SIR STIRLING MOSS 1929-2020
An affectionat portrait in memoriam
Article Graham Robson
Images Daimler Archives
The first time I saw Stirling Moss race was in 1955, at the wheel of a W196 Mercedes-Benz. The last time was in the early 2010s when he was at the wheel of “722,” the famous Mille Miglia-winning 300SLR, at the British Goodwood Festival of Speed. Sixty years had passed, but so little seemed to have changed – for the old-style helmet, the smooth driving skills, the Dunlop racing overalls and every element of that famous straight-arm driving position were all still present.
In the meantime, nothing else had faded. In the 2010s, maybe Sir Stirling (that title was important to him and to millions of his fans) was not as spritely as in his glory days, but his reputation was as stellar as ever. From 1962, when a cruel accident ended his F1 career for good, to modern times, wherever he went a crowd of onlookers, fans and journalists would gather. It was only in the very last years that his love of making personal appearances, and driving the cars he loved began to pall.
Why? Simply, as he once told me in an interview, “After my accident, I was only 32, and had to plan the rest of my life. So I decided to make a second career out of being Stirling Moss!”
Born in London in 1929, he was the much-loved son of Alfred Moss, who was not only a successful dentist, but had even raced for a time, including competing in the 1924 Indianapolis 500. His mother Aileen was an enthusiastic competitor in British motorsports events.
In 1948 Stirling, a petrol-head from a very early age, persuaded his father to help him buy a 500cc-engined Cooper racecar. The young man was successful in it. Moss rapidly moved up through the ranks. He won the British Tourist Trophy race of 1950 (held at Dundrod in Northern Ireland) in Tommy Wisdom’s Jaguar XK120 and then joined the Jaguar “works” team soon after that.
Thereafter Moss seemed to be invited to drive everything, to endorse anything, to make personal appearances all over the world, and generally to act like the superstar he undoubtedly was. Along the way he mixed testing the infamous BRM V16 F1 car (and turning it down as “the worst race car he had ever driven”) with second place overall in the Monte Carlo Rally in a Sunbeam-Talbot sedan. He led the Sunbeam works rally team at the same time as he was racing F2 single-seaters. Moss was always available, if asked, to race the most unlikely pieces of machinery, and often starting three or more races in different categories at one crowded meeting.
Yet he always gave his best, was always immaculately dressed, and he was ready to go when the flag fell. Moss would appear for events as the sponsor’s star for products as diverse as cigarettes, board games and safety campaigns. Why did he keep himself so busy? Because the rewards for success were high, and he was soon known to be the highest-earning race driver in the UK. Thoughtful gag-writers realised that if a “rolling stone gathered no moss,” then a “stationary Moss gathered no sterling!”
To reach the heights of F1, in 1954 he went out and bought a new “customer” Maserati 250F from Italy. He won several minor races in it, often beating the factory team in major events. By the end of that year he was hungry to break into the big time, but could not quite make it. Then suddenly Mercedes-Benz, wishing to back up the undoubted driving genius of Juan-Manuel Fangio, approached him and signed him up for 1955.
News of his Mercedes-Benz signing came in December 1954, and it typified the team that they set out to win with both F1 and sports cars in 1955. Incidentally, it was almost made clear that Moss should always consider himself as number two to Fangio. Stirling, however, could have had no idea of what would happen in that momentous year – victory in the Mille Miglia race, being witness to a tragic accident at Le Mans, and gritty winning drives in both the Tourist Trophy and the Targa Florio.
What followed? The records show that Stirling had the most phenomenally successful year, not only driving behind the three-pointed star, but also finding time to race his own Maserati, dabbling in Porsches, and even take on the occasional sedan car race. We all remember his most world-famous victory for Mercedes-Benz in the Italian Mille Miglia road race, and the British F1 GP victory that followed two months later. But how many realize that Stirling raced Mercedes-Benz cars for the factory only for one season? In later years, he would occasionally race 300SLs, but these were all privately prepared and entered.
Just one year, but what a year! In nine months, Stirling started 13 top-ranked international races – seven of them in W196 F1 cars, and six in 300SLR two-seaters. In half of those events Stirling loyally tucked in behind Fangio’s sister car to finish second, and sometimes it was thought that he could have won.
When Stirling signed up with Mercedes-Benz, he had to get used to being at the beck and call of his new masters. For the first time he would not be able to personally plan his entire season. There were team meetings, seat fittings, and the developing mesh of dates, flights, testing, and events to be fitted into an already tight schedule.
At one time, he later admitted, he would have bounced straight out of a racing car to go off and fulfill yet another social engagement, but not any longer. Formerly, he would make a habit of rushing round London on a tiny Italian scooter, and of juggling a crowded social calendar. Moss, Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins – all famous British F1 drivers – were known for their love of a party, and for the company of gorgeous girls.
This, though, was about to change, for Mercedes-Benz seemed to have plans for every day of his year-long contract with them. After making his first-ever trip to Argentina, he would have to spend three arduous months preparing for the prestigious 1,000-mile Mille Miglia race in Italy. This event started and finished in Brescia, near Milan, turned round in Rome, and used closed public highways throughout. With British journalist Denis Jenkinson as his co-driver, Stirling spent March and April practicing the route (which incidentally included him having two accidents in the 300SL, which the team shrugged off as being “incidental”).
After winning that epic contest (and reportedly being high on Fangio’s pep pills) he apparently drove all the way back to Stuttgart that very evening! Then there was a big rush of motorsports events which followed, including F1 and 300SLR outings, the tragedy of Le Mans, and the build-up to the British GP where Stirling beat Fangio by a car’s length. But was it a staged finish? In his victory speech he commented that: “Fangio is the greatest driver in the world. He could easily have come up and made it a different story. But being a sportsman he allowed me to realize my greatest ambition.”
Two more races in that frenetic season remained. First came the British Tourist Trophy sports car race (300SLR) where Stirling had a big battle with Mike Hawthorn's Jaguar D-Type. The race was almost lost when Stirling put his 300SLR into a stout grass bank and tore the offside rear bodywork. Yet the coolly professional Moss caught and passed his rivals to win once again.
Stirling then set off on a long-planned Mediterranean holiday, only for team boss Neubauer to calculate that success at the Targa Florio in Sicily might secure the World Sports Car Championship for Mercedes-Benz. He called Stirling back to perform yet again. Even though he had had a grueling season, Moss performed well. Along with Peter Collins, they set amazing times in a race that lasted for more than nine hours on a 44.7-mile open-road circuit. Although they eventually won, their car went off the road on several occasions, once needing the help of hordes of onlookers, with a five-minute delay to get it back on track.
Then suddenly, abruptly, and brutally, the team found out they were finished. Even before the start of the Targa Florio, the company had decided to withdraw from motorsport. The company had informed Neubauer of this, but forbade him from telling the drivers and mechanics until after the event. To quote from the letter the directors sent to Neubauer:
“After mature deliberation, the management committee has decided ... to absent itself ... irrevocably from motor racing for several years. …”
On October 22, 1955, just six days after that historic triumph in Sicily, the world's press were informed of the company’s withdrawal, and Stirling Moss once again found himself out of a job, though not for long.
So, for Stirling, and for Mercedes-Benz, what happened next?
Mercedes-Benz, as promised, was serious about its withdrawal from motorsports. The victorious W196 and 300SLRs never turned another wheel in competition, though it was wonderful that they were regularly brought out to demonstrate their character in front of an adoring public. To see Stirling re-united with 722, and have his old co-driver Denis Jenkinson alongside him, was a real privilege. Make no mistake, by the way, that the car always looked and sounded as purposeful as ever, and even until Stirling was well into his seventies he could probably have driven it at race-competitive speeds
Stirling, by the way, was so impressed by the 300SLR, that he was obviously relieved when Mercedes-Benz decided not to sell off any of their fleet, or even to make replicas for private sale. As he once commented about this magnificently successful car:
“I’m so glad they didn’t sell any of them; I would hate to have to race against them!”
This was not the end of his career, but rather the further blossoming of a glorious phase in his life. In those ultra-busy nine months of 1955 Stirling had won three World Championship sports car races, one Formula One race, and finished closely behind the sister car of Juan-Manuel Fangio on no fewer than five other occasions.
For Stirling, it was a case of “Onwards and Upwards.” In 1956 he became Maserati's F1 star in the 250F. Then in 1957-1958 he started winning F1 races in British Vanwalls, after which he freelanced in BRMs, Coopers and Lotuses, sometimes winning F1 races against all the odds. In 1958 he gave Cooper its first F1 victory, driving a privately-entered car with a 2-litre engine in what was, after all, a 2½-litre formula, and in 1961 he held off the might of the Ferrari team at Monaco to win in another Cooper, which was at least 40 horsepower down on their machines. Along the way he also found time to be a star on the Aston Martin racing sports car team too, when it won the 1959 World Sports Car series championship.
Stirling was always so cool and so versatile. When driving Rob Walker’s Ferrari 250GT to win the British Tourist Trophy races at Goodwood in 1960 and 1961, he admitted that he got bored with leading so easily. For entertainment, he switched on the car’s radio and listened to British commentators telling the world how he, Stirling Moss, was proceeding.
For 1962, we now know that he signed up to drive a Ferrari in the F1 Championship, but all that was negated by that dreadful crash at Goodwood in a Cooper-Climax single-seater, which brought his competitive career to an end. Although he occasionally took part in celebrity races after that, he confined himself to appearing at major occasions, and often enjoyed demonstration outings in his many once-famous cars. By the time he truly retired, Stirling calculated that he had started no fewer than 529 races, of which he had won 212 times. Even though he was most deservedly knighted Sir Stirling Moss in 2000, his interest in motor racing never dimmed.
In more than forty years of his later career of “being Stirling Moss,” he not only had the chance to sample many of his old cars, but to appear as a famous interview subject on radio or TV. My personal experience as a commentator/interviewer confirms that he was always polite, interested, and interesting, which is more than can be said for some of today’s latter-day heroes. His enthusiasm for his sport never wilted.
I can also report, from personal experience, that in later years if he was invited to a major Mercedes-Benz function, he always became the center of attention. He never ran out of chat, interest or sheer enjoyment, before the time got away from him. To see him and Fangio together, friends as they had always been, was a real pleasure.
We will always miss him.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Newly signed to Mercedes-Benz, a dashing Stirling Moss tests the new 300SLR at Hockenheim, March 1955. After testing, 300SLRs were sent to Italy in the fleet of vehicles to be used for practice on the Mille Miglia route.
Mille Miglia, Brescia, Italy, May 1, 1955. Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson settle in 300SLR number 722 just before the start.
At the British Grand Prix, Aintree, July 16, 1955. On his way to victory in his home race, Stirling Moss demonstrates his famous straight-armed driving style in the unbeatable Mercedes-Benz W196 R open wheeler.
Post-race, a begrimed and emotionally spent Moss shares a happy moment with second place-finishing teammate Juan Manuel Fangio.
At the Targa Florio, Sicily, October 16, 1955. Stirling Moss won the arduous Italian endurance race with co-driver Peter Collins in a 300SLR to clinch the World Sports Car Championship for Mercedes-Benz.
At a 2015 Mercedes-Benz Classic event in Italy, Sir Stirling Moss during demonstration runs at the wheel of Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR number 722.
Historic artifact: Having raced into the record book from Brescia to Rome and back in the hands of Stirling Moss (see page 56) to win the 1955 Mille Miglia, W196 S 300SLR number 722 is now a treasured part of the permanent collection of the Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart. Image Daimler Archive