He was completely mesmerized by this boy. Colin would never go on the defensive-he constantly went for the win; this reminded Kuze of SUBARU frantically trying to climb up the ladder of the WRC.

Colin competed as a SUBARU Works driver until 1998. His relation with SUBARU remained close. In recent years, he competed in America's X Games for two consecutive years, on both occasions in an Impreza, where he showed off his aggressive driving style to a whole new group of fans. He competed in the WRC regularly only until 2003, but when he made a spot-entry for Skoda in the final round of the 2005 season, Rally Australia, he was in 2nd place until being forced to retire with problems, showing his still unfailing speed and passion for winning. In 2007, Colin was almost 40 years old and working hard on making a WRC comeback. 'If I don't do it now, I will never have the opportunity again. But I believe I still have the speed to compete in the WRC, and I still have the passion!' After he made this comment, he was in a very unfortunate accident. It was September 15th, 2007.
Ten days after the extraordinary rally driver passed away, the funeral took place at a chapel in the town of his birth. The small town of Lanark, Scotland was crowded with the twenty thousand rally fans all grieving his far-too-early death. Being WRC Champion for one year and having an overall tally of 25 WRC wins isn't an exceptional record. However, his heroic yet beautiful driving, his dislike for losing, and his personality, which always strived to be the fastest, still grasps fans' hearts and will not let go. 'A driver for whom our memories remain, rather than his records' - this is Colin McRae.

To win a rally, one must finish all its special stages in first place. This definitely is not a mistake, but it isn't realistic either. However, there was a rally driver who, despite having an immense career, still approached rallies with that mentality. It was the young Colin McRae. His speed was said to be explosive, but he did have many crashes, which led to his rather unfortunate nickname of 'McCrash'
In 1990, Colin was competing in the British Rally Championship, in a youth programme supported by Ford. However, due to his many crashes, he was given an ultimatum at the end of the season.
Colin was gutted. Despite the setback, an organization that was just finishing up its first year in the WRC, SUBARU saw McRae's potential, and though it was buried deep down, approached Colin. The Group A Legacy had its areas of potential, but it needed more time to mature. That was similar to the state the young Scot was in. 'Then let them mature together.' SUBARU entered him in the British Rally Championship in 1991 in the Legacy. The duo dominated four out of the seven races in the series, and Colin became the youngest-ever British Rally Champion.
 In 1992, SUBARU promoted him to a regular drive in the WRC. His style, which was to engage in full throttle attack mode regardless of his position or stage, did not change. He was definitely fast, but couldn't stop crashing. The people at the top in SUBARU began to think the Scot was just reckless, and started to object to him continuing as a SUBARU driver. The man who defended Colin for years was Ryuichiro Kuze, the first president of STI. Kuze had the whole world against him at that time. Throughout their second year of participation in the WRC, he would repeatedly say, 'This time we will win'. As it turned out, they lost; and certain people accused Kuze of crying wolf. Despite all that, the boss continued to defend Colin.

This is why Kuze was truly, truly happy when Colin brought back his and SUBARU's first-ever WRC win at the race prior to the debut of the Impreza, the 1993 New Zealand Rally. Colin never forgot his gratitude, either. This Lanark, Scotland native sent Kuze a custom made cut glass plate when he became the youngest WRC champion (27 years and 3 months) in 1995. Kuze said this plate, with Colin's words of gratitude engraved on it, was his 'treasure' and kept it safely.