Pat Heigham
Sad to see the news today (12/04/2020) that Sir Stirling Moss has passed.
On a shoot at Goodwood Festival of Speed one year, we picked up an interview with the man, and I was able to ask him if a story was true, that on being pulled over for speeding, the officer said in that typically sarcastic way: “ ’oo do you think you are – Stirling Moss?”
“Actually, yes!”
It was true.
Keith Wicks
A similar story to Pat’s. Long ago, Stirling lent an old car to a mutual friend. The police stopped her for speeding. During the interrogation, the police officer asked if it was her car. She said it wasn’t. “Don’t tell me,” he said, “I suppose it belongs to Stirling Moss.” “Well, actually…” She told me it took a long time to convince him she was serious. But at least she was just given a warning about speeding.
Nick Ware
“Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” was, perhaps unsurprisingly, pretty much a standard question asked by speed cops.
My Father-in-Law was a Royal Protection cop in Richmond Park for more than ten years, and with an overall speed limit of 20 MPH in the park, got to use that phrase regularly. But he was a Gent, because he once told me. “If I pull somene over and start off with that Stirling Moss quip, they’re probably only going to get a ticking-off.”
His other pet saying, if you happened to be a passenger in his (own) car, and someone coming the other way flashed their lights at him, was: “If you’ve got time to flash your lights at me, you’ve got time to put your foot on your brakes!” A shining example of how not to drive, even in his own car, he behaved as if he had blues-and-twos on all the time. And that’s a policeman with an Advanced driver’s licence!
RIP, Reggie B and Stirling Moss.
Hugh Sheppard
Ah! Car-driving relos… mine to remember was an uncle, at 4ft 11ins tall with a hare-lip that rendered speech difficult, who was an ace London Transport bus driver at testing and deliveries etc. In the post-war years he was nabbed in a double-decker STL for speeding… “Get down ‘ere” said the cop. When Arthur did, the cop towered over him, then scratched his head:”’You?’ Driving that at 50 miles per hour through Streatham? Blimey!!” and that was that.
Holidays were the worst. Uncle Arthur had no car, but sometimes hired one. With the family aboard, he drove it like a bus, expecting everyone to give way – roundabouts were his speciality…
Pat Heigham
Having had need to attend my local hospital for scans and follow-ups, and not wishing to pay the extortionate fees for car parking, even if there is a space, I went door-to door on the bus.
I was impressed with the skill that the drivers employed at knowing exactly how wide their vehicle was, missing parked cars by centimetres!
And there’s a front overhang which needs taking into account.
Geoff Hawkes
I use the buses in Oxford occasionally when I have need to go there and am amazed at the drivers’ skill at manoeuvring through traffic, particularly the way they can pull out from behind another bus which they have stopped very close up to. I assume it’s something to do with where the front wheels are placed and that they must have a really tight turning circle,
Graeme Wall
When the reopening of Goodwood race circuit was under consideration, Stirling came down to do a demonstration run round in an old F1 car. The first time he’d driven there since his near-fatal crash in the 1960s. It was sponsored by Saab who provided a brand new 9000 turbo as a camera car with a rally driver as chauffeur. I was sat in the hatchback area, (no harness!) wih the hatch propped open with a broomstick. As we got set up, Stirling came over to ask how far behind the Saab I wanted him to drive so I said 20 feet. I set the focus on 20’ and we did two fast laps and I never had to touch it once.
John Nottage
Graeme’s [story] reminded me of an old photo I have. I suppose it was an old KA Sports Unit shoot, maybe Silverstone. Perhaps someone recognizes the location. It features an old racing car, Sterling Moss, Murray Walker, Trevor Wimlett and someone I don’t recognise.
Dave Newbitt.
I can’t help with the unidentified ‘someone’ but the car’s definitely a Vanwall, which would make the date 1958 or thereabouts.
Alan Taylor
The Vanwall may be from 1958, but I would have thought that the camera was from the 1980s or thereabouts and Trevor looks like he might be in his 1980s vintage too.
My guess would be that it was shot at a revival meeting or a motor racing museum.
However I do think that the Vanwalls and other cars of that vintage look like proper racing cars, even if they do have amazingly skinny tyres.
Dave Newbitt.
That’s a very gentle correction from you Alan – I’ve been justifiably criticised all my life for tunnel vision and here’s a case in point. I was so focused on Moss and the Vanwall that I didn’t even register the camera. I might also have noticed that although Murray Walker looked pretty young he would have looked an awful lot younger in 1958!
Alan Taylor
I’m pretty sure that Murray Walker didn’t work for the BBC in 1958 either. I was working with Murray just a few years ago when he was commentating on some motor cycle racing and he jokingly referred to himself as being the person on site who has worked longest on motor racing television.
Later during a pause, we were chatting and I told him that as far as I’m concerned, he was the new boy as I was working Formula One before he was commentating on it. He was intrigued and asked if I could remember who commentated before he did. Ray Baxter I replied, and Ray was certainly doing it until 1973. He laughed, remembered whose lip mic he inherited and doffed his legendary cap to this “old gentleman of motor racing broadcasting”.
I will always remember that 1973 Silverstone Grand Prix because I was working in the pit lane doing what I believe was the first UK pit lane reporter using high powered radio mics capable of working over the entire length of the pit lane. The reporter had a cabled stick mic and radio talkback. I carried a monster radio transmitter and a small battery powered mixer to the mic feed it. If I remember correctly our floor manager was a very youthful Simon Betts.
The race started and after all the excitement, we were settling down until the first pit stop when we saw loads of dust and fibreglass panels flying into the air at turn one. We instinctively ran towards the incident, but our camera couldn’t come with us, either due to lack of cable, or lack of radio range. When we got there, we were stood amongst an eleven car pile up and our reporter did a very emotional and melodramatic live piece to camera about the utter carnage surrounding us. The camera on the Simon hoist at turn one provided excellent coverage for our report.
At one point, we noticed that we were stood in puddles and realised that it might be fuel, so made a tactical withdrawal to a safer place. The marshals were entirely comfortable about us being on the track, which certainly wouldn’t be the case these days.
