it was Max who threw up the biggest surprise by beating home 76-year-old Jimmy (2m12s played 2m14s).

WINDING ALONG gravel roads crisscrossing 1600 hectares of forest, I pull my car to a stop in the heart of Walters Arena, the rally stage and test venue half an hour northeast of Swansea, Wales, and pinch myself. Through the windscreen, I can see a Subaru Legacy RS, and Impreza and Focus World Rally Cars, all bearing the surname McRae on their back windows. But that’s not why I pinch myself; I’m in Wales and it isn’t raining foggy or freezing cold. Hallelujah!

The cars are framed by a clear blue sky and from the service area, you can see the stages that have featured in the World Rally Championship over the years. I’m not the only one who’s grinning from ear to ear at the thought of seeing the three significant machines fly around the place. Max McRae, the grandson of “Gramps” Jimmy and son of Alister, is also looking decidedly perky for someone that’s just got off a plane from Perth, Australia. He didn’t sleep a wink on the flight. Would you?