It’s difficult to boil the true greats of motorsport down to their very best performances, for in such a tier, cut-above drives are a dime a dozen. Sir Stirling Moss is a case in point. Mille Miglia 1955, Nürburgring 1,000km 1959, Goodwood TT 1960, join a slew of other drives that marked him out as the man to beat during his decade in contemporary racing.
Enthusiasts and experts can give their two cents and of course, history romanticises and immortalises some drives more vividly than others, but what about the drivers themselves? Their opinion should count for a lot when attempting to speak in definitives.
Ask Sir Stirling, as many did, and he more often than not gave one answer: Monaco, 1961, in his Rob Walker-ran Lotus 18. The out-of-date privateer underdog, with Stirling’s prodigious skills, showed the latest and greatest machinery and drivers from Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus and more a clean pair of cross-plies, thus solidifying another of his many nicknames – The master of Monaco. This is that very car, of course in attendance at the 2021 Goodwood Revival, where we celebrated the life and legacy of Mr Goodwood following his passing in 2020.
It’s reported Moss was convinced he wasn’t in the running for a win in the principality that weekend, being as he was at the wheel of a Lotus from the year before, which had been retrofitted with a new rules-compliant 1.5-litre Climax engine. Power-wise he was about 20 per cent down on the V6-engined Ferraris.
In spite of this, once he took the lead on the 14th lap, he set the pace for the remaining 86 laps, leading the race at near-on qualifying pace the whole way. Moss powered this plucky little Lotus all the way to the finish with 3.6 seconds to spare versus the runner up, having set a fastest lap that was just 0.2 seconds off Bruce McLaren’s 1960 record in a 2.5-litre car.
Really though, given the rate of attrition of rivals, it’s the blend of raw unfettered pace with total mechanical sympathy that’s most impressive. Sir Stirling proved himself so many times to be the F1 Champion that never was, perhaps none more-so definitively than this.
Teifion Salisbury owns the car today and is entirely reverent of both the car and Sir Stirling’s exploits in it and has been so for quite some time. “I had a picture of that car on my wall as a boy,” he says, standing proudly by it in the assembly area. “He won in Monaco in May ’61, that was the month my wife was born. I was born in September ’61, so the year 1961 means a lot to us.
“It’s well-known that against all the odds it entered Monaco as an old development car, during a change of engine specification down to 1.5-litre. The astonishing thing is for the three-hour race, he kept the same pace, pretty much, that he set in qualifying, within a second and not much more. He was pushing it that hard, the sides were taken off to try and keep it cool. Having driven it quite a bit now, I know his arm would have been resting on the boiling water pipe running down the cockpit. Of course, it’s insulated today but it would have been very hot then.”
Such significant cars can end up living a sedentary life, confined inside the four walls of a museum or hung as a trophy piece in a collection. A case in point – though probably justified in this case – is the Mercedes 300 SLR with which Moss and Denis Jenkinson made history at the 1955 Mille Miglia. That car is of course immeasurably valuable, to the point that Mercedes’ stock would drop should it ever come to harm. Salisbury’s giddiness at its mere presence at Goodwood is indicative of how infrequently it escapes Stuttgart. But his is a firm belief that racing cars should be raced, per the remit of their construction and Stirling’s Lotus is no different.
“I’ve owned the car a couple of years, it’s been out of action for a while. It came a couple of years ago and the engine went, and then with Covid it took time to sort that out. This will be its third time out in anger since it was sorted.
“My view, as I’m sure it is of you and lots of owners of cars of this kind, is that they are what they are. They’re designed to do what they do. It’s only right that we try our best to keep them doing exactly that. Here, you can drive these cars with a great deal of vigour, without worrying about taking that extra bit of risk. There’s no championship at stake, and while there are many fantastic drivers, there’s always respect.
“For most of its life – 45-odd years – it was sat in the Donington collection. Occasionally Tom Wheatcroft brought it out – I think George Harrison drove it, Jackie Stewart. Damon Hill and Jackie are driving it this weekend. Its early history is of course well known. It raced for a few years after Rob Walker released it.
“To be honest, I just feel incredibly lucky to be the current custodian of this car. Because that’s what we are. You look after these things for a while until it’s someone else’s turn. If they’re looked after properly, they outlive us.”
The same can be said of the near unmatched legacy of Sir Stirling Moss. It was truly touching to see so many of the cars that he used to carve out that legacy and craft that legend, especially those poster car heroes we mentioned, and indeed the car from the drive he was most proud of, here in his honour at Revival 2021. With Stirling’s masterful touch, what would have been another out-of-date Lotus on the back foot became a piece of history that day in Monaco. While he may no longer be with us, in his cars and the stories we tell, his legend lives on and will outlive us all.
Photogaphy by Jordan Butters.
Keyword: The Lotus 18 Stirling Moss raced to master Monaco