The R4: McRae's masterpiece comes back to Goodwood

Click the image above for a gallery of high res pics.

When Colin McRae unveiled the R4 at last year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, all we saw were some static shots of the prototype underneath a makeshift tent. This year, McRae and his masterpiece were in full effect. The only problem – we were only able to capture a few shots of the R4 at night.

Read on for more.

As a brief refresher, the R4 is designed to be a (kind of) low-cost rally vehicle for privateers, with the possibility of campaigning the lightweight coupe in a one-make series. The numbers will be limited for the time being, as only 20 vehicles are slated for production this year, with the cost of entry coming in around $250,000.

So what's a quarter-mil get you? A 300 BHP, 2.5-liter, normally aspirated motor coupled to a sequential box, sending power to either the rear wheels or all four, allowing the R4 to reach 160 MPH after cresting the 60 mark in under five seconds. Those are still preliminary figures, as McRae still wants to get another 1,000 miles of testing under the R4's belt before he officially announces anything.

Aside from being the first vehicle built in Scotland in decades, the R4 will be road legal, as its production numbers don't require the normal crash testing, or the fitment of ABS or airbags.

The Sun Online has the first photos of the R4 here, and our man Frank was able to capture the two-door prototype while it made a few hot laps at Goodwood with McRae behind the wheel. Even cooler: the rally legend made a run up the hill, guiding the late Richard Burns' Subaru WRX during the event, and we've got photos above.