Rui Adelino Pinto Madeira (born 1 March 1969, in

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population of the municipality in 20 ...

) is a former

rally driver Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (sometimes called "rally racing" in United States), navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed ...

from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. He was the first Portuguese rally driver to win an FIA rally title, when he won the Group N class of

WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States * Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area: ** WWRC, a radio station (570 AM) l ...

in 1995.

Career

Madeira started rallying in 1990, taking part in the

SEAT Marbella The SEAT Marbella (codenamed ''141A'') was a badge-engineered Fiat Panda produced by SEAT from 1980 to 1986 (initially called the SEAT Panda), in the company's Landaben plant in the Spanish city of Pamplona (from February 1980 until 29 April 1983, ...

Trophy, held inside the Portuguese Rally Championship for Beginners. Madeira graduated to the main Portuguese Rally Championship in 1992, where he won the

Citroën AX The Citroën AX is a supermini which was built by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1986 to 1998. It was launched at the 1986 Paris Motor Show to replace the Citroën Visa and Citroën LNA. Overview Development of this model started in 19 ...

Trophy. In 1993, he purchased the ex-Fernando Peres

Group N In relation to international motorsport governed by the FIA, Group N refers to regulations providing "standard" large-scale series production vehicles for competition. They are limited in terms of modifications permitted to the standard specifi ...

Ford Sierra RS Cosworth The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...

, winning the Group N national title, which he repeated the following year in a

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the "Evo", is a sports sedan and rally car based on the Lancer that was manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1992 until 2016. There have been ten official version ...

. In

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, Madeira started an international career, taking part in the seven rounds of the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

. Madeira took four class wins on his way to the title in the FIA Cup for Drivers in Production Cars.Rui Madeira profile at eWRC
/ref> In the following years, he participated in several WRC events as a privateer, usually in

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

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cars, winning the 1996 Rally of Portugal. Madeira returned to the Portuguese national championship in 2000, as a works driver driving a

SEAT Cordoba A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e "seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The fol ...

WRC. In 2001 and 2002, he switched to a works

Ford Focus The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1998 until 2025. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worl ...

WRC, retiring at the end of the season, making sporadic appearances afterwards. Madeira currently works as an architect for his family's construction company, Construciv.

References

1969 births Portuguese rally drivers World Rally Championship drivers Living people Sportspeople from Almada {{Portugal-autoracing-bio-stub