Thirty years have now passed but the 1993 World Rally Championship season will always be remembered as a year of firsts. It witnessed the rise of the WRC’s most popular figure amid the crowning of a bona fide record-breaking rally legend.
It was Toyota’s Juha Kankkunen who ultimately emerged with the spoils, becoming the first four-time world champion and record rally winner to boot after seeing off the factory Ford challenge from Francois Delecour and Miki Biasion driving the new potent Escort RS Cosworth.
But it was another first that captured the imagination of British rally fans as a certain Colin McRae burst onto the world stage. The then two-time British rally champion had already been signed up by the Prodrive Subaru team but this was his big moment after earning a promotion to the WRC team. And so began an iconic collaboration between the Scot and the famous blue and yellow Japanese favourites that would go onto yield 16 WRC wins and a world title in 1995.
A third in Sweden proved McRae, wheeling an ageing Legacy, belonged on the world stage, but it was in New Zealand where he beat the WRC’s best to score a maiden win – the first of 25 career victories.
McRae had built up a reputation for his wild and spectacular driving style that, while endearing him to fans, wasn’t always conducive to securing results. But in New Zealand, he was able to use the speed and temper that with control to defeat the likes of Delecour (Ford), Didier Auriol (Toyota), reigning champion Carlos Sainz (Lancia) and Kankkunen.
“I wasn’t driving faster than before, but remember when I have gone quicker I haven’t always stayed on the road,” McRae, who celebrated his 25th birthday during the rally weekend, explained to Autosport at the time.
McRae was quick from the outset but inherited the lead from team-mate Ari Vatanen, who retired after damaging his Legacy’s suspension on a boulder in stage 12. McRae became embroiled in a battle with Auriol with the lead changing hands as Auriol ended the second leg with a two-second advantage.
Source: Autosport