Motor-racing legend Sir Stirling Moss has died at the age of 90 following a long illness.

Recognised as one of the greatest drivers of all time, Moss won 212 of his 529 races but was also known as the best driver never to win a Formula One title.

"He died as he lived, looking wonderful," his wife Lady Moss said. "He simply tired in the end and he just closed his beautiful eyes and that was that."

"It was one lap too many."

Got to see him at Lime Rock a few years back. A boy hood hero...R.I.P.
Colin
The older one

Oh, no.
Very saddened to learn of this. Sir Stirling Moss (OBE) was one of my teenage heroes too, and as I grew into adulthood and learned his career history I gained even more respect for him.

Moss' whole family had been racers. His dad raced in the Indy500. His mom raced in hillclimbs. His sister Pat raced Austin Healys in rallies.

Moss was the 2nd best race driver of all time. He held 2d or 3rd place for the World Championship 7 times. Had he raced at any other time in history, he clearly would have become World Champion several times. But he raced during the career of Juan Manuel Fangio, who was simply the greatest magician ever to pilot a race car. We still don't know what planet Fangio was from, but it surely wasn't here. Fangio had great respect for Moss, which tells us a lot about Stirling's ability.

Moss was younger than most drivers, physically strong, and had great endurance. He could complete several endurance races without relief. He set the all-time record for the 1955 1,000 mile Mille Miglia endurance road race around Italy's backroads, beating 532 other cars with an average of 100mph for 10hrs. Driving a 300SLR Mercedes and carrying sports journalist Denis "Jenks" Jekinson as his navigator, Moss set the MM record over the 1,000 mile course, often being airborne 200ft over bridges. That record stood until the MM was closed in 1957. Moss even beat Fangio on that occasion because Fangio's 300SLR dropped a cylinder during the race. Jenks had invented a scroll map device showing the entire course which helped them win and allowed Moss to use the car's entire 170mph capability. Jenk's device became the inspiration for the 1960's Halda Speed Pilot and today's GPS.

Due to a series of car failures in 1955, Fangio was only a few championship points ahead of Moss going into the 1955 24hr race at LeMans, France. Moss, Fangio, CT's own John Fitch, and a frenchman named Pierre Bouillin (racing as Pierre Levegh) made up the Mercedes Benz LeMans team that year. A win by any MB team car would have given Moss enough points to surpass Fangio and FINALLY become world champion. The new 170mph 300SLR titanium Mercedes roadsters were the best cars in the race, piloted by the best drivers of the day. Moss had an outstanding chance to gain enough points to win the 1955 championship.

Team Mercedes dominated the race. Moss, Fangio and Levegh led the field by a comfortable margin and occupied 3 of the top 4 positions. But 2.5hrs into the race, as the leaders flew past the front straight pits on lap 35, an Austin-Healy pulled directly in front of Levegh's 300SRL. Levegh slammed into the slower car at 120mph. His 300SLR flew into the air, bust into flames and broke into many flaming pieces, slicing thru the grandstands at 120mph, killing 84 spectators and maiming 180 more.

The French wisely decided not to stop the race. They didn't want to clog the narrow back-country roads with departing spectators, which would have blocked responding emergency vehicles from arriving to help, or from departing with injured, perhaps the smartest thing France ever did.

Our John Fitch, a WWII hero who had single-handedly kick-started GP racing in Europe after the war, whispered to the MB Team Leader that they might want to consider withdrawing from the race to show respect for the 240+ casualties caused by a German car. Only 10 years after the war, a German win would certainly open old wounds among the French after so many women and children were killed. Germany immediately withdrew their cars from the race, announcing respect and regret for the disaster (altho it had not been Levegh's fault). Moss, leading the pack by a comfortable margin in a perfect car, was flagged into the pits and told to retire. Outraged, Moss blamed Fitch for robbing him of his only chance to earn a championship while Fangio was still driving. Then, because MB immediately pulled out of racing altogether, Moss found himself without a ride for the 1955 season, as well. Fangio went to Ferrari and still won the 1955 Championship.

Moss avoided Fitch for the rest of Fitch's life, appearing here in at LRP (which was built on Fitch's family farmland) only the year following Fitch's death.

Moss was knighted and bestowed with the Order the British Empire, becoming Sir Stirling Moss. He beat all the odds and lived well beyond his 1963 retirement. Literally every big-name race driver from his 1950s experiences died before he did, most in race cars. Moss cheated death several times. He crashed 17 times (twice seriously) during races. About 2000 he destroyed a classic Aston Martin racer in a televised demonstration vintage race at Silverstone (or maybe Goodwood). The crash actually enhanced the car's value because it had been destroyed by Sir Stirling. In 2000 he stepped into his home elevator ("lift") when the car was not there and fell two flights down the shaft. He was a tough old bird and tremendously resilient.

I was honored to have met him and to express my personal admiration and congratulations for his extraordinary career. Somewhere I have a photo of me shaking his hand at Lime Rock Park. He was wearing a Disneyland necktie. As Colin says, Sir Stirling Moss is affectionately known as "the greatest driver who never won a championship".

Farewell, Sir Stirling; you are indeed the end of an era, and were a part of my life. There are no more of you heroes left.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Moss

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/obit ... -dead.html


Frank T

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1970 240Z

https://youtu.be/4DVpg5ubvyM

https://youtu.be/BHBoVrq4IeY

*(note): in some of these articles and videos there are erroneous references to the Mercedes Benz 300SL series as having "8-cylinder or even 12-cylinder" engines. The 300 series had straight-6 cylinder OHC and DOHC engines, some with desmodromic valve gear.

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1970 240Z

A link to a chat we had in 2015:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8775&hilit=oulton+Park

Colin
the older one

Thank you sir, that's the one I was looking for. He had removed his Mickey Mouse tie but still had his Bugs Bunny suspenders. He talked to me as if I was his old pal from the backyard barbecue. That made me feel special.

_________________
1970 240Z

Read about this today and thought about what a great and successful career he had. . . . . .so many years of enjoyment.

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W.Karl Walton
Somers CT



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