Colin McRae prepares to drive Skoda Fabia WRC on Rally GB

Colin McRae/Nicky Grist spent last week in Scotland carrying out intensive tests with the Skoda Motorsport Fabia WRC 05 ahead of Rally GB (September 15-18). During a three-day private test in Clatteringshaws Forest in the south west of Scotland, the 37-year old Scot and his 43-year old Welsh co-driver completed 700kms at the wheel including a marathon 350kms on Tuesday alone, a figure representative of the total stage distance of Britain’s WRC event.

Heading to the ceremonial start line in Cardiff on Thursday evening, Colin has now completed two full WRC distances in the Fabia WRC 05 without any major problems.

While team mate Armin Schwarz took over the driving for a final day of testing on Thursday, Colin and Nicky continued their Rally GB preparations by recceing the route for the Park Systems Rally, a 100kms national event held near to the test, where they drove the Fabia WRC 05 as ‘0’ car in a final high-speed run that was important to help the crew be ready for their first WRC event together in three years.

Most of the test was designed to let Colin find the most comfortable settings for his WRC comeback. He worked closely with the Skoda Motorsport engineers along with representatives from suspension suppliers Reiger and tyre partner Michelin, specifically evaluating the new BTO tyre that is expected to be a key factor on Rally GB.

Colin was immediately running flat out on the test, hitting top speeds of over 180kph and on one of the test roads regularly recording average speeds exceeding 125kph.

Colin McRae: “I am very happy with the Fabia. It feels really nice to drive and I was able to be up to full speed very quickly. It responds well to input and everything we’ve tried has changed the car in the way we expected so I’m confident that we will have a good set-up for the rally. The latest Reiger suspension has made it very stable in all conditions and the new Michelin BTO tyre was faster and more consistent than the older constructions every time we tried it.”

“I still can’t say what kind of result we can expect. We had no comparison times to work with at the test so I think everyone will be keeping a close eye on the times at the end of the first stage this Friday! I’m not so worried about our initial results but I’d like to think that we can progress as the event goes on and be setting some really good times by Sunday.”