30 mile McRae convoy smashes world records

[ZBOYD]

Press release from Prodrive.

More than 1000 Subaru owners and thousands more fans have celebrated the life of Colin McRae this weekend.

A convoy, which at its peak stretched 30 miles with an estimated 1100 Subaru cars, left Colin’s home town of Lanark on Saturday morning, led by his father Jimmy McRae. Nine hours and 300 miles later, it arrived at Prodrive’s headquarters in Banbury, having been cheered along the way by thousands of fans who stood on every available motorway bridge on route.

“Literally every bridge had people waving and cheering us along with many hanging the Saltire from the railings.” said Grant Hendry, who led the McRae Gathering convoy. “It turned what was an already memorable event into a truly amazing and emotional occasion.”

The convoy re-gathered at Prodrive’s headquarters in Banbury on Sunday morning, before being led up the M40 by Colin McRae’s original 1996 Impreza rally car. In a fitting finale to the event, a sign almost half a mile long and made up of 1086 Subarus spelt out COLIN MCRAE and the Scottish Saltire in a new official Guinness World Record – smashing the previous record by more than 800 cars. The cars then broke a second Guinness World Record by creating the largest parade of cars as they left the Prodrive test track.

It is estimated that the event has raised nearly £40,000 for the McRae charities.

 

[DPJ]

Impressive!

"If we spread the red ones about, perhaps they won't stand out......"

 

[lc_allan]

Can you spot mine?. It's the blue one with the gold wheels

 

[Empi5]

We saw Leicester Forrest Services full to the brim with Subaru,s on Sunday morning, looked very impressive. A fitting tribute to a legend.

 

[Fl@pper]

Can you spot mine?. It's the blue one with the gold wheels

thought it was you, i recognised the long blue jacket

seriously though - respect

nice job guys

 

[The Gimp]

Guys,

I was part of yesterdays RECORD.

It was a great site. We had people on the hard shoulder,on bridges and in fields cheering us along as we was on our way to Prodrive,Warwick.

Steve

 

[ibizacupra]

Awesome

 

[LEE69]

Nice one he his a LEGEND!

 

[ipd56]

 

[Al]

Ace

Great to see things like that. He was a legend.

 

[cap r 225]

legend!

sooooooo much fuel mut have been used!

 

[WaveyDaveyGravy]

A fitting tribute to a true champion

 

[StuPDi]

absolutely agree with all the above, must have taken some orchestrating though!


seems a shame everyone's forgotten about Richard Burns

Stu

 

[Al]

seems a shame everyone's forgotten about Richard Burns

Stu

True

 

[Chrisdaman]

thats very impressive, must have been emotional to see that

 

[WaveyDaveyGravy]

absolutely agree with all the above, must have taken some orchestrating though!


seems a shame everyone's forgotten about Richard Burns

Stu

Colin McRae was a world champion like Richard Burns was, but it was the whole persona of the man that people are supporting as much as everything else. Both men won their world titles in Subarus, and I was lucky enough to see Burnsy do it in Wales, but Colin McRae's balls out driving style was totally at odds with the more measured approach of Richard. This style undoubtedly cost him victories and world titles, and if you're making comparisons you could say Colin was Senna and Richard was Prost - Colin would always go for the win at all costs, whereas Richard thought about things more - to finish first, first you have to finish.

Colin put Subaru on the map, and the two are always going to be linked inextricably, even though both men had their greatest successes in Subarus. Add the obvious CMR, which brought McRae to a world audience and it's understandable why Colin had a much higher profile and why people tend to remember him more fondly.

Both were great drivers though.

 

[StuPDi]

iirc, if colin didn't get a win in the Legacy, the Impreza would never have been signed off for rallying!!!!!!!!

best season for me was the pair of them both in Subaru's

Stu

 

[dholdi]

We went to South Lakes Zoo on Saturday with our grandson, we heard about the convoy on the radio, so on leaving the M6 at J36 we stopped on the bridge (behind a police volvo ) to watch. We saw the first 50 or so cars pass before he moved us on. It was a clearway apparently. Anyway as said it was an magnificent achievement, a fitting tribute and most importantly raised a load of money for colins nominated charities.
Well done to all who organised and participated.

 

[D3DNA]

My mate just picked up his new car and was driving home going past the convoy. He said the amount of people on the motorway bridges was ridiculous and scary considering he was driving a brand new 50k import.

 

[MarkE]

best season for me was the pair of them both in Subaru's

Didn't Richard replace Colin at Subaru when he went off to drive the Focus?