Get Up Close and Personal With Colin McRae's First-Ever, Forgotten Rally Car

Fans will also remember his Subaru Legacy and Ford Sierra RS Cosworth years and even his early WRC attempts in the Vauxhall Nova and Peugeot 205 GTI. But most people don't know that McRae scored his first rally win in a borrowed Hillman Avenger. While he was only 17.

An unlikely racer, the Avenger was first introduced in 1970. Built and developed by Chrysler Europe, it was a small RWD family car powered by small-displacement four-cylinder engines. While it's mostly unknown in the U.S., where it was briefly imported as the Plymouth Cricket (1971-1973), the Avenger was one of the most cars in the U.K. in the 1970s.

Fewer than 300 of them are still on British roads as of 2022, but fortunately enough, the rally car that McRae drove in the 1980s is still around. Restored in 2013, the car was recently featured by The Late Brake Show alongside the Ian Gemmell, the guy who campaigned it when new, winning numerous events in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

Gemmell talks about how the car was stripped off and prepped for rally duty, but he also argues that based on the way it was built, this Avenger might have been the very vehicle Chrysler displayed at the 1973 Paris Motor Show.

He takes the rally-spec Avenger for a spin on the same track McRae drove it on 35 years ago and explains what makes it a great and underrated racer. One that, according to him, was far superior to the iconic Ford Escort RS2000 on tarmac courses.

An interesting history lesson, the video is also proof that not all competitive race cars become stars. Overshadowed by the celebrated Lancia, Fiat, Alpine, and Ford rally cars of the era, the Avenger never got the attention it deserves. And that needs to change.