Rally legend Mcrae’s rebuilt Ford Focus sells for world record at auction
A rally car crashed so spectacularly by Scottish driver Colin Mcrae it featured on the BBC News has sold at auction for a world record price.
The supercharged Fordmartini Focus RS World Rally Car was left a wreck after Mcrae and co-driver Nicky Grist flew off the track in South Wales, in 2001.
The car rolled four times after appearing to take off as Mcrae, in the final race of the season, the Network Q Rally of Great Britain, was poised to win the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Mcrae, who had won the WRC in 1995 driving a Subaru 555, watched helplessly as the late Richard Burns went on to take the 2001 title.
The Focus was recovered and towed away on a trailer and was not expected to be driven again.
However,itwasfullyrestored and has now become the most expensive Ford Focus ever, selling for £423,300 at Silverstone Auctions in Warwickshire. The previous record was £417,700, set in 2016.
The Focus was 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, it has been returned to its original Ford Martini livery and is expected to go on display at motor sports events across Europe.
A spokesman for Silverstone Auctions said: “For anyone who wants to get behind the wheel, this epic car is completely useable, and remarkably easy to drive, still offering four-wheel drive, a sequential gearbox and Wrc-spec suspension and brakes.”
Mcrae was the son of five times British rally champion, Jimmy Mcrae, who went on to become the first Scotsman and youngest person ever to win the World Rally Championship in 1995.
Colin Mcrae died in September 2007, aged 39, when his helicopter crashed near
the family home in Lanark. Mcrae’s five-year-old son, Johnny, his school friend Ben Porcelli, six, and Graeme Duncan, 37, were also killed.
A sheriff’s determination issued in September 2011 following a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the incident found the helicopter crash
happened because Mcrae carried out unnecessary low-level manoeuvres.