[12][13] McRae was married to Alison (née Hamilton), whom he met aged 19 when she acted as his co-driver,[2] and had two children, Hollie and Johnny.

[2] At the age of sixteen, through the Coltness Car Club, McRae found autotesting, obtained a Mini Cooper and started competing.

His driving style drew many comparisons to Finnish ex-World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, whom McRae had always idolised.

[26] In 1991, McRae turned professional as he was signed by Prodrive boss David Richards to his Subaru team in the British Rally Championship for an annual wage of approximately £10,000.

[28][29] In 1992, McRae made his debut in the British Touring Car Championship, with a one-off appearance for the Prodrive-run BMW factory team at the Knockhill round, where he collided with Matt Neal.

[24] On his promotion for 1993, McRae initially drove the Prodrive-built Group A Subaru Legacy alongside Finns Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola and Markku Alén.

It took only until 1995 for McRae to win the driver's 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.

In what would turn out to be his final season with the team, in 1998 he won three more rallies and placed third in the standings, as well as winning the Race of Champions in Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands.

The deal saw McRae earning six million pounds over two years, which at the time made him the highest-earning rally driver in history.

Moreover, a rare personal pointless run had begun for McRae that year which only stopped with a podium on the following February's Swedish Rally.

[32] McRae's intermittent success with Ford continued into 2001, where after failing to score in any of the first four rounds, including having momentarily led defending winner Tommi Mäkinen on the stages of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally before being forced into retirement, he then went on to score three consecutive victories in Argentina, Cyprus and Greece to tie with Mäkinen at the top of the points table.

"[34] For 2003, McRae signed for Citroën, a team of winning pedigree due to its successes of the previous year with young Frenchman Sébastien Loeb but otherwise undertaking its first complete campaign at World Rally Championship level.

With Loeb partway through a multiple-year contract, this meant the Citroën factory team, under Guy Fréquelin's leadership, was forced to choose between dropping McRae or Sainz.

In September 2002 he took part in an ASCAR Racing Series event at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, Northamptonshire,[37] finishing in sixth place.

[38] 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.

Le Mans winner Allan McNish commented that "Colin has adapted far better than people expected" to endurance sportscar racing.

[43] In 2004 and 2005, McRae represented Great Britain in the Race of Champions Nations Cup alongside Formula One driver and fellow Scot, David Coulthard.

[48] On 5 August 2006, McRae competed for Subaru in the first live televised American rally in Los Angeles as part of the X-Games.

Despite this, McRae kept the car running and continued on to the finish, his time only 0.13 seconds slower than eventual winner Travis Pastrana.

An address was given by Robbie Head, a former rally driver and commentator who was a close friend of McRae's, with the Rev Houston giving the benediction.

Shortly before 4 p.m., Martin Hewins, McRae's personal bagpiper for many years, played "Flower of Scotland" as the family arrived at the church.

[63] The announcement of McRae's death took place during qualifying for the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix with ITV commentator James Allen informing viewers of the news.

[67] Following his win at the Brands Hatch meeting of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship season, Andy Priaulx dedicated it to McRae, commenting that his death "shows how fragile life can be".

In it, the AAIB did not reach a definite conclusion as to the cause of the accident, stating instead that "the helicopter crashed in a wooded valley while manoeuvering at high speed and low height.

There were indications that the pilot had started recovery but, with insufficient height in which to complete it, the helicopter struck trees in the valley and crashed, killing all four occupants.

[79] The 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.

[8] In 2015, 20 years from when McRae won the 1995 WRC Championship, an exhibition of memorabilia, including cars, was displayed at a service park at 2015 Rally GB.

Version 2, known as Colin McRae Rally 2.0, was released in 2000, for Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft Windows; it was also ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2002.

[91][92] Built by DJM Race Preparation,[91] the McRae R4's chassis is based on a steel safety cage with carbon panelling front and rear, and a steel-covered cockpit area.

The bodywork of the car is loosely based on a first-generation Ford Ka bodyshell, deemed to be the optimal choice in terms of size, shape and weight.