His first competitive outing on dirt came aged 12, but it was on two wheels, rather than four, where he forged his reputation, becoming a junior champion in Motocross in his homeland.

Rallying though would prove to be his calling, and his debut duly came in 1986 in a Sunbeam Lotus at the age of 17, where an early crash put paid to his hopes of a good result.

Already evident was the flamboyant driving style that would win him so many fans, even if it did earn him the tag "McRae the madman."

While honing his skills in front-wheel-drive machinery, the young McRae made his world championship debut in Sweden in 1987, and made it home in 36th place in a 1300cc Vauxhall Nova.

But it was four-wheel drive machinery he longed to compete in and duly began competing full-time in the British Championship, and on a limited basis in the WRC, in a Ford Scotland-backed Sierra.

His career really took off in early 1991, when he joined Prodrive, competing in the British Championship in one of their Subaru Legacys.

Despite more crashes, he landed the title in both 1991 and 1992 and finished second on a one-off outing in the WRC event in Sweden, prompting team boss David Richards to promote him to a world championship drive full-time.

It proved to be an inspired choice. McRae's first World Championship victory came in New Zealand in 1993 as he wowed the crowd on the 34-mile Motu stage, a test renowned as one that separates the men from the boys.

Three wins came the following year, but significantly they included one on his home WRC event, making him the first Briton to win the Rally of Great Britain [then known as the RAC Rally] since Roger Clark in 1976.

12 months later came his crowning glory. Subaru team orders conspired to leave him with a time penalty which denied him victory on the Rally of Spain after the final stage.

That win instead went to his team-mate Carlos Sainz, ensuring that both arrived in Britain for the final round level on points and in a winner-takes-all situation.

McRae's chances looked doomed when he suffered a puncture and broken suspension in Kielder Forest, but spectacularly he fought back from a two-minute deficit to Sainz to win the rally and become Britain's first world champion. At 27 years old, he was, and remains, the youngest man to win rallying's greatest prize.

After ending the 1996 season as runner-up, a second title almost followed in 1997.

But, despite beating Tommi Makinen by just 0.6 seconds to win in Australia, and then adding victory in GB, he missed out on the grand prize by just one point to the Finn.

A complete chance of scene was needed and it came with a switch to Ford in 1999 in a move that made him the highest-paid driver in the sport's history.

That season saw him win his 25th WRC event, which made him the most successful driver in rally history, although he has since been passed by Sainz, Sebastien Loeb and Marcus Gronholm.

The Ford years did not produce the success of his time at Subaru, but he did arrive back at Rally GB in the championship lead in 2001. A spectacular day one crash though saw him beaten to world title number two by his countryman Richard Burns.

Citroen was to provide his final full season in the championship in 2003 as he found himself unable to adapt to the handling of the Xsara WRC.

A tough campaign which saw him finish on the podium just once signalled that the future lay with young chargers like Sebastien Loeb, and gave McRae an opportunity to take a back seat.

He made a brief return in 2005, competing in both Britain and Australia for Skoda, and only missed out on a spectacular second place in the latter event when mechanical gremlins intervened on the final morning.

His final world championship outing came in Turkey last year, where he retired his Kronos Citroen after being drafted in as a replacement for the injured Sebastien Loeb, but by then he was more than happy to let "the youngsters" do their thing.

McRae's star transcended his sport, not just through his never say die attitude, but also through his series of hugely-successful rallying computer games, which made him a household name far more than his world title did.

Outside of the WRC he competed twice on the Dakar Rally in Africa, getting lost in the Sahara desert on more than one occasion, and also raced a GT1 Ferrari at Le Mans, securing a class podium in 2004.

A few outings in the X-games, the British Touring Car Championship, the Porsche Supercup and the Days of Thunder stock car series showed that there was more to his skill than speed on the gravel.

And he proved it yet more as he spent the last two years developing his own rally car, the R4, which it is still hoped will go into production.