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Colin McRae

British racing driver (1968–2007)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ201291
Source-derived summary

Colin Steele McRae (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first Scottish driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title.

At the age of 27, McRae was the youngest-ever World Champion, a record that stood until 2022. McRae's performances with the Subaru World Rally Team enabled the team to win the World Rally Championship Manufacturers' title three times in succession in 1995, 1996 and 1997. After four years with the Ford Motor Co. team, where McRae won nine events, he moved to Citroën World Rally Team in 2003, where, despite not winning an event, he helped them win their first manufacturers' title. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to motorsport in 1996. With 25 victories in the WRC, McRae held the record for the most wins in the series at the time of his retirement from full-time rallying in 2003.

In 2007, McRae was killed when the helicopter he was piloting crashed near his home. His son and two family friends were also killed.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Colin McRae” is british racing driver (1968–2007). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Colin, McRae and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1968, 2007, 1991, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1968-08-05. For this dossier, Colin, McRae and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british racing driver (1968–2007)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q201291. VIAF identifies the subject as 18421854. The Library of Congress control number is nb96057270. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 2007, 1991 and 1992.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Colin McRae”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Colin McRae primary sources, Colin McRae archive and Colin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Colin McRae”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Colin McRae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.