Did Colin McRae want to do the Safari Rally? Yes please. Did he want to do it in a Subaru Vivio Sedan 4WD? According to Prodrive, yes please.
The year was 1993, the Scot had just landed his second consecutive podium on the Swedish Rally and he was ready to take on the world. But a supercharged 660cc Japanese Kei car wasn’t exactly part of the plan. Until it was.
The then 24-year-old was keen to see Africa and Subaru Tecnica International founder Noriyuki Koseki was keen for the firm’s Vivio to see some of the limelight. Let’s go.
Ahead of the event, few predicted the 555-liveried Subaru would see the end of the first section. McRae’s co-driver Derek Ringer might have been among them.
Ringer recalls: “We went there without any idea of what we were letting ourselves in for. The dramas began before the event even started.”
This being their first Safari, the pair were new to idea of making more descriptive Safari-type notes for the 1300 competitive miles which sat in wait across the coming week.
Ringer and McRae didn't have a lot of confidence that the Viveo would survive the Safari
“We tried to do a recce in a Nissan pickup truck,” said Ringer. “Pretty quickly we concluded that we didn’t know how to make proper pacenotes for Africa and there was no way that either the Nissan or the Vivio were going to make it all the way around the whole route.
“In the end we actually just recced the first two days of this five-day event and borrowed the notes for the other three days from our team-mate, just in case we got that far.
“Two days before the event started, we tested the rally car on one of the smoothest gravel road in Kenya and after driving only 30 kilometers the car promptly stopped. The sun was going down, I had a considerable amount of cash in my rally bag and all the locals had come out to see what this strange small car phenomenon was all about.
“I was getting a bit nervous at the situation.
“Eventually four local guys pitched up in a knackered old car and we persuaded them to tow us out. They said they had no petrol, so I said if they manage to tow us out to the main road, I would fill the car up with petrol. We only managed to get about 300 yards before the tow car expired in a cloud of steam.”
Recce sort of done, it was time for the rally. Typically, the Scotsmen raised some eyebrows on the rough roads south-east of Nairobi.
“We were up to fourth place after the first couple of sections,” said Ringer, “but there was no way this was going to last. Near the end of the fifth section the front suspension broke completely going into a river crossing.
“Getting out of the river crossing, the rear differential broke. Koseki’s mechanics were not experienced rally mechanics, instead they had all won competitions to be the best mechanic in Subaru’s Japanese dealer network – the prize being to go and work on the Safari Rally.
“They had no idea what they were doing. Colin and I stood in bewilderment as they set to work on the Vivio and we were absolutely gobsmacked when they got the car going again.
“This was great, so we kept going until the car properly expired two sections later, somewhere near the coast at Mombasa. From there we headed to the hotel swimming pool for four days.”
The Scotsmen spent more time in the hotel pool than inside the Viveo
Talking to British journalist David Williams in Mombasa just after he retired, McRae eyed the hotel’s pool and offered a deadpan response.
“I can’t think of a better place to retire.”
The adventure was over. It lasted longer than most predicted, but it wouldn’t be repeated.
Four years later, McRae returned in a different wort of four-wheel drive Subaru and won the event by seven minutes.
