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Stirling Moss Aintree 200 1958


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#1 RCH

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 12:06

Moving on from the thread on racing colours may I ask about Stirling Moss's car in the Aintree 200 of 1958? One of my most prized possessions is the Eagle Book of Cars & Motor Sport by Peter Roberts published in 1958 which I have owned from the age of 9 in 1958. In one chapter he describes a sort of "day at the races" about the Aintree meeting and describes Stirling's Cooper as black, although the programme says green, he concedes that it is actually very dark green. This would have have been Rob Walker's car so should have been blue with a white stripe on the nose but the photos show a very dark car with no stripe. Is this just a case of sloppy writing or was the car actually green? Did it have to run in green to satisfy the organisers?



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#2 Rob29

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 16:31

Moving on from the thread on racing colours may I ask about Stirling Moss's car in the Aintree 200 of 1958? One of my most prized possessions is the Eagle Book of Cars & Motor Sport by Peter Roberts published in 1958 which I have owned from the age of 9 in 1958. In one chapter he describes a sort of "day at the races" about the Aintree meeting and describes Stirling's Cooper as black, although the programme says green, he concedes that it is actually very dark green. This would have have been Rob Walker's car so should have been blue with a white stripe on the nose but the photos show a very dark car with no stripe. Is this just a case of sloppy writing or was the car actually green? Did it have to run in green to satisfy the organisers?

Think you will find it was regular Rob Walker dark blue-not sue they had the white stripe back that far.But the dark blue could be found as far back as 1955 on a Connaught at Aintree.Mostly only black & white photos in those days,though a prized posession of mine was the front cover of the 'Mecanno Magazine'with Moss Maserati 250F red & green at Oulton Gold Cup 1954 :wave:

#3 bradbury west

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 18:27

At the risk of inevitable contradiction.............
Some time back there was a series of batches of old b/w photos offered on e bay, and one lot was half a dozen shots from the Aintree 200 in 1958. There are 2 shots which, I believe, he says as a caveat, show Moss with probable/partly obscured no 7 in a Cooper. In neither shot does the car have a white band.
Roger Lund

#4 David McKinney

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 19:26

Have now had a chance to check Autosport - definitely no nose-band

#5 nicanary

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 19:42

Have now had a chance to check Autosport - definitely no nose-band


Just off the top of my head - do you think maybe the Walker car was hors de combat, and they borrowed a works car and it had a very quick respray in the wrong shade of blue. Maybe insufficient time to apply the white noseband.

As i said, just a thought.

#6 RCH

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 19:50

Just off the top of my head - do you think maybe the Walker car was hors de combat, and they borrowed a works car and it had a very quick respray in the wrong shade of blue. Maybe insufficient time to apply the white noseband.

As i said, just a thought.


Thing is the programme apparently said the car was green. I suspect the story was written a little time later with just a couple of B/W photos and a copy of Autosport as a reference.


#7 Bjorn Kjer

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 20:35

The chassis no. shows as far as I can see a new car not raced before. Could it have been meant for the works , painted Cooper green and then quickley sold to Walker , he not repainting it at the first race ?

#8 Roger Clark

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Posted 20 August 2012 - 21:08

Autosport said it was blue..

#9 D-Type

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Posted 21 August 2012 - 07:09

There was a second Walker Cooper at Aintree that day - a Formula 2 car driven by Brooks. This one had a nose band, vide the two pictures on P.138 of his book. So that one would definitely have been blue.


#10 Roger Clark

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Posted 21 August 2012 - 13:25

And a third, driven by Trintingnant.

#11 D-Type

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Posted 21 August 2012 - 19:34

Which prompts the question "How many Coopers [or Cooper chassis] did Walker have at any one time?" I know there are references to some chassis being sold on. Engine size is no clue as the different sized FPF Climaxes were interchangeable.

But we mustn't forget the original question "Was Stirling's noseband-free car blue or green?"

Edited by D-Type, 21 August 2012 - 19:34.


#12 RCH

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Posted 21 August 2012 - 23:01

Thanks for the various comments, this is just one of those points that has stuck in my mind since, even at the age of 9, I was thinking, "but surely it was blue?"

To quote the actual printed words:
"On now to a small black car with the number 7 painted in white on the front and sides of the bodywork. The programme reads 'DVR S. Moss, Cooper-Climax, Green.' Green indeed! But if you look closely at the colour you'll see that it is a dark green - so dark the it certainly looks black! But we can't blame Stirling, for green is supposed to be an unlucky colour (it's Britain's racing colour, unfortunately) so many English drivers, given the opportunity, paint their cars this way, in the hope of deceiving the fates!"

So could it be that the author wanted to make his point about "unlucky" green which would hardly work if the car was blue and he thought his schoolboy readers wouldn't notice?

Edited by RCH, 22 August 2012 - 06:56.


#13 David McKinney

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 05:34

But if you look closely at the colour you'll see that it is a dark green - so dark the it certainly looks black!

The first time I saw a Rob Walker Cooper - from a spectator enclosure - I thought it was black. It was many laps before I realised it was very dark blue.

I suspect you're right about your author and his schoolboy audience


#14 RCH

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 06:57

Just realised he has Mike Hawthorn there in a Dino 246, there were no Ferraris that weekend.

#15 David McKinney

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 09:50

No works Ferraris, anyway

#16 Roger Clark

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 10:07

I too have a copy of the Eagle Book of Cars and Motor Sport. Page 87 has a photograph of Stirling Moss being congratulated after winning the 1953 twenty-four hour race at Le Mans.

How did young people learn anything about motor sport history?

#17 nicanary

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 10:21

I too have a copy of the Eagle Book of Cars and Motor Sport. Page 87 has a photograph of Stirling Moss being congratulated after winning the 1953 twenty-four hour race at Le Mans.

How did young people learn anything about motor sport history?


It was the idolatry which counted, not the knowledge. This applies today to any number of "F1 Fans".

#18 RCH

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 21:58

I too have a copy of the Eagle Book of Cars and Motor Sport. Page 87 has a photograph of Stirling Moss being congratulated after winning the 1953 twenty-four hour race at Le Mans.

How did young people learn anything about motor sport history?


Oh dear, I had completely forgotten about that!