Burns and Reid's British Rally Championship victory had finally propelled them into the Prodrive Subaru Team and given them a wage as professionals for 1994. Their horizons were broadened considerably by contesting six rounds of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship as well as two WRC events, the Safari Rally in Kenya and Rally Australia. Results were mixed during this learning season, especially early on, but they gradually improved, and during the arduous Hong Kong to Beijing Rally the pair were challenging for the lead before sliding off and ultimately settling for second behind their team leader. Still this was an impressive finish for such a young team learning to drive the powerful Group A Impreza.
The pair continued to improve in 1995 and ended their second year as works drivers with a valuable third place on the RAC Rally in the car modelled here, which contributed significantly to Subaru's Manufacturers' Championship victory. Somewhat overshadowed at the time by Colin McRae and Derek Ringer's magnificent drive to Championship victory which left even Sainz trailing their wake, it's important to remember Burns' was still only 23-years old so a podium place on his home rally was impressive. It was Burns and Reid's highest placed WRC finish to date and significantly they beat Alistair McRae and Chris Wood's Escort Cosworth into 4th. Subaru did not offer the pair a contract for the 1995 season until after this performance on the RAC Rally but by then was too late, they had already signed for Mitsubishi. England’s one and only World Rally Champion, Richard Burns, was born to drive. The Richard Burns Foundation and Corgi have teamed up to create a series of six highly detailed 1:43 scale quality die-cast collectable models representing the most memorable rally cars in Richard’s illustrious career. Each model is presented in a display case and comes complete with a collector card listing the story of that particular car. Every model sold will provide a contribution to the Richard Burns Foundation to help support its continuing charitable work in the 2001 champion’s name.