Colin McRae season, it was McRae who had to look elsewhere for 2004. David Richards, McRae's former boss at Subaru, who had by now taken over WRC's commercial rights holders ISC and worried that the loss of a character like McRae would damage his ability to market the sport, set about trying to help McRae find a drive for 2004. McRae was unable to find a team, and for the first time in over ten years he would not be competing in the World Rally Championship. As the only other potential alternative suitors, Subaru instead eventually chose Mikko Hirvonen to partner Petter
Subaru Vivio the car. He made the decision to enter three of the sports model "Vivio Super KK" driven by Masashi Ishida, local driver Patrick Njiru and up and coming WRC star Colin McRae on his Safari debut. "Super KK" is the FIA homologation name for the RX-R grade, in rally trim the 660 cc engine produced at 6,000 rpm. Only one of the three cars finished where it settled for 12th place driven by Njiru. McRae did manage to set the fastest stage time before managing up to two stages up to Makindu before retiring with suspension failure. He later said