396 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

From Sir Stirling Moss's firm friend Michael Wheatley....

 

"Earlier this morning, our great friend passed away with his family at his side. This following his incredible three and a half years fight, typical of the man. Stirling will be sorely missed..."

 

DCN

 

[brucemoxon]

Thanks Doug.

 

Very, very sad, while not unexpected.

 

 

BRM

[opplock]

That is very sad news.  

[Ray Bell]

I was always disappointed that I just missed out on seeing him race...

 

Reading about him led me to want to see him, but it was not to be. But I did enjoy meeting him (with Phil Hill) in Adelaide when the second World Champuionship AGP was held in 1986.

 

Sad to hear of his passing. A true legend in the sport, a true champion.

 

A couple of weeks ago I re-read Jenks' account of the '55 Mille Miglia. That was all that was ever needed to cement his place in racing's history.

[richardspringett]

Thank you DN

 

Very sad news indeed

 

RIP and sincere condolences to family and friends

 

Richard

[Michael Oliver]

The maestro! Ciao, Stirling...

[bradbury west]

.
A true legend in the sport, a true champion... Jenks' account of the '55 Mille Miglia. That was all that was ever needed to cement his place in racing's history.

I agree totally, Ray, at a time before those terms were devalued.
Sir Stirling was also the finest global ambassador for our sport.
My sincere sympathy to his family and friends, especially those we know who were very close to him.
On a very sad day
Roger Lund

[Michael Ferner]

I wasn't going to partake in these RIP threads anymore, you see, too many of them in these days, and what can you say... They all lived a great life worth remembering, and they all went too soon! It gets a bit repetitive, and I doubt the relatives take great comfort in a bunch of anoraks lost for words...

 

 

However, this one time I am going to make an exception from my new rule, simply because it is Moss. A tower in a great sea.

 

RIP, sir!

[Lola5000]

A wonderful life .

[Collombin]

Strange how the inevitable can still have the capacity to shock.

RIP

[arttidesco]

 

Count my self privileged to have seen Sir Stirling Moss driving the car which cemented his place in the annals of motorsport history, even on a demontstration run.

 

Sympathies and condolences to his family, friends and many fans.

[Odseybod]

The news we've been expecting for several years, but still so sad now it's actually happened. Still, there will be quite a party getting under way upstairs.

 

Sincere condolences to his family and many friends.

[B Squared]

Lee Wilson, a friend and colleague of my Dad's, saw Stirling Moss race many times when he was in Europe during his service years. He was at LeMans in 1954 and '55, plus nearly all of the GP's of those two seasons. He absolutely admired Moss and spoke of his extraordinary talents. Lee had Ferraris and worked races for SCCA and was always willing to entertain this youngsters racing questions, many concerning Moss. That was my exposure to Sir Stirling, and I'm grateful for it.

[Richard Jenkins]

Although expected, I still shed a little tear. What a racer.
My thoughts are with Lady Susie and Stirling's many family and friends.

One of my all time top moments in my life was to meet and interview Sir Stirling 10 years ago. I will always treasure that day.

Edited by Richard Jenkins, 12 April 2020 - 11:52.

[Henri Greuter]

Oh,

 

We knew we got closer to this day but it still shocks to know that day has come at last.

 

Rest in Peace  Sir,

 

 

Henri

[sstiel]

Vale. 

 

Referenced in the Robert Edwards' book, the Face to Face interview from 1960:

https://www.bbc.co.u...ZSpOIBejd-if5ow

[Steve L]

True legend in the fullest sense.  RIP Stirling, your country will always be proud of you.

[Risil]

I was always disappointed that I just missed out on seeing him race...
 
Reading about him led me to want to see him, but it was not to be. But I did enjoy meeting him (with Phil Hill) in Adelaide when the second World Champuionship AGP was held in 1986.
 
Sad to hear of his passing. A true legend in the sport, a true champion.
 
A couple of weeks ago I re-read Jenks' account of the '55 Mille Miglia. That was all that was ever needed to cement his place in racing's history.

 

Yesterday I happened to read DSJ's account of racing with Moss the first 11km of the 1957 Mille Miglia. More tragicomic than '55 but Sir Stirling evidently did a great job bringing the car to a halt after arriving at a corner with no brake pedal!

 

Even a quick glance at Grand Prix and sports car results from the second half of the 1950s will tell you he was Fangio's heir apparent. All the same, the world championship crown famously evaded him. But no one needs to burnish his achievements. An amazing and fully lived life. Condolences to his family and friends at what must be a distressing time.

[ktrhe]

Oh, no.

Rest in Peace, Sir Stirling.

Sincere condolences to his family and many friends.

 

[68targa]

Very sad - one of a kind  - an amazing life.

 

R.I.P.

[cedricselzer]

We go back a long way. If it wasn't for him I would not be in England or a member of the BRDC. I have just lit a candle for him. We will miss you.

[DouglasM]

A great driver of anything and everything. A legend in his own lifetime.

[Kpy]

RIP Sir Stirling. Irreplaceable.
Condolences to his family and close friends.

[Tim Murray]

He became my first racing hero when I was a small boy. I knew this inevitable moment would come, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Farewell, Stirling, and thank you.

[Charlieman]

Thanks for the memories, Stirling.

[Vitesse2]

A marvellous life, wonderfully well lived.

 

I'm just too young to have seen Stirling in his pomp, but even though Graham, Jimmy, Jackie and Jochen were the major parts of my motor racing education, Stirling was always there somewhere. And has been ever since.

 

Adieu to one of the greatest of all time - Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss.

[R Peck]

I knew this was coming, having heard that he was in a bad way from Mike Wilds at the TNF Herts Film Show that Mike gave some time ago.

 

Nevertheless I am slightly tearful at the news.  He seemed immortal.

 

He last raced properly in the top flight before I was even born but I was lucky enough meet him.  Everything I read about him marked him out as a true sportsman and gentleman in the best senses of the words.

 

Such a versatile driver and such a personality.

 

What a feat that 55 Mille Miglia win was. 

 

To me he was the greatest. It matters not a jot that he was never crowned world champion.

 

A hero!

 

Sincere  condolences to his family

Edited by R Peck, 12 April 2020 - 12:14.

[RobertE]

He is irreplaceable in the National consciousness. I counted him both a friend and a wise counsel. This was inevitable, but I am nonetheless deeply moved by it.

 

RIP, that man...

[Paul Taylor]

I woke up this morning wondering how some of the older motorsports figures were coping with the lockdown.. I pictured Stirling Moss sitting at this desk writing letters, or doing something productive. Now a few hours later I find he's no longer with us and he's been sick for some time.

Although I feel sad, I feel I'm being selfish in doing so. He left his mark. He was already racing when my grandparents were toddlers, his career ended before my parents were even born. He raced hundreds of times all over the world, in dozens of dream cars. And in his own words, he also had a lot of "crumpet". A life really well lived, I think.

[sabrejet]

RIP to our greatest racing driver; I know these things happen but still very sad to hear.

[just me again]

RIP Sir Stirling Moss

especially Jenkins Mille Miglia story is a fine tribute.

Sincere Condolences

[Roger Clark]

I think that what separated him, even from his peers among the truly greats, was his refusal ever to give up, no matter how great the odds or how lost the cause.  That was true in a huge variety of cars, from a Cooper 500 to a hacked about Lotus 18. He was the epitome of everything we wanted a racing driver to be. 
 

RIP. 

[cooper997]

Somewhat taken the wind out of my sails reading this.

 

Farewell Sir Stirling. I doubt Fangio and Brabham are going to make it any easier on the next grid

 

The quintessential shot would be a photo with his shirt off from his many trips 'Down Under' Alas, Warwick Farm in a Cooper will have to do for the moment.

 

 

My condolences to Sir Stirling's family and friends.

 

Stephen

Edited by cooper997, 12 April 2020 - 11:04.

[Nemo1965]

A very good life and very respectable age for any racing driver - particularly one who raced in the 50's and 60's. So long, Sir Stirling.

[D-Type]

Farewell to my boyhood hero.

It's somehow fitting that he should pass on at Easter as his career-ending accident occurred on Easter Monday 38 years ago.

My condolences to Lady Suzy, the rest of his family, and all his friends.

Edited by D-Type, 07 December 2020 - 23:17.

[Gary C]

Very sad to hear this today, although not altogether unexpected. Yes he is. The greatest racing driver never to be World Champion.

   From my collection.

 

[Henri Greuter]

 

Count my self privileged to have seen Sir Stirling Moss driving the car which cemented his place in the annals of motorsport history, even on a demontstration run.

 

Sympathies and condolences to his family, friends and many fans.

 

I remember when I was in Goodwood '97. "Jenks" had died the previous fall.

 

Stirling took out SLR "722" out on the hillclimb, driving one handed, raising the legendary Roadbook box "Jenks" had used on that day in Italy high up in the air, waving with it upwards.

One of the most moving tributes I recall having seen

 

Makes you wonder what kind of tribute Strling will get at the first occasion we can have a Goodwood again, no matter in what kind of form....

[CNE]

Very sad news.

 

Great man.

 

Sincere condolences to Lady Susie and the family.

 

Chris E

 

[cpbell]

From Sir Stirling Moss's firm friend Michael Wheatley....

 

"Earlier this morning, our great friend passed away with his family at his side. This following his incredible three and a half years fight, typical of the man. Stirling will be sorely missed..."

 

DCN

I've just seen the awful news on the BBC homepage, and, for want of saying anthing else, I'll repeat my comment from the Racing Comments forum. 

Strangely, I thought of him a few days ago in relation to Coronavirus and was worried that he might contract it, though it would appear that he didn't.  Awful news, especially given the sombre atmosphere at present, and sad that his passing won't be given the attention it deserves.

 

  Regarding TNFer comments, I can only think of him as one of the greatest of all time; a driver who changed both the accepted driving technique and the paradigm of how to make racing into a profitable career, in addition to being one of the most adaptable and relentlessly quick drivers from a long list.  Of course, that leaves out his impressive achievements post-Goodwood '62, and the manner in which he epitomised racing in the UK through his life. 

 

R.I.P. Mr Motor Racing.

[brucemoxon]

My (blurry and grainy) picture. Sir Stirling at Amaroo Park, in Sydney, in the 80s. He is driving the unique Lotus 39, as driven by Jim Clark and later Leo Geoghegan.

 

 

BRM

[Derwent Motorsport]

As a kid I saw him race many times at Silverstone and Snetterton in the 50s and early sixties. He very often raced on most of the races on the programme hopping from one car to another with great ease. I have all of his books. I wonder which was his most successful meeting, in terms of race wins in a day? 

The last time I saw him race was at Knockhill when he brought his Widi up for the historic race. I think he started from the back of the grid and came second.    

 

I last spoke to him just a few months before he went on the fateful Asian cruise, at a reception for "British Motorsport Success" at 10, Downing St, hosted by David Cameron. Although he was using a seat/stick he seemed in good shape.   

A great man, the first professional racing driver?

[pete53]

As a kid I saw him race many times at Silverstone and Snetterton in the 50s and early sixties. He very often raced on most of the races on the programme hopping from one car to another with great ease. I have all of his books. I wonder which was his most successful meeting, in terms of race wins in a day? 

The last time I saw him race was at Knockhill when he brought his Widi up for the historic race. I think he started from the back of the grid and came second.    

 

I last spoke to him just a few months before he went on the fateful Asian cruise, at a reception for "British Motorsport Success" at 10, Downing St, hosted by David Cameron. Although he was using a seat/stick he seemed in good shape.   

A great man, the first professional racing driver?

A few years ago I came into possession of a bulk load of Autosports from the 1950s . Reading through them I became aware that almost every week there was news of Stirling Moss competing in an event somewhere in the world, and, invariably, winning.
 

[Paulleek]

Professional, personable and still gracious...I had little experience of direct contact with him, but a huge amount of respect for him.

[Jahn1234567890]

A true legend

 

Sincere condolences to family and friends.

 

RIP Sir Stirling.

[moffspeed]

He did, indeed, give it all but his life.

 

Today we can celebrate the man and his well-lived life - and give thanks that the story didn't end prematurely on the Easter weekend of 1962. 

 

Happily he was such a prolific autographer that we all probably have several articles of signed Moss memorabilia to remember him by...

[Jerry Entin]

Sebring, March 1958. Trying to win a second 12-hour victory, this time in a works DBR1/300

 

Laguna Seca, October 1960. Joking with Jim Hall before the start of heat 2 of the Pacific Grand Prix.

 

Photos: Willem Oosthoek Collection

 

 

He had a very full  Life 

 

RIP

Edited by Jerry Entin, 12 April 2020 - 14:21.

[ensign14]

I just have a vision that his psychopomp was Jenks turning up in the 300 SLR.

 

And Moss gently easing him out of the driving seat.  "You navigate, boy..."

[Doug Nye]

Just issued by the BRDC:

 

 

 

 

 

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of one of Great Britain’s finest racing drivers, Sir Stirling Moss OBE, who passed away in the early hours of this morning at the age of 90 after a long illness. In the history of motor racing, not just in his home country but also wherever he raced around the world, Sir Stirling held a unique status which continued throughout his life, long after he retired from his front line racing career following the accident at Goodwood in 1962 in which he sustained serious head injuries. Although he never won the World Drivers’ Championship, Sir Stirling was universally recognised, following the retirement of the great Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio in 1958, as the racing driver who set the standards by which all other drivers were judged, whether in Formula 1 or international sports car racing. His versatility and competitive instincts made him a formidable competitor in any race even if at times the cars at his disposal were not truly ‘state of the art’, however well prepared they may have been.

The bare statistics of Sir Stirling’s mainstream career are extraordinary. He took part in 585 events, including a few hill climbs and sprints, of which he finished 387 and won 216. Beginning with the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix, he started 66 Drivers’ World Championship races, 16 times from pole position and winning the same number. From 1955 to 1958 he was runner up in the Drivers’ Championship and third in the following three seasons. He lost the 1958 title by a single point to Mike Hawthorn despite winning four races to Mike’s one. Had he not shown his innate sense of fair play by successfully arguing for Mike to be re-instated in second place in the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix, which Sir Stirling had won, he would have been World Champion. His first World Championship race victory came in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree in the Mercedes-Benz W196 when he just held off team mate Fangio. It will forever be a mystery whether his team leader held back – the weight of evidence suggests not. Two years later at Aintree Sir Stirling, with Tony Brooks, delivered the first victory for a British car – the Vanwall - in a World Championship Formula 1 race.

Sir Stirling was the first to win for both Cooper and Lotus at World Championship level, on both occasions in cars run by Rob Walker’s private team. It was in Rob’s Lotus Type 18 that Sir Stirling produced two of his most virtuosic drives in the 1961 Monaco and German Grands Prix to defeat the significantly more powerful Ferraris.

 

In sports car racing Sir Stirling was peerless, even when up against Fangio. His victory in the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR in the 1955 Mille Miglia has to be regarded as one of the greatest achievements of all time by a British driver. That year he also won the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod (with John Fitch) and the Targa Florio (with Peter Collins) to secure the World Sports Car Championship for Mercedes. Four years later, he played a major role in securing the same Championship for Aston Martin, his performances in the DBR1/300 in the Nurburgring 1000 Ks and the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood ranking among the finest and most memorable of his stellar career.

 

Sir Stirling was the last survivor of drivers who had competed in the first ever race at Silverstone, not the RAC International Grand Prix itself but the 500 cc Racing Car race which preceded it on that day in October 1948. Two weeks after his 19th birthday, he led in his Cooper-JAP T5 until being forced to retire with transmission trouble. A month later Sir Stirling was elected to Full Membership of the BRDC, having already won 500 cc races at Brough, Goodwood and Dunholme Lodge. By 1950 he had become a paid professional with the HWM Formula 2 team, racing on the various European road circuits of the day, while continuing to race his Cooper-JAP whenever possible including his first Monaco victories in a heat and the final of the 500 cc Prix de Monte Carlo. Spurned by the British motor racing establishment, who regarded him as driving too fast for his level of experience, no British sports car manufacturer was prepared to offer him a place in its team for the RAC Tourist Trophy in September 1950. The eminent journalist and accomplished racing driver Tommy Wisdom volunteered his Jaguar XK120 to Sir Stirling who drove through a howling gale and torrential rain to totally dominate the race, finishing well ahead of the works Jaguars and the rest. This superb achievement not only silenced the doubters but also ensured that for 1951 Sir Stirling was the lead driver for the Jaguar factory team. His progression to the top of Grand Prix racing at world championship level took a little longer, impeded initially by a fall out with Enzo Ferrari whose peremptory and discourteous treatment of Sir Stirling at the Bari Grand Prix in 1951 resulted in him resolving never to drive for Scuderia Ferrari. In the weeks before the 1962 Goodwood accident a rapprochement seemed imminent but it never came to pass. 

 

The Ferrari episode apart, Sir Stirling wanted to race British Grand Prix cars if at all possible but through 1952 and 1953 such cars were simply no match for the Ferraris and Maseratis. For the new 2.5 litre Formula 1 in 1954 he at last had a car worthy of his ability, a Maserati 250F in which, before the year was out, he had impressed sufficiently to be asked to lead the factory Maserati team and, for 1955, to join Mercedes-Benz and establish himself, with Maserati again in 1956, Vanwall in 1957/58 and Rob Walker’s independent Coopers and Lotus, as one of the greatest racing drivers of all time..

 

Sir Stirling also achieved notable success in rallies, in particular for the Rootes Group’s Sunbeam team with which he finished second in the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally and won a Coupe d’Or for three successive penalty-free finishes in the arduous Coupe des Alpes. He went record-breaking at Bonneville Salt Flats, Montlhery, Monza and Jabbeke for Austin-Healey, MG, Jaguar, Lotus and Sunbeam.

After retiring from front line racing in 1963, Sir Stirling remained a regular and popular personality both within and outside the world of motor racing. He set up the Stirling Moss Automobile Racing Team ‘SMART’ to run GT and Sports Cars for the likes of Sir John Whitmore and Hugh Dibley and eventually resumed racing himself, mainly in historic events in cars of his era. He also raced an Audi 80 in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1980 and 1981 but found the whole environment rather alien, a 15 lap thrash and bash in a front wheel drive saloon car on slick tyres being a long way removed from a 3 hour Grand Prix at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, Pescara or Monza in a Vanwall or a 250F Maserati. He acquired a number of historic sports cars and it was in one of these, a Porsche RS60 Spyder, of the type with which he and Graham Hill had so nearly won the 1961 Targa Florio, that he decided, while driving down the Mulsanne Straight during practice for the 2011 Le Mans Legends event, that the time had come finally at the age of 81 to hang up his helmet. A year earlier Sir Stirling had sustained some nasty injuries to his ankles and feet from falling down a lift shaft but he remained indefatigable. After contracting a serious chest infection whilst in Singapore in December 2016, Sir Stirling’s recovery was slow and arduous and resulted in his decision in January 2018 to retire from life in the public eye.

 

Sir Stirling remained a keen and very well-informed observer of the Grand Prix scene and had a particular empathy with Lewis Hamilton MBE. In 2008 the newly-crowned World Champion presented Sir Stirling, on behalf of the BRDC, with the unique honour of Vice-President for Life. Lewis’s words in tribute could not have been more apposite: 

 

'Not a day has gone by in the last 60 years when you have not worn the Club badge on either your lapel, tie or overalls. You have been the ultimate ambassador and utterly dedicated and loyal to the BRDC and all that it stands for.’  

 

Sir Stirling was the longest-serving BRDC Member and no one could have been a prouder Member. Between 1950 and 1961 he won 10 much coveted BRDC Gold Stars. Only in 2017 was that record surpassed, fittingly, by Lewis Hamilton MBE. 

 

The BRDC offers its most sincere condolences to Lady Susie Moss, herself an Honorary Member of the BRDC, and to their son Elliot and to Allison, Sir Stirling’s daughter by his earlier marriage to Elaine, on their loss. 

 

DCN

[Repco22]

My boyhood hero. What a sad day.

                    Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

                                             RIP Sir Stirling.

[Collombin]

I wonder which was his most successful meeting, in terms of race wins in a day?

Probably 25th June 1950 at Brands, 5 out of 5 in the Cooper JAP. There were of course other days in which he won races in 3 different types of car, but I can't see any of those that match the total of 5.