Corgi 1/43 VA12303 Subaru Impreza S5 WRC 1999, Rallye Monte Carlo, 17th-20th January 1999. Richard Burns/Robert Reid SPECIAL EDITION

During their three years with Mitsubishi, Burns and Reid had matured into overall winners. The turning point was victory in the 1996 Asia Pacific Championship New Zealand Rally, which was followed by an inaugural WRC win on the 1998 Safari and then the first of three consecutive victories on their home event, The Rally of Great Britain.

With Colin McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist leaving Subaru to join Ford for 1999, Burns and Reid rejoined Subaru as undisputed team leaders. Their first event together was the Monte Carlo Rally in the car modelled here, and although it yielded only 8th place it showed promise. Victory on the Acropolis Rally in Greece came later and they ended the year with back to back wins on the last two rallies of the season in Australia and Britain. The potential for a genuine championship challenge was there but second overall to Tommi Makinnen and Risto Mannisenmäki was an achievement in itself. They were second in the championship again in 2000, this time to Peugeot's Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen. It all came good the following year in a closely fought title race that saw Burns and Reid win only one rally outright, in New Zealand, but perform consistently well. After a life dedicated to rallying, Richard Burns and Robert Reid had reached the pinnacle of their sport and were the 2001 World Rally Champions. 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.