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The Dundee Courier

We have been custodians of the fabulous Historic Escort for 6 years now. We have enjoyed the preservation process to get it back into the condition you see here. We’re Racers not stage Rally guys so its sits in a corner of the shop. We feel it should be seen & used. We have refused to sell it in the past but perhaps nows the time & we have been given the opportunity to sell it at Silverstone auctions Race Retro Sale on the 25th of February, we have agreed terms with the Auction house.

History:=

The Colin McRae – Robert Reid Rally Winning Ford Escort

Colin McRae already British champion took on the 1990 Chesterton Hackle Rally with his long time friend Robert Reid as co-driver. Both would go to become World Champions, Robert with Richard Burns, Colin with Derek Ringer.

Robert tells the story :- I remember the day well,I was in a potato field on the farm & the phone rang; it was McRae.”What you doing this weekend Rab,fancy doing the Hackle?

The Hackle Rally was a Scottish championship event run by my local car club & used some classic Scottish forest stages like Craigvinean, Errochty & Drummond hill.In those days there were no pace notes & the co drivers would read off a 1.25 scale map.

It was such a wet stormy day that by the time we got to the first stage the footwells were full of water & the stages were really slippy with standing water. We started 4th & when we got to the service after a couple of stages worked out that we were leading against quite a few four wheel drive cars.It was the Drummond Hill stage that afternoon I remember best though, It was still raining & we were on a quick, downhill ‘diagonal’ road in the middle of the stage.I was reading the maps & the next thing I’m aware is Colin loosening his belts & leaning over to my side of the car whilst pretty much flat out. We got to the end of the stage & I ask him what he was doing & it turned out the wiper arm was lifting off the screen on his side & he couldn’t see where we were going, all flat in top! We ended up winning the event by 2.5 minutes from Jimmy Girvan in a Toyota Celica GT4. All this happened a couple of weeks before the Audi Sports Rally where I would first meet Richard.Then Six weeks after the Hackle I did the Galloway hills rally with Alister McRae in the same Escort and two month later I would do my first event with Richard on the Wyedean.

Another account of that event in a tribute to Colin published 28-12-2012 written by Jaggy Bunnet

He joined the Prodrive Rothmans Subaru team for 1990 Winning the British title that year & the next, Justifying David Richards faith.He was no longer just a successful Scottish driver, he was now public property.

But typical of the man, Colin borrows his uncles Escort (with a 2.4 Pinto) in 1990 to contests the Hackle Rally and simply trounced the opposition. It was the year of gales & heavy rain with rushing rain water causing landslips and turning gravel roads into rivers & throught it all danced a daring Mk2 with McRae at the wheel & Robert Reid on the maps. He beat Scottish champion Jimmy Girvan that day in a four wheel drive GT4 plus six other 4wd cars, on an event more suited to powerboats, let alone four wheel drive rally cars!

And the rest as they say is history but it was the manner of his winning that attracted the almost cult following that grew with every public appearance,

This Ford Escort has been in the McRae Family for over 30 years it belonged to his Uncle Hugh Steel. Hugh & his son David have campaigned this escort in various guises over the years.

The car comes with a copy of the hardback book McRae (Just Colin) which lists all Colins events & cars on page 35 there is a picture the Escort (on the Hackle). also in the file is period rally reports on the event from magazines and a recent feature in Classic Ford magazine.

MSA Vehicle passport  Stage Rally- Category 1 valid 19-10-2026

worst possible start to the New Year