Colin McRae’s 1997 WRC test car was for sale and we all missed out

8 June, 2017

Rally fans will know the story like the back of their hand, but for those of us a bit fresher to the golden era of international rallying, here’s why the recently sold test car is so important. The year was 1997 and Subaru was debuting their newly-built Subaru Impreza WRC, a fresh start to meet the new World Rally Car specifications that replaced Group A rules. It sported a livery similar to previous works Imprezas and Legacys, but would prove to be one of the most iconic in Subaru’s rallying timeline.

Chassis 97001, often referred to as “WRC97”, was developed by Prodrive and was the first car built to the new FIA World Rally Car specification that allowed greater design freedom for the teams. Of course, who else to test it other than Colin McRae — who took out championship wins in the previous incarnations for 1995 and 1996. By the end of the 1997 season, McRae had chalked up another manufacturers’ championship, making it three years in a row.

But, while owning the championship car would be something of mythical proportions — we assume that car is tucked away somewhere secure at a Subaru facility in Europe — this car never saw competition and the auctioneer, H&H Classics, was quick to point out that “the car was never an official Subaru WRC entrant”. Yet it still sold for £230,000 ($408,024 NZD)

Why you may be asking? That’s an easy answer, it’s the car used to generate one of the most iconic Subaru rally chassis of all time. A development and test vehicle for Prodrive, McRae spent considerable amounts of time in it to form the model’s tuning, and it was paraded around by the Subaru World Rally Team to show off at press events. Not to mention that he first of anything tends to command a premium, and it’s no different when that first is a Prodrive-developed WRC winner.

Sadly, you can’t have it. It’s already been snagged by an overseas buyer at the private auction to — more than likely — never be seen again. But you can sit there staring at pictures of old wishing you had a spare £230,000 ($408,024 NZD) to blow on these sorts of things. We are too …

The video that H&H Classics slapped together is well worth the watch too — we slow clap any auction house that takes an ex-rally car power sliding and calls it promotion.

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NZ Classic Car magazine, September/October 2026 issue 407, on sale now

16 August, 2026

We love bugs!
A bit of TLC that became a major restoration
The 1302S, or ‘Super Beetle’ as it became known, was built for two years before it, too, was replaced by a further-enhanced Beetle, the 1303, continuing an amazing 65-year lineage for one of the World’s best-known shapes.
The world’s best-selling single-model vehicle, the VW Beetle, possibly established another record for the amount of controversy it has created since the inception of the Type 1.
In a meeting with Hitler in June 1934, Ferdinand Porsche was contracted to build a ‘People’s Car’ that could accommodate two adults and three children, was air-cooled and simple to maintain, and could cruise economically at moderate speed along Germany’s proposed new Autobahns.
Our feature car, a 1972 1302S ‘Super Beetle’, was found by Dave and Michelle Dickie in Mosgiel a few years back. It was a runner, but like most VWs of this age, it needed a little TLC. They were looking for a daily driver for Michelle when they first came upon the VW being sold locally on behalf of its owner.
“The owner offered it to his grandchildren, and they didn’t want it, so he got the guy out at Mosgiel in the Mobil petrol station to sell it for him, and he put it on Trade Me for them. We never met the owner, and we were always dealing with the guy at the petrol station. We put a bid on it, and we were the only people that bid on it.”
Their bid was eventually successful, eight years ago. Not knowing much of the history, in situations like that, it’s always a risk buying a car, but they were in for a bit of a surprise.

The other Q car

12 August, 2026

Say the word ‘bond’ to anyone in the street and around 80 per cent straight away think of pop culture’s least-secret secret agent. The other 20 per cent may think of the wad of cash required to secure a flat or hire equipment that one gets back providing the fixtures and fittings stay much as they were.
However, mention ‘bond’ in specialist classic car circles and people will spin a very different yarn. If you dig deep enough, you will find an eccentric British carmaker that, throughout its 23 years in business, spawned some quirky and charming little cars.
The company was founded by Paul Sharp in 1922 under the name of Sharp’s Commercials Limited. However, the company did not start producing cars until 1948. The first car to carry the Bond name was the Bond Minicar. A three-wheeled, soft-top, two-cylinder eco car, the Minicar was a big hit at the time as the desire for an economical urban runabout that didn’t attract four-wheel car tax was strong in post-war Britain. All in all, 34,285 Minicars were produced over 26 years in a variety of variants.

Colin McRae’s 1997 WRC test car was for sale and we all missed out

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