01.09.2008
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.
DR has undertaken its own commemoration to Colin McRae, driving the latest Japanese spec Impreza and meeting up with the Subaru owners last weekend.
A special Group will be created in our Community and we will invite Subaru owners and fans to upload their images and memories of the legendary man and the brand he is best know for.
About Steve Davies
Steve is a media, venture, and technology advisor and a former Partner at KPMG Consulting, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Managing Partner at EIM - his clients range from global web and media companies to small start-ups. He formed Drivers Republic (DR) in 2007, the UK's first digital automotive magazine, with a team of EVO and Autocar writers before creating SkiddMark, and also writes as a guest contributor on Unruly Media’s Meme Machine blog and for Econsultancy’s digital marketing blog.
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6 Comments
crewzy
September 2, 2008great photo. take by a copter?
where can we found a complete report of this event?
many thx and R.I.P Colin
crewzy
September 2, 2008great photo. take by a copter?
where can we found a complete report of this event?
many thx and R.I.P Colin
Touching Cloth
September 2, 2008Got mixed up amongst this heading back from Scotland the other day, very strange at first as we must have been ahead of the pack, had no idea what was going on but every bridge was crowded with people. Got to Charnock Richard services (I think it was there) and all became clear as the place was teeming with blue and gold. RIP Colin and Jonny and hats off to the Subaru nutters, nice community you have going.
Touching Cloth
September 2, 2008Got mixed up amongst this heading back from Scotland the other day, very strange at first as we must have been ahead of the pack, had no idea what was going on but every bridge was crowded with people. Got to Charnock Richard services (I think it was there) and all became clear as the place was teeming with blue and gold. RIP Colin and Jonny and hats off to the Subaru nutters, nice community you have going.
Jethro Bovingdon
September 2, 2008We haven’t done a huge report on this as there’s already huge amounts of info on the McRae Gathering website and http://www.scoobynet.com
However, I did attend and was inspired to start a group on our new Community to celebrate Colin and salute everyone behind this huge event. It was a mighty effort. I’ve uploaded my pictures from the day but it’d be great to see more from all those who attended.
Jethro Bovingdon
September 2, 2008We haven’t done a huge report on this as there’s already huge amounts of info on the McRae Gathering website and http://www.scoobynet.com
However, I did attend and was inspired to start a group on our new Community to celebrate Colin and salute everyone behind this huge event. It was a mighty effort. I’ve uploaded my pictures from the day but it’d be great to see more from all those who attended.