Despite its Impreza 555 being lightning quick and scoring a podium straight out of the box, it took Subaru almost a year to claim the model’s first win in the World Rally Championship.
It was not the straightforward affair Carlos Sainz’s eventual winning margin of four minutes would suggest, as team-mate Colin McRae was controversially excluded for alleged unsportsmanlike behavior.
We’re rewinding the clock back 30 years to remember this tale, to a time when WRC events were mammoth affairs. The 1994 Acropolis Rally packed in 33 stages and 313 competitive miles – almost double what the class of 2024 will tackle this week.
Four rounds into the ’94 season, the big news was the demise of François Delecour. The winner of the Monte suffered a road accident in his friend’s Ferrari F40 prior to the Tour de Corse, ruling him out for the rest of the season.
Fellow Frenchman Didier Auriol won in Corsica and led the championship heading to Greece, and was showing well in his Toyota Celica ST185 before smashing his sump guard against a rock and retiring from second place.
Auriol lost his championship lead with retirement in Greece
Team-mate and reigning world champion Juha Kankkunen didn’t fare much better, but ironically Auriol’s retirement had something to do with it. After passing the stricken Celica, the Finn broke his rear suspension and dropped five minutes. Eventually he would recover to third.
Without Delecour, Ford’s challenge was considerably weaker with de facto team leader Miki Biasion not showing the kind of form that made him a two-time world champion with Lancia.
The Escort RS Cosworth was using a sequential gear-shifter for the first time, but Biasion wasn’t able to make full use of it as he was ruled out with a sheared oil pump drive.
Ari Vatanen, in a privateer Escort, finished as the top Ford in fifth, one spot ahead of Malcolm Wilson who overcame a blown turbo and damaged steering.
Malcolm Wilson was the leading works Ford in sixth overall
What about Mitsubishi? Returning to competition for the first time since Monte Carlo, it was an awful rally for Kenneth Eriksson whose Lancer broke not one, but four driveshafts. Eventually he retired with suspension and transmission problems.
As for team-mate Armin Schwarz? Brake problems blunted his challenge early on as he struggled to stay in the top 10, but the drama for others allowed the wily German to make it back up to an eventual second, albeit nowhere near the frontrunners.
So that left Subaru.
McRae was in inspired form on the first day, winning six of the leg’s 10 stages to lead Sainz by a handy 43 seconds. Even with the handicap of running first on the road the following day, the Scot was keeping Sainz at bay.
That was, until, things got bizarre.
McRae led most of the event but was eventually excluded
In a regroup, as is procedure, the FIA scrutineers walked over to McRae’s Subaru to check its legality. But the hood of the Impreza had been left unfastened, and sure enough it lifted and obscured McRae and Derek Ringer’s vision.
Stopping at road-side service, the Subaru mechanics removed the broken screen and prepared the surround for a new one before McRae had to head off to the start of the next stage to avoid being late.
Subaru management was sure the team would be able to fit a new screen at the start of the stage given it was a safety issue. McRae, running first, ended up blocking the stage for 29 minutes as the situation unfolded.
There was no official word from the clerk of the course, but to avoid even more delay the stage commander allowed the Subaru mechanics to fit the new windshield.
According to McRae, in his autobiography The Real McRae, all of the other drivers were aware of what was happening and “accepted what we did was fair and sensible, and had no problem with it”.
McRae therefore started the stage, but lost the lead to Sainz to trail by 7s overnight. Or so he thought.
A stewards hearing was held that evening, and McRae was thrown out of the event as he had acted without permission from the clerk of the course for what was labeled “a fundamental anti-sporting act” in causing a blockage.
Sainz (right) and co-driver Luis Moya celebrate a first WRC victory in 18 months
The whole affair left a sour taste, but Sainz was comfortably clear and avoided any late drama to notch up both the Impreza’s first WRC win and his first in Subaru colors – thus ending a victory drought that stretched back to the 1992 RAC.
“I think it was a very tough rally, we are very happy, very pleased,” Sainz said. “We were close in Corsica and here we got it. It’s a long time since RAC ’92 we could not win, and we are very happy.”
The win moved Sainz to the top of the championship, level with Kankkunen, and closed Subaru to 13 points behind Toyota. The titles would eventually be won by Auriol and Toyota.
But in its various Group A and World Rally Car guises, the Impreza would go on to win 45 more world rallies as well as three drivers’ and three manufacturers’ championships.
