Plan B Forum

Sir Stirling Moss, who has died aged 90, personified motorsport to at least two generations of his countrymen after establishing himself as the greatest racing driver of his era in a short but stellar career.



Moss raced in Formula 1 in the sport's romantic age of the 1950s and early 1960s, winning 16 grands prix. Yet despite his rivals at the time acknowledging he was the best, he never won the World Championship.

Partly, that was to do with bad luck - poor reliability certainly hurt him in the two seasons he should have won the title, in 1958-59.

Partly, it was because of his determination to drive for English, privateer teams, particularly the one run by his friend Rob Walker.

And partly because of a racing driver's determination to put victory before all else.

But to those who know motorsport, Moss' failure to win the drivers' World Championship reflects not at all on his ability, and only on the fact that the sport's greatest prize depends at least as much on a driver's machinery as it does his talent, and therefore can never be the only gauge of their ability.

In Moss' case, there was never any doubt how good he was. From 1948 to his enforced retirement in 1962, Moss won 212 of the 529 races he entered across all motorsport categories. Of those who raced against him, only the greats Juan Manuel Fangio and Jim Clark were comparable, and the careers of Moss and Clark only briefly coincided.

Fangio was different - for the two were rivals for six years in the 1950s, and team-mates for one.

Some observers claim Moss was better even than Fangio. Like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Tazio Nuvolari, each man has advocates who believe he was the greatest racing driver of all time.

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The last time I saw Sir Stirling he was shirtless in the pits at LeMns, directing an all English, all female driver team in a Cobra. I named my son after him and also after an American presidential candidate who was too young to serve and died in 2018. Those two did manage together to win a race in the wonderful but impossible birdcage Masarati.

I think Moss, as an all time great driver, was second only to Fangio. And his sister was pretty good too.

snailgate

For years in Britain, and maybe still, if you were stopped for speeding, the standard police line was: "Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?"

Legend has it that once the driver said: "Well actually I am." The legend doesn't say whether they let him off.

That's a lovely picture of Hamilton and Moss. Two legends from two eras.

Another childhood hero gone. My dad's Scalextric set came with two Lotus cars but later he bought a #7 Vanwall. It was crap on our track as well, as was the D-Type.



The real thing.

Moss did lose his license for a year for his driving on a public road in a Mini. Later when he had to re-qualify for his license there were pictures of him with a big L learners permit on his car, on front pages of papers around the world.

snailgate

Inevitably, even the best drivers run out of petrol.

"A rolling Moss gathers no stones." (Sorry.)

AMC had the movie "Grand Prix" on late last night (OK, early this morning), and of course I had to sit up and watch it.  Moss was the inspiration for the character Scott Stoddard (played by Brian Bedford).
(Incidentally, Jackie Stewart was the in-car stand-in for Bedford; even though his face is always covered by a balaclava during the on-track scene to disguise the fact that it is NOT actually Bedford in the car, he is easily recognized by his signature white helmet with the Scottish tartan band.)

Have to say I still love — and miss — the classic, clean, streamlined, torpedo-like look of those 1960s F-1 cars, and I think they provided a better test of the driver's ability to handle a car.  Nowadays, with all the wings, airfoils, and other aerodynamic effects to create 'downforce' to hold the car to the track, I don't think they're driving cars as much as taxiing airplanes that are designed to NOT fly.

-"BB"-

MajGenl.Meade wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 12, 2020 1:23 pm

Another childhood hero gone. My dad's Scalextric set came with two Lotus cars but later he bought a #7 Vanwall. It was crap on our track as well, as was the D-Type.

That's because you didn't the official "Stirling Moss-endorsed" race set as shown here....



And neither did I.  I had the larger sized 1/32nd scale race set made by Strombecker.



-"BB"-

Sorry Bill - I get the 403 error on the image

Me too.

Hope it wasn't this abomination:



Yeah BB - those were the days. Scalextric jumped the shark by (a) improving the shiny, slippery track so 4-wheel drift became a thing of the past and (b) improving the cars so they either boringly stuck to the track or went flying into the air, nothing in between the extremes. Putting the old toy Lotus "torpedoes" around a corner used to be a real test of skill and nerve.

Was it this?

I had a picture of a different set — the box cover featured two sleek-looking Corvette-like cars instead of the Ford Mustangs, but yeah.

And Meade ... I'm getting the same 403 error on your image and the url isn't the same as the one I was using —although I see it's from the same site (worthpoint), so maybe it's something on that site where you need to view the image; then it's saved into a cache on your computer so when you pull it up in a link you will be able to see it again.

-"BB"-

Still bogus - what was Stirling thinking of???

ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:22 pm

Was it this?

I remember that.

I believe I received that set one fine Christmas.

HO Scale vs. the larger "slot cars" during the day.

Check, BB. It's the same image that exkA and Dales put up.