Stirling's Birthday

Stirling Moss was born in London on the 17th September 1929 to parents who were both known for their involvement in motor racing. His father Alfred raced both at Brooklands and at Indianapolis and his mother Aileen had twice won the Ladies Expert Trial in 1935 and 1936. It's not really surprising then that both he and his sister Pat took up motor racing in one form or another.

Just how it all came together for him after 70 years on the planet to have his 70th birthday on the first day of the 1999 Goodwood Revival meeting beggars belief, but its typical of the man. If anyone was going to do it, it was going to be Stirling Moss - unless of course you bring Damon Hill into the discussion who was born on 17 September 1960 and was therefore celebrating his 39th birthday on the same day! The Goodwood team can fix most things but this was planning at its most awesome.

Stirling's presents included a Marilyn Monroe look-alike suitably delivered by Damon in an open top Cadillac and several drives in various delectable motors over the weekend including a Maserati 250F and a Ferrari GTO which he co-drove to 11th place with Tony Dron in the Sunday afternoon TT race.

Many of the cars driven by Moss were at Goodwood for the weekend and on the Sunday there was a tribute parade which also featured Rob Walker for whom he drove for so many years.

Of the 600 or so cars he has driven throughout his career there were a good few out at Goodwood including a Vanwall, Lotus 18, Cooper F3, the Mercedes 300 SLR in which he won the Mille Miglia with Jenks, a Mercedes W196 demonstrated by David Coulthard on the Friday, Jaguar C-Types, the Eldorado Maserati and an H.W.M.

If you look through this site you will find photographs of all of these cars and if you visit our Goodwood Festival of Speed sites you will find many more.

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