Most people associate that iconic image of Colin McRae pirouetting his Subaru in Saltire-soaked jubilation at Chester race course with the moment that he won the 1995 World Rally Championship after the RAC Rally.

But the foundations of his championship win were laid a year earlier, back in 1994. That thrilling season was the launchpad for McRae’s unforgettable world title, and the template that defined his often fractious relationship with team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Colin was just 25 when he graduated to a full-time WRC drive in 1994, which was considered to be barely out of nappies at the time. Famously he would go on to become the sport’s youngest world champion when he clinched the title a year later – a record that stood until just two years ago, when it was smashed by Kalle Rovanperä.

At the start of 1994 though, Colin only had one rally win behind him: a breakthrough triumph on Rally New Zealand in 1993, at the wheel of the ageing Subaru Legacy, whose ungainly looks belied its prodigious ability.

This was largely down to the assiduous work of Prodrive, which had managed to transform a car brand famed for providing transport to farmers into the sort of go-faster icon desired by boy racers all over the world. David Richards and his Banbury-based team had sunk all their know-how and resources into Subaru’s rally project to realise the dream of Subaru Tecnica International president Ryuichiro Kuze: the architect of the programme

They did a solid job with the Legacy – which claimed its one and only WRC win with McRae – and had even got the most out of the diminutive Vivio, which also made a cameo appearance as a rally car on the 1993 Safari.

While the Legacy had the necessary four-wheel drive and a turbo, it was clear that Subaru needed a proper hero car. And that would only come with the Impreza. It was the rally car that Subaru hoped would conquer the world, and Prodrive had been developing it hard in the background, long before the road car was first announced in Japan at the end of 1992.

Problem was, the Japanese had also said they wouldn’t do anything with the Impreza in competition until the Legacy had won a rally. Anything else would constitute a loss of face.

So it was actually McRae who allowed the Impreza to make its debut: even though he wasn’t especially enamoured of it at first, preferring the extra high-speed stability that came with the bigger Legacy, perhaps because he spent so much time on the edge anyway.

The new Impreza 555 was rushed into service on the 1993 Rally Finland, the event that came after New Zealand, with the champagne barely dry on McRae’s overalls. Markku Alén, one of the two local aces drafted in for the occasion, crashed on the opening stage and was tersely asked to leave his Subaru overalls in the car before he left. Ari Vatanen, Prodrive’s other ringer, did a blinding job and eventually finished second – having led at one point.

Colin himself didn’t form part of that debut, but was entered for two more WRC rounds as per his part-time 1993 programme: Australia (where he finished sixth in the Legacy) and his debut with the Impreza on the RAC Rally, where he led until the radiator broke and cooked the engine.

The point had been made. McRae headed into the 10-round 1994 season, his first full-time WRC drive as well as the first full year of the Impreza, as a definite title hopeful, if not exactly a contender. It wasn’t quite a complete programme, as Subaru had already decided to skip the Safari, and only one car would be entered in Finland – which wouldn’t be for McRae, with Prodrive perhaps remembering the Scot’s cannonball run through the trees back in 1992.

This piecemeal approach to the championship might seem strange now, but was common back then: Subaru was also competing on the Asia-Pacific Championship, a key priority for the Japanese manufacturer, and previously had resources tied up in the British Championship too.

“It was mainly a question of logistics I think,” remembers David Richards. “At the time we had less than 150 people, so we were stretched quite thin and this was meant to be a learning year.”

McRae’s first objective was to beat his newly signed two-time world champion team-mate Carlos Sainz, arriving at Prodrive off the back of a miserable season with a privateer Lancia. This was the start of a rivalry turned friendship that would span years and become one of the most fascinating human bonds in the sport. From his side, Colin was entirely convinced he could have the measure of Carlos; whatever he lacked as a driver, self-belief wasn’t it.

“That’s what the 1994 season was all about with Colin, knocking the corners off – often literally!”

But Colin wasn’t yet the finished article, which was why Sainz was brought in as de facto team leader – another man for whom self-esteem wasn’t an issue.

Relations between the two were initially strained: the idiom ‘chalk and cheese’ probably doesn’t sufficiently reflect the disparity of their personalities and cultural backgrounds at the time.

“Managing their relationship was something of a challenge; I think Carlos found Colin quite exasperating,” points out Richards. “Carlos would often put all the work in at testing and so on, then Colin would turn up, drive the car, and say, ‘Yep, I’ll have what Carlos has got’ – and often go a bit quicker. You can see why that would annoy him.”

Colin meanwhile considered Carlos to be an interloper into ‘his’ team; a mindset that Prodrive management had helped to create.

“I did what I subsequently did in Formula 1 with Jenson Button,” says Richards. “If you build a British team around a British driver you inevitably get an extra degree of loyalty and support. So I think that Colin did have that extra edge within the team, even though Mr Kuze asked me at the beginning: ‘So, who is this Scottish man you’ve signed to drive our car?’”

The Spanish media, in particular, was convinced there was a conspiracy against their hero – “and that’s one of the reasons why I implemented team orders in 1995 in Carlos’s favour; to dispel that narrative,” adds Richards.

But in 1994 McRae was still evolving, while Sainz was very much at the height of his powers. McRae took a valuable lesson with him into the season, thinking back to his first victory. “New Zealand certainly wasn’t the fastest I’ve driven; I could definitely have gone quicker,” he reflected afterwards. “So that’s probably something to think about, isn’t it? Problem is, you forget all about that in the heat of the moment!”

You can imagine Richards and his Prodrive cohort David Lapworth – technical director today – groaning in frustration. “That’s what the 1994 season was all about with Colin, knocking the corners off – often quite literally!” quips Richards. “But we knew the speed was there; don’t forget I’d been through all this before with Ari Vatanen, and Colin was basically another Ari.”

Yet rallying was hardly a level playing field back then, and the 1994 season would be book-ended by two instances of blatant spectator interference. At the Monte Carlo Rally, spectators threw snow onto the road – probably in an attempt to boost the prospects of local hero François Delecour, who had just missed out on victory the year before.

Colin was one of the victims at Monte Carlo, losing half an hour and slipping to 164th in a field of 166 runners. Meanwhile, once he had adjusted the ride height of the car, Sainz secured a podium; it set the tone.

When it came to individual stage performances, Colin and Carlos were closely matched, although McRae was ultimately faster at his peak. Prodrive had also hoped that the signing of Carlos would help to smooth Colin’s rough edges, by underlining the knowledge he had already worked out for himself in New Zealand.

David Richards summed it up like this: “Carlos had the experience and the knowledge of Tarmac on his side, Colin had the bravery and was incredible in the forests. Yes there was tension, but if you manage that tension properly, then that’s how you get the best out of people. Having said that, myself and Colin spent a lot of time at odds with each other. I wanted him to stay on the road and he just wanted to go as fast as possible. But we had a good understanding and just worked through the process.”

“Scrutineers had carried out an engine check but the bonnet pin wasn’t properly secured”

In Portugal a fourth place would take Carlos to second in the championship, while Colin’s car caught fire. With no Safari on their 1994 schedule, Prodrive would head to Corsica next; a dramatic event with the world of motor sport still reeling from the death of Ayrton Senna, not to mention a terrible road accident for one of the WRC championship favourites, Delecour, which would sideline him for most of the year.

Carlos was second overall despite having no real answer to the pace of Toyota, while Colin had two punctures and went off. By that point, the nickname of ‘Colin McCrash’ had stuck. “It was fair enough at the time because I certainly did crash a lot of cars,” recalled Colin many years later. “That was the thing everyone loved as well; to see someone trying. I was always prepared to go into every corner a gear higher to try and beat everyone. But you can only get away with that for so long.”

Maybe reality was beginning to bite. McRae fought back on the Acropolis: a rally he went on to make his own. By the end of the first day the Scot led by 43sec, having gone fastest on seven of the 10 stages.

But Colin wouldn’t be Colin without an emotional roller-coaster. On the second day, the scrutineers had carried out a random engine check, and the Impreza’s bonnet pin wasn’t properly secured afterwards. It flew open, smashing the windscreen. Not wanting to sacrifice any time, Colin checked into the next stage without having it replaced – and then blocked the road while this was done. Ultimately, this earned him a disqualification for unsporting behaviour, while Carlos claimed the first win for the Impreza, which propelled him into the joint lead of the championship. Colin, by contrast, wasn’t even in the top six by this point.

Next up was Argentina: another DNF for McRae with another podium for Sainz (who only just missed out on victory by 6sec). While the accepted wisdom was that the Impreza was now the complete package and Sainz had a great shot at the title, serious questions were being asked of McRae.

“There weren’t many positives in those days – we had our fair share of incidents and Colin had his fair share of crashes,” recounted David Lapworth. “That’s the thing with most young drivers; you know they are going to go out there and do their best. But in Colin’s case it wasn’t just his best. It was beyond his best: absolutely flat-out. At least you always knew what the car could do.”

And then it was time for New Zealand again. Colin described these roads, with their flowing cambers, as being reminiscent of the stages in Scotland; maybe that’s why he always had this serene affinity with them. They also played to the strengths of the nimble Impreza.

“Keep it steady,” was Colin’s stated game plan; perhaps not a mantra always associated with him. By contrast, Sainz was in trouble, with his engine failing on SS5. The 1994 New Zealand Rally was arguably the most important event of Colin’s career – because it might just have saved it. So by extension, it was probably the place that played a massive role in deciding the outcome of the 1995 title.

Prodrive had always kept faith with McRae, but his antics had been testing the patience of some management in Japan. Which is why David Richards was keen to point out in a TV interview at the end of the 1994 New Zealand: “Not a mark on the car, an impeccable drive. We started with four cars [for Richard Burns and Possum Bourne, as well as Sainz and McRae] and came back with one.”

Just two rounds would be left for Prodrive in 1994: Sanremo, where a newly sensible Colin finished in a solid fifth place, and the RAC (which was celebrating its 50th anniversary that year).

There was no doubt as to the identity of the favourite for the win, but complicating the picture was the fact that Sainz now had a shot at the championship – so would Colin be asked to help him?

In the end, it was taken out of their hands. Sainz damaged his car on the opening day at Chatsworth, but so did championship leader Didier Auriol, while McRae moved into a lead he was never to lose on SS3.

The Scot was as in command as he was in New Zealand, whereas it was Sainz who cracked under pressure, fighting with Juha Kankkunen for second. But just as had been the case in Monte Carlo, spectators played a crucial role: placing logs on the road that Sainz had to avoid at more than 100mph.

On edge, he crashed out on the following stage, while McRae cruised to the win by more than three and a half minutes; the first home winner on the RAC since Roger Clark 18 years earlier.

“All the hard work we had done, and everything we had been through, was finally paying off”

It was his most dominant performance yet, but also perhaps the easiest one to manage from inside the car. And a perfect start to 1995. “By then, Colin was finally the finished article,” is how David Richards put it. “All the hard work we had done, and everything we had been through, was finally paying off.”

The Scot had been given a tantalising glimpse of the way that things could be. It wasn’t so much a question of redemption, but more of putting the pieces together and setting out the stall for what was to come.

In 1995, McRae knew that there would be a genuine championship campaign taking in every round, and that he was now more than ready to take the fight to Sainz.

Subaru, having finished second in the 1994 standings, was equally ready to claim its first of three constructors’ titles (and first of three drivers’ titles).

But nobody could have predicted just how intense that fight would become, or the controversies that were to follow. The signs were already there in 1994 though, which is what makes it such a vital season. It was the year that McRae had arrived, saved his career, and transformed his image from raw hooligan behind a wheel into an accomplished all-rounder.

He did all that without ever stopping being Colin McRae; creating the vertiginous rush of support that only comes with the rapid emergence of exceptional talent.

“I’ve done a lot, but I look back at that time with so much affection,” concludes Richards. “I was thinking about that only recently, when we had a celebration of Prodrive’s 40th birthday. We invited the Subaru Owners Club down to Banbury, and to see all those cars and the cult following that we created was incredible really. It took me right back…”