"Nicky Grist Nicky Grist (born 1 November 1961) is a British former rally co-driver, born in Ebbw Vale. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002. He won 21 rallies with more than one driver. Grist's first WRC win was in the Rally Argentina in 1993 with Juha Kankkunen, who at that time was a three times WRC champion. Grist and Kankkunen went on to win the 1993 WRC championship with Toyota. Grist stayed as Kankkunen's co-driver until 1997 when he joined Colin McRae with the 555 Subaru World Rally Team. Grist remained Colin"
"Rally Championship season with the new derivative of the Ford Escort WRC. The start of the 1997 WRC season also saw the name change to M-Sport. Victories in Greece and Indonesia saw faith in the small team rewarded, and they went on to finish runner-up in the manufacturers' championship. By the middle of 1998, Ford chose M-Sport to design and build the new Ford Focus WRC. The new car appeared in 1999 with a new driver — Colin McRae — and immediately sprang to the attention of the world press by recording fastest stage times on its first event, the"
"and podiums, including second ahead of Thiry in Britain, to finish fourth in the 1998 drivers' standings, although, with the announcement of the looming high-profile arrival of Colin McRae to the team for the following year, this success did not deter the Finn from deciding to leave the M-Sport outfit, both he and Thiry proceeding to sign Subaru contracts for 1999. The Ford and M-Sport-built Ford Focus WRC replaced the Escort WRC for 1999. It debuted on the Monte Carlo Rally in January, with Colin McRae and Simon Jean-Joseph driving the two Martini Racing-liveried works machines. It set several fastest"
"before a mechanical failure struck, handing the title to Niall McShea. 2006 saw McRae successfully competing in the Chinese Rally Championship with the Wanyu Rally Team in a Mitsubishi Evo 9, along with a number of other selected international events. McRae also added to his tally of World championship appearances in the new Toyota Corolla S2000 at the 2006 Wales Rally GB, racking up four Group N stage wins. McRae filled in for his brother Colin alongside F1 driver David Coulthard at the 2007 Race of Champions held at Wembley following Colin's death just two months earlier. He participated in"
"overall WRC event win for both the fledgling Subaru team and its young driver, the late Colin McRae aboard a Group A Legacy on the 1993 Rally New Zealand, the Scotsman's teammate and childhood idol, 1981 World Rally Champion, Ari Vatanen of Finland, went on to finish second in the debut rally of the first ever factory Impreza. New recruit for the following season, 1990 and 1992 World Champion, Carlos Sainz brought the Impreza its inaugural victory on the 1994 Acropolis Rally. The Impreza brought Subaru three consecutive WRC constructors' titles (1995–1997, the latter season the first for the newly"
"driver Alister McRae, and the late 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae. He started his rallying at the age of 31 driving his own Mk1 Cortina fitted with Lotus running gear followed by an Escort Mk1 twin cam. The following year he approached SMT and drove a Group 1 Vauxhall Magnum for them culminating in a works drive the following year in a DTV Gp 1 Magnum. In 1978 he was promoted to the full DTV team and drove a Group 4 Vauxhall Chevette HS then HSR in the British Rally Championship alongside a single cam Chevette in the Castrol"
"Alpine-Renault won the first manufacturer's world championship with its Alpine A110, after which Lancia took the title three years in a row with the Ferrari V6-powered Lancia Stratos HF, the first car designed and manufactured specifically for rallying. The first drivers' world championship was not awarded until 1979, although 1977 and 1978 seasons included an ""FIA Cup for Drivers"", won by Italy's Sandro Munari and Finland's Markku Alén respectively. Sweden's Björn Waldegård became the first official world champion, edging out Finland's Hannu Mikkola by one point. Fiat took the manufacturers' title with the Fiat 131 Abarth in 1977, 1978 and"
"all through the Monte Carlo Rally, Rallye Catalunya and Rallye Sanremo with Francois Delecour finishing second on the Tour de Corse only beaten by Colin McRae's Subaru. In 1999, Renault won the title by seven points from Hyundai, but with only three teams left in the category (one of whom, Volkswagen, were not classified as they had not homologated their new Golf GTI Kit Car), it was phased out at the end of the season. The class was eventually replaced by the Super 1600-spec Junior World Rally Championship, and the Super 2000-spec Production World Rally Championship. The need for replacement"
"In 1995, it was estimated that around 2 million fans lined the forests to witness Scotsman Colin McRae win his second consecutive RAC Rally, and in the process beat teammate Carlos Sainz to take his first and only world title in front of thousands of fans at Chester Racecourse. McRae would have less fortune in future years; despite winning again in 1997, he was pipped to the title by Finn Tommi Mäkinen by just one point. The Scot would come up short again in 2001 when he crashed out of an early lead, gifting the championship to his English rival"
"McRae and Sainz the team managed to win five of the season's eight rallies for Subaru, winning the team its first Constructors Championship. At the end of the season, Sainz left Subaru to join Ford World Rallye Sport. For the 1996 World Rally Championship season, Colin McRae was again the lead driver for Subaru. Following his 1995 Championship victory, his Impreza 555 wore the #1 plate. He was joined by team drivers Kenneth Eriksson, in the #2 car, and Piero Liatti, with their co-drivers, Staffan Parmander and Mario Ferfoglia, respectively. At the first event of the season, Rally Sweden, McRae"
"going into the season-ending RAC Rally. McRae won his home event 36 seconds ahead of Sainz, despite losing time with mechanical difficulties that at one stage had put him two minutes behind. Subaru secured their first manufacturers' title with a triple win as the team's second young Briton, Richard Burns, finished third. Sainz was later to join McRae at both Ford and Citroën. Sainz responded by rejoining Ford for the 1996 season. He spent two seasons with the squad, aboard the Ford Escort RS Cosworth and latterly, the Escort World Rally Car. In 1996, he won the inaugural Rally Indonesia"
"competed against the frontrunning Toyota-powered Team TTE, who were excluded from the championship after the 1995 Rally Catalunya due to the use of an illegal air restrictor. It took only until 1995 for McRae to win the drivers title, which he secured with a victory in a straight contest with his double champion teammate, Carlos Sainz, on the season-ending Rally of Great Britain. Although still a winner with the outfit in individual rallies in succeeding years, including, increasingly, more specialised events such as the Acropolis Rally, Safari Rally and the Tour de Corse, McRae could not better second place in"
"1993 season and won his record fourth title, with Toyota taking its first manufacturers' crown. Frenchman Didier Auriol brought the team further success in 1994, and soon Subaru and Mitsubishi continued the success of the Japanese constructors. Subaru's Scotsman Colin McRae won the drivers' world championship in 1995 and Subaru took the manufacturers' title three years in a row. Finland's Tommi Mäkinen driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution won the drivers' championship four times in a row, from 1996 to 1999. Mitsubishi also won the manufacturers' title in 1998. Another notable car was the Ford Escort RS Cosworth, which was specifically"
"first stage win, driving a Toyota Corolla WRC. That year he came third in the SRC, a feat he repeated in 2008. 2009 saw him mount a full season in the British Rally Championship where, despite two podium finishes, reliability problems with his Mitsubishi EVO X meant he had a disappointing season. Bogie and long term co-driver, Kevin Rae from Hawick, took the SRC crown in 2009, at age 22, becoming the youngest winner of the SRC since Colin McRae in 1988. During the 2010 SRC season, he drove his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 (with a one-off outing in a"
"end of the 1979 World Rally Championship season. Two years in the Talbot team followed before he joined Vauxhall/Opel dealer team, first in the Chevette HSR then the mighty Group B Opel Manta 400. The two years with the Opel Manta put Brookes head to head with his team mate Jimmy McRae (father of the late world champion Colin McRae). The needle match contest was more about the unofficial title of 'Top British Driver' than the championship itself. McRae won in 1984 and Brookes in 1985. The intensity of the contest lives in the memory of enthusiasts to this day."
"Kit Car respectively, with both running for the first time in a WRC event at the RAC Rally. The rally victories were spread across several manufacturers; GME took the majority of the victories, with seven, whilst several other manufacturers won a single event; Renault (with a seemingly unsuitable R18 GTX), Skoda and Lada all achieving this. For 1994, another purpose-built kit car appeared. Ford debuted their Ford Escort RS2000 Kit Car, which made its WRC debut at that year's Network Q RAC Rally. With the series now renamed the ""FIA 2-Litre World Cup for Manufacturers"", Skoda took the title with"
"quattro system had been introduced in 1980, but Audi withdrew from the WRC after safety concerns and Ford's serious accident early in the 1986 season. Subaru changed the rally model to Legacy RS for the 1990–1992 period and took part in the first complete season in the World Rally Championship with the same model in 1993. Modified versions of the Impreza WRX and WRX STi have been competing successfully in rallying. Drivers Colin McRae (1995), Richard Burns (2001) and Petter Solberg (2003) have won World Rally Championship drivers' titles with the Subaru World Rally Team and Subaru took the manufacturers'"
"the first of four podiums and seven top ten finishes in nine attempts at this event. He was a Toyota works driver from 1991–98, before switching to Ford for a season, competing as the team's star signing Colin McRae's gravel and snow event wingman in the debut season of the Ford Focus WRC. He returned to Toyota in 2000, and from 2001–02 was employed by the then Championship newcomers, Citroën, with the exception of one outing in the Group A Lancer Evolution for Mitsubishi Ralliart at the 2001 Swedish Rally, where he finished second. He scored another podium, now aboard"
"200 PS. The Focus RS WRC was built in 1999 to replace the Ford Escort WRC. It debuted in the Monte Carlo Rally with Colin McRae and Simon Jean-Joseph behind the wheels of the two cars. It was immediately on the pace, setting many fastest stage times, but the use of an illegal water pump meant that the two cars were excluded from the event. McRae gave the Focus its first win two events later on the Safari Rally Kenya finishing over 15 minutes ahead of the second placed Toyota of Didier Auriol. In 2003, Ford released a newly designed"
"1997. After a four-year spell with the Ford Motor Co. team, which saw McRae win nine events, he moved to Citroën World Rally Team in 2003 where, despite not winning an event, he helped them win the first of their three consecutive manufacturers' titles. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to motorsport in 1996. McRae died in 2007 when he crashed his helicopter near his home. The accident also killed his son and two family friends. In November 2008 he was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. McRae was"
"and in the end Tommi Mäkinen won his second drivers' world championship in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV by a single point ahead of Subaru Impreza WRC driver Colin McRae after the final round in Great Britain. Carlos Sainz was third in the leading Ford Escort WRC. The Manufacturers' title was won by Subaru. One major flaw in the new class system was exposed by the increasing speed of the naturally aspirated front-wheel-drive FIA 2-Litre World Rally Cup cars. The tarmac specification cars built by Peugeot and Renault that competed in the all-tarmac French and Spanish championships became major threats"
"performed a giant killing act when he took the series crown in 1988 in his humble Vauxhall Nova. The 2008 season finale, the ""Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally"" saw an enhanced entry list of 'rally legends' in honour of Colin who died in 2007. The impressive entry list included ex-World Championship drivers Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen (partnered by his 1981 WRC winning co-driver David Richards), Björn Waldegård, Malcolm Wilson, Russell Brookes, Jimmy McRae, Andrew Cowan and Louise Aitken-Walker, many competing in their original cars. A handful of current WRC drivers also took part including Matthew Wilson and Travis Pastrana. The"
"Rally. From mid 2003, the Octavia was replaced by the smaller Škoda Fabia. Škoda used the 2004 season to develop the car further, but did not achieve much success the following season. However, at the season-ending Rally Australia, 1995 world champion Colin McRae was running second before retiring. Škoda then withdrew from the series, and the 2006 season saw Škoda represented by the semi-privateer Red Bull Škoda Team. Jan Kopecký drove the Fabia WRC to fifth place at the Rally Catalunya, and as late as the 2007 Rallye Deutschland the Fabia still achieved a fifth-place result, again in the hands"
"turbocharged engine and AWD, was the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. 1993 became a breakout year for Subaru as Colin McRae and Ari Vatanen pushed the Legacy to a third-place finish at the Swedish Rally and a one-two placing after the first leg of the Acropolis Rally. Prodrive boss David Garraway was eager to prove the potential of the new Impreza WRC car, but was charged with gaining a victory in the Legacy before the Impreza could debut. At the round eight Rally New Zealand, Subaru finally struck gold when McRae managed to hold back François Delecour in his Ford Escort RS"
"the car. He made the decision to enter three of the sports model ""Vivio Super KK"" driven by Masashi Ishida, local driver Patrick Njiru and up and coming WRC star Colin McRae on his Safari debut. ""Super KK"" is the FIA homologation name for the RX-R grade, in rally trim the 660 cc engine produced at 6,000 rpm. Only one of the three cars finished where it settled for 12th place driven by Njiru. McRae did manage to set the fastest stage time before managing up to two stages up to Makindu before retiring with suspension failure. He later said"
"Monte Carlo Rally. However, the two cars entered were excluded from the event due to the use of an illegal modified water pump. By the third event — the Safari Rally in Kenya — the team had scored its first WRC victory. A month later, an on-form Colin McRae made it two in a row at the Rally of Portugal. With a move to new premises at Dovenby Hall, M-Sport expanded rapidly, employing over 170 people. In 2006, the Wilson-led Ford team took the manufacturers' World Rally championship title; it was the first time Ford had achieved this feat in"
"Ari Vatanen, whom McRae had always idolised. In 1988 he performed a giant-killing act when he took the Scottish Rally Championship series crown in a humble Vauxhall Nova. Craving more power, his next car was a Ford Sierra XR 4x4. His first WRC event was the 1987 Swedish Rally behind the wheel of his Nova, and again two years later, driving the Sierra and finishing 15th overall. Later that year, he finished 5th overall at Rally New Zealand in a rear wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. By 1990 McRae was driving a Sierra Cosworth 4x4 and achieved sixth place in that"
"the Accent WRC and Hyundai's best finish in the WRC by that time). Following his performances with Hyundai, McRae was selected to join Mitsubishi, stalwart of the WRC, in 2002. This transpired to be a difficult year, as the Japanese manufacturer found itself in turmoil, with an uncompetitive new car and a massive management re-structure. Things got even worse for the team when McRae was forced to pull out for the rest of the season due to injuries following a mountain bike crash shortly after that year's Rally San Remo therefore further hindering the team's championship effort. Mitsubishi subsequently pulled"
"overall with 62 points, giving the Subaru team the manufacturer's title. In 1998, Grist and McRae had 5 retirements and 3 wins together with the same team, with the win in Corsica, giving Grist his first win on tarmac. The team finished 3rd with 45 points and gave Subaru their third consecutive manufacturer's title. In 1999 Grist and McRae moved from Subaru to the M-sport Ford team of Malcolm Wilson, Grist's driver during the 1990 to 1991 WRC seasons, where they had two consecutive wins at the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal. However, due to reliability issues with the new"
"Marcus Grönholm still managed to beat them at the end of the season by five points. In 2001 Burns and Reid would win their first and only World Rally Championship title finishing two points ahead of Colin McRae. They won the New Zealand round of the Championship and placed second at the Argentinian, Cypriot, Finnish and Australian rounds. Burns became the first English driver to become world champion. The move to Peugeot did not prove to be as successful, though they did manage four second place finishes in the 2002 season at the Spanish, Cypriot, Finnish and German rounds of"
"The European constructors, particularly Colin Chapman and Mauro Forghieri, were influenced by American Jim Hall's Chaparral 2E and 2F sports cars' very large high strutted wings. New Zealander Chris Amon qualified his rear-wing equipped Ferrari on pole position by 4 seconds over Stewart in a Matra. Come race day, McLaren won their first ever victory as a constructor, with its founder Bruce McLaren winning – but the race saw yet another serious accident. Briton Brian Redman crashed his works Cooper heavily at very high speed into a parked Ford Cortina road car at Burnenville, and the Cooper caught fire. He"
"in the Ascar (UK version of NASCAR) race at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, Northamptonshire; eventually finishing in sixth place. McRae rejoined Prodrive for the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans where he took third place in the GTS class, and ninth position overall in a Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello partnering Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell. Fellow countryman, and Le Mans winner Allan McNish commented that ""Colin has adapted far better than people expected"" to endurance sportscar racing. McRae, made his debut on the gruelling Dakar Rally Raid with Nissan in January 2004, and impressed the team by scoring two stage wins"
"way up to compete with Colin McRae in his 2004 Dakar Rally Nissan Pick-Up. In 'Championship' mode the player takes the role of Colin himself competing in six rallies using any 4WD car. The game's graphic engine allows for more realistic damage effects and a blurred vision effect if the player comes into contact with a hard object. A Mac OS X version of this game, renamed as ""Colin McRae Rally Mac"", was published by Feral Interactive and developed by Robosoft Technologies, marking the first Colin McRae series game for the Mac OS X (now macOS). It was released on"