1968: Born August 5, Lanark.

1986: Began rallying in a Talbot Sunbeam.

1987: Competed in his first world championship rally in Sweden in a Vauxhall Nova.

1989: Finished 15th overall in the world championship driving a Ford Sierra, finishing fifth in the New Zealand rally.

1991: Won the British rally championship in a Prodrive Subaru.

1992: Retained the British championship.

1993: Took his first world championship rally event win in New Zealand. Also won in Malaysia.

1994: Won world rally events in Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

1995: Won world rally driver’s title after a fierce battle with team-mate Carlos Sainz in the final round in Great Britain.

Moved to live in Monaco but later returned to Lanarkshire.

1996: Finished runner-up in the world championship. Awarded MBE.

1997: Finished runner-up in the world championship.

1998: Finished third in the world championship. Won the Race of Champions, an event where the world’s top car racers compete over a specially-built course in rally cars inside football stadia.

The first version of the Colin McRae video game was released. Several new versions, on various platforms, have seen the game become one of Sony Playstation’s best sellers.

1999: Moved to the M-Sport Ford team. Won the Safari and Portugal rallies but reliability problems with the new Focus cost him a shot at the title.

2000: Finished fourth in the world title race after a crash in Corsica left him with a broken cheekbone.

2001: Finished runner-up in the world championship.

2002: Victory in the Safari Rally made him the driver with the most world rally wins in history.

2003: Joined Citroen to race alongside Sainz and Sebastien Loeb. Both Sainz and Loeb have since broken McRae’s record of world rally event wins. Finished a disappointing seventh in the world championship.

2004: Missed out on a return to Subaru as Mikko Hirvonen was chosen as team-mate to Petter Solberg. Spent the year racing a Nissan truck in the Dakar Rally and racing the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

2005: Made a one-off return to the world championship for Rally GB in a Skoda Fabia and finished seventh.

2006 - August 5: Flipped his Subaru during the first live televised American rally at the X Games in Los Angeles but still managed to finish second despite wrecking one of the wheels.

October - Replaced the injured Loeb at Citroen for the Rally of Turkey but a mechanical problem left him outside the top 10.

2007 - September 15: He and his five-year-old son are among four people who die in a helicopter crash within the grounds of his family home.

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