Subaru Impreza – World Rally Championship, Monte Carlo Rally, 1998

Colin McRae was Britain’s most successful rally driver, winning the World Championship in 1995 and taking victory in 25 World Championship events.  Colin’s flamboyant, sideways driving style, whether on the snows of Sweden, the rocky unforgiving roads of the Acropolis or on the ultimate challenge through the Sahara on the Dakar, endeared him to fans and rivals around the world.

Colin McRae Motorsport Ltd & Corgi have teamed up to produce a collection of 1:43 scale die-cast replica models as a lasting memorial to Colin McRae MBE. The full collection of 14 models will be released between 2009 and the end of 2011.

McRae and Grist entered the 1998 season, their second in partnership, in an optimistic frame of mind after two years of mixed fortune that had seen Colin win rallies, and Subaru take the manufacturer’s crown, but not yielded the second (and first joint) World Driver’s Championship the pair craved.

Despite wins in Portugal, Corsica and Greece 1998 was another season punctuated by frustrating reliability issues.  Most notably a turbo failure whilst spectacularly leading Rally Australia, meaning the Subaru duo ended the season third.  Their Impreza WRC 98 is modelled here at the first event of the season, the Monte Carlo Rally, where Colin and Nicky finished third.  Colin rounded off the 1998 season by winning the Race of Champions on the Canary Islands, an event that pits the best drivers in the world from different disciplines against each other in identical machinery.

• Scale:  1:43
• Era:  Modern Classics
• Length:  100mm

• Age Suitability:  14+