Then & now Stirling Moss

‘WHO DO YOU think you are, Stirling Moss?” If we had a euro for every time we’ve been asked that question, either by girlfriends, family members or gardaí, we’d be able to pay off the EU bailout, and still have petrol money left over. The name Stirling Moss has become synonymous with speed – you never hear a garda asking, “Who do you think you are, Michael Schumacher?” It has been 50 years since Moss competed in his last-ever Grand Prix, but still his name is invoked whenever someone is admonished for driving too fast.

At the height of his racing career, which began in 1948 and ended in 1962, Stirling Moss was easily the fastest Englishman on the racetrack. He was also the most enthusiastic, displaying a passion for cars and driving that inspired a generation of young boy racers. He inherited his car-mania from his father Alfred Moss, who had raced at Brooklands and Indianapolis in the 1920s. Moss senior didn’t exactly discourage his son from the dangerous business of motor racing – at nine Stirling was tearing around the fields in an Austin 7 that his dad got him for his ninth birthday. By the time Moss was old enough to drive, he was competing in local races in his dad’s BMW sports car.

But though motor racing ran in the Moss blood, the family business was dentistry, and young Stirling was expected to take over his dad’s practice. But Stirling wasn’t interested in pulling out teeth – he wanted to be pulling out champagne corks on the winners’ podium, so he entered as many races as he could, till he began to build up a reputation for winning. He was also known as a fitness fanatic, keeping in tip-top shape to compete in gruelling rallies. Years later, he admitted that many rally drivers at the time – himself included – took amphetamines to stay awake.

Although he raced for Maserati and Mercedes-Benz, Moss favoured British teams, and many pundits believe his loyalty to the underdogs of Formula One kept him just short of winning the world championship. He was called “the greatest driver never to win the world championship”. He racked up 16 Grand Prix wins, but Moss’s career came to an premature end in 1962 when he crashed at Goodwood and fell into a coma for a month. Two years earlier, he had made a spectacular recovery from a crash in Belgium in which he broke both legs and his back, but this time he decided to bow out gracefully.

Fast-forward a half-century, and Sir Stirling Moss is still in the driver's seat at 80, although these days he's usually racing historic cars, in his capacity as the president of the Silverstone Classic Racing Club. He has been busy with various property and commercial interests, and in 2009 he launched the Stirling Moss brand of clothes and accessories, which includes a T-shirt bearing the legendary rhetorical question. And a whole new generation of children are getting their racing thrills from the 81-year-old Moss – he's the narrator of popular children's series Roary the Racing Car.

Last year, Moss was involved in another serious accident when he fell three storeys down the lift shaft at the home he shares with his third wife, Susie. In true Stirling style, however, Moss recovered quickly from his injuries, and was back driving a Maserati at Silverstone. So, if you see an older gent whizzing by in a classic car, check before you ask, “Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” It might actually be him.