Top Gear - Colin McRae

[Keet]

Cracking tribute to Colin McRae on tonight's Top Gear. The man was an absolute legend on four wheels and is still sadly missed!

 

[petecossie]

Recorded it tonight so will be looking forward to watching it tomorrow.

 

[Sean d]

Yes it was excellent

 

[DelGue]

Colin McRae and Richard Burns were 2 of my favorites. McRae was an absolute demon behind the wheel! And huge respect fir Nicky Grist, who always sounded like he was out for a Sunday drive while McRae was thrashing the car around like a controlled madman! Well, sort of controlled A tragic end for Colin. RIP

 

[IainP]

Unfortunately never got to see him in the Subaru. With the McRae Stages rally just 8 miles up the road from me it was a must see event when my lads were young. We saw him (and Alister and Jimmy). in the Metro and Mk1 and 2 Escorts he ran as Course cars. Stage 1, watch the McRae's Course cars and the first 10-12 cars, off to Stage 3, same, then Stage 5 and watch till the finish. The Metro broke, as they do/did, so we only saw that the once. The Mk 2 Escort though, bloody hell, super, super fast. 1st Stage through Craigvinaen Forrest, fast downhill section through a big straw bale chicane, then a tight 90 right to an uphill section. No brakes into the chicane, just swings the Escort to scrub off speed, misses the bales by millimeters, back on the power, then swings the back right to scrub off speed, left to line up for the corner and howls off up the straight. Phenomenally smooth and fast, crowds went mental. Got to the 3th Stage late, so decided to watch the Start. Into the 30 sec countdown and Colin spots a young lad with a program and a pen, opens the door and beckons him over. Startline Marshal hands him the Program and the pen, 5 sec Cowntdown starts, signs the program, hands it back, drops the pen, snicks into gear and howls off as 'GO!' Startline slams the door as he leaves. Epic. The times were always posted, but not that year, " mistake with the timing of the Course cars". I was told later (I Marshal at Speed events) the organisers didn't want to embarrass some of the top guys, (or their Sponsors), in ex-WRC 4wd machinery, because Colin absolutely blitzed them.

We all went to Paris to see him when he did the Race of Champions, he signed their tickets, which they still have.

At his Memorial service, the day after McRae Stages, there were great big burly rally guys in tears. The weather was absolutely foul, right up until the moment before the Service started. The drizzle stopped, the skies cleared and the sun came out. Absolutely Freaky.

 

[pgunter]

That scubie... hmm. Lovely.

 

[Grumps]

It was a great tribute to a great driver. His own stupidity cost him his life. Such a loss.

 

[Nodzed]

Yep I had a bit of hero worship. Lucky enough to meet him a couple of times, he was great with my lad who desperately wanted a photo with him, and David Richards took the photo, that was 2004 Rally GB and the lad thought all his Christmas's had come at once. McRae and Richards were both walking down the stage after flying in by helicopter and stopped to talk to loads of people including us, that started rumours of a Subaru return, at least on the stage that day.

I have a very nice print on my office wall, one of only 2 ever done, my lad has #2

 

[Paul Rice]

It was a great tribute to a great driver. His own stupidity cost him his life. Such a loss.

Agree Dave on both grounds, he took a risk which cost the life of another adult and 2 children. Richard Burns was a true tragedy.