RIP Stirling

[derminator]

We loss another great one this morning RIP Stirling Moss 1929-2020

[DaveW]

Wow !!

That is saddening news. Stirling was my 1st and only racing hero. I was mesmerized reading about his racing exploits.

RIP, Stirling, you'll be missed by many.

[Retroracer]

My favourite Stirling Moss story is the one he told of being asked by an elderly woman at Monaco if he was one of the men making all that noise with the race cars. Moss explained that they were practicing for the Grand Prix.
The woman replied “Can’t you practice somewhere else?”

[dereklola]

I never met Stirling but do have a few personal memories.

* The first F1 race I ever went to was Aintree in 1955 - where he beat Fangio in the Mercedes.
* One of his 24-hour nursing team after his 1962 Goodwood accident was the fiancee/wife of a close friend
- Stirling sent her a thank you letter/card for years afterwards.
* At my second ever vintage race at Road Atlanta (about 1986) while packing up on Sunday a very English
young boy came and asked for my autograph - being so knowledgeable on such matters (cough) I asked
him his name "Stirling Moss" came the answer - looking up for confirmation his mother (Suzie Moss) just
smiled and nodded - then when I met her again at another race she remembered me and the incident!
* About 10 years ago my wife and I were staying at a hotel in Mayfair - I went for a pre-breakfast walk most
days among big hotels and interesting homes. After he fell down his elevator shaft soon afterwards the news
identified the location of his home - I'd been walking past his front door on those walks.

Small world.

No Moss attached but the first race I ever went to in England was Oulton Park 1954 - the first time Lotus
ever used the "Team Lotus" name - found that out about 60 years later.+

[Mike K]

Great racer & individual. Glad I was able to have him autograph my Lotus 20 dash a few years ago. Wife and I managed to finish 2nd in a rallye where he was in a Mercedes Gullwing & "finished out of the points". He will be sorely missed.

[t walgamuth]

He was one of the greatest for sure. I have read many things about him. l could never understood his attitude about safety devices.

It was astounding that he survived the elevator fall at 80 something.

[Purple Frog]

i'm just a wee bit too young for Moss to be a childhood hero. Mario, Dan, or AJ were more my idol.s
That said in 1963 i took a Greydog bus from Miami to Sebring on Friday evening.
In the dark, closing in on midnight, going up two lane US 98 out of Palm Beach the bus was being passed by groups of exotic race cars hauling butt from places like the Breakers back to the Kenilworth and Harder Hall. These exotics were not obeying anything close to the speed limit, and many had numbers on the doors.
I found out later that Moss was one of the participants in these informal races.
Pictures of him on the grid as a spectator show him truly enjoying life after recovering from the near fatal accident. All the Europeans at Sebring seemed to be so different in speech and dress than anything i had experienced before.

[veeten]

So many great stories about Moss.
I was so lucky to meet him in 1985 at my First 24 hr Playboy Race.
Don Knowles stopped by and said to my wife and I to follow him
down pit road.
We stopped at a Fiat X19 that was owned by Kim Baker.
there we meet Sterling and Ines Ireland both having a go in
SCCA pro racing.. They seemed to be having a Ball!!
I last visited him at Barber's when Sir John Surtees was making a presentation .

[Bardahl77]

Watched Moss drive a Speedwell Sprite at the '95 Monterey Historics, he was "only" 64 then but he put that thing right where he wanted, used every bit of road on a drifting exit, it was a master class.

Godspeed, Sir Knight.

[John Nesbitt]

From an obit in the NYT:

“To race a car through a turn at maximum possible speed when there is a great lawn to all sides is difficult,” he said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 1961, “but to race a car at maximum speed through a turn when there is a brick wall on one side and a precipice on the other — ah, that’s an achievement!”

[scorp997]

I met him at Monterey Historics 2006, I should have his autograph around somewhere. I do remember thinking he looked great for his age, much younger looking than Jack Brabham.

That at was a great week, I went because my best friend was picking up his MINI Cooper GP which were delivered at the track.

we have lost a lot of great drivers in the last couple years. I feel honored to have met many of them. RIP to the greats, all of them

[Steve Demeter]

Sad Sad day.

[Pi_guy]

He was one of the greatest for sure. I have read many things about him. l could never understood his attitude about safety devices.

It was astounding that he survived the elevator fall at 80 something.

Met him at John Fitch's 94th birthday party.

They had not talked since LeMans in 1956 when they were on the Mercedes team, Sterlings car was leading at the time. John was the major reason the Mercedes team withdrew he was the co-driver of the car that went into stands. They went off and had a 30 conversation in private. When I asked John about it I got we are friends, end of discussion.

[dereklola]

- from a mutual friend -
"he's had no quality of life for 2.1/2 years, in bed, fed intravenously, not much fun....."
- sad -

[SEComposites]

A nice portrait my father took the day Moss had his accident at Goodwood. Many years later he signed a print for me which now hangs in my living room.

[t walgamuth]

Met him at John Fitch's 94th birthday party.

They had not talked since LeMans in 1956 when they were on the Mercedes team, Sterlings car was leading at the time. John was the major reason the Mercedes team withdrew he was the co-driver of the car that went into stands. They went off and had a 30 conversation in private. When I asked John about it I got we are friends, end of discussion.

I believe Moss felt he had been robbed of a victory at LeMans in 55 after the huge accident and blamed Fitch for it.

[Pi_guy]

I believe Moss felt he had been robbed of a victory at LeMans in 55 after the huge accident and blamed Fitch for it.

I knew that. Just would have liked to hear details and I am sure they did not spent 30 minutes talking about grandkids.

[t walgamuth]

Of course.

The withdrawal by the Mercedes team at the 55 LeMans race was complicated. First there was good moral reasons to do so. The German team was very aware of the fact that WW2 had ravaged France, killing a large percentage of the men of France. There was even concern that the Mercedes team could avoid being attacked by spectators.

It was a very different time. The life of an individual race car driver was not valued as they are now. Safety concerns were not a priority. The cars were blindingly fast on the Mulsanne straight and they drove by mere feet away from the pit area with no separation at all. We now know there were over 100 spectators killed in that accident. They did not red flag the race, the cars just threaded their way through the course workers as they clean up.

Moss was fiercely competitive and not bothered much by other people dying as we might be today. He hated to lose on the track but did so with grace. Having it taken from him just stuck in his craw.

So Fitch was perhaps the earliest well known proponent of safety, inventing a number of safety devices including Armco and water filled barrels, (I believe). The one who carried it to the finish line though was Jackie Stewart.

Moss til the day he died, felt that having safety devices in race cars was for woosies.

[Pi_guy]

Of course.

The withdrawal by the Mercedes team at the 55 LeMans race was complicated. First there was good moral reasons to do so. The German team was very aware of the fact that WW2 had ravaged France, killing a large percentage of the men of France. There was even concern that the Mercedes team could avoid being attacked by spectators.

It was a very different time. The life of an individual race car driver was not valued as they are now. Safety concerns were not a priority. The cars were blindingly fast on the Mulsanne straight and they drove by mere feet away from the pit area with no separation at all. We now know there were over 100 spectators killed in that accident. They did not red flag the race, the cars just threaded their way through the course workers as they clean up.

Moss was fiercely competitive and not bothered much by other people dying as we might be today. He hated to lose on the track but did so with grace. Having it taken from him just stuck in his craw.

So Fitch was perhaps the earliest well known proponent of safety, inventing a number of safety devices including Armco and water filled barrels, (I believe). The one who carried it to the finish line though was Jackie Stewart.

Moss til the day he died, felt that having safety devices in race cars was for woosies.

He did have the patent on the yellow Fitch barrels, he got that idea from Africa when he was a pilot in the desert. They filled gas can with sand and when the planes shot at the sleeping area the bullets were slowed or stopped by sand.
He was involved with several auto safety committees and really was focused on safety, he had a hand in the Lime Rock layout but there is controversy with that.

The reason according to John why the race was not shut down the exodus of people would have not allowed ambulances access to and from the track with the injured.

I miss John he was working to the bitter end, the last thing he did was work on the Survival Vehicle concept that MB released a few years ago.

He was the only American hired by MB to be a driver, every few years they sent him a car.
He was the first to shoot down a German Jet aircraft but became a prisoner of war so he could not put the claim for the kill in.
When he escaped from the nursing home in the last year of his life,the State troopers who found him asked why he left?
Typical Fitch fashion he answered the Germans could not hold me these guys were easy.

[stonebridge20]

When he escaped from the nursing home in the last year of his life,the State troopers who found him asked why he left?
Typical Fitch fashion he answered the Germans could not hold me these guys were easy.

I remember the night the silver alert came on local TV for John, I thought to myself that he probably just needed a break from that place and hotwired someone's car for a little ride in the country.

[t walgamuth]

Good stories!

[Pi_guy]

I remember the night the silver alert came on local TV for John, I thought to myself that he probably just needed a break from that place and hotwired someone's car for a little ride in the country.

He took his MB they did not hide the key very well.

[Sharplikestump]

Great stories! Thanks to all for sharing.