Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 313 Threads: 9
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Location: TINOPAI NZ
HI ALL,
The last NZGP 1962 I will never forget, just before the start the heavens opened up and never let up. starting from the back row of the grid by the first corner was lying 7 soon to take the lead .
driving one handed the other trying to keep rain of his face this was just a Master Class in wet weather Driving .
RIP
Colin
NZ
Joined: Apr 2020 Posts: 21 Threads: 4
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Location: Reading, Berks, England
Car type: Austin 7 Cambridge Special 1934 ish
I remember seeing Moss drive at the Goodwood revival, some 15 years ago. It was the evening Sports Car race, into the setting sun. Cars were coming around a fast right, in the middle of the circuit, straight into the sun. Everyone was coming over the crest and being blinded, snaking and twitching as the driver's guessed at the apex. Not Moss! He changed his whole racing line at least 2 corners ahead and set himself up into a long 4 wheel drift at the entrance of the corner. With the Aston in a perfect drift, he calmly took one hand off the wheel to shield his eyes and steered the car on the throttle. While he wasn't troubling the front runners, he was firmly in the midfield - and this little change of driving brought him right through the field, as it wasn't costing him as much time as others were loosing through being blind.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,746 Threads: 42
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Location: Malvern, Victoria, Australia
One of my enduring memories - Moss and Behra at Albert Park in Melbourne 1956 , what a driver |||
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 60 Threads: 5
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Location: Christchurch NZ
I saw Stirling Moss win the Lady Wigram Trophy race, in a Lotus 21, at the Wigram RNZAF base in Christchurch on a super-hot nor'west day in January 1962. The sort of day we don't seem to have anymore. The tar-seal on the perimeter roads, which were pressed into temporary service as a racetrack, was softened in the heat, and so he chose to use softer-compound wet-weather tyres which gave him a decisive advantage.
This was in the days of the Australia-New Zealand "Tasman Series" when big names, not very well paid at that time, would travel south to race in the European off-season.
I remember reading of his central London flat, which was built on a bomb site which he had bought very cheaply. He was quoted as saying that he wished he had bought the whole street. The other thing I recall is that he drove around London on a Vespa.
Most people in New Zealand would have replied "Stirling Moss" when asked the name of a racing driver.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,337 Threads: 34
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Location: Cheshire
Car type: Race Ulster, 1926 Special, 1927 Chummy, 1930 Box
13-04-2020, 10:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 13-04-2020, 10:46 AM by Alan.)
Of course there was furious driving. The Mille Miglia was a race. Everyone knew that. the Victory came as a result not just of outstanding driving, but meticulous planning and a very brave co pilot. It was probably the finest race drive ever.
Alan Fairless
