A true honour

With sore heads we set off to meet our Patron, Sir Stirling Moss. It was a great honour to meet someone who had inspired us to undertake this project. He was very friendly and interested in what we had done.

He said that people used to do these sort of things in his day, but they don’t do them anymore and I think he was pleased to see that we had taken the batten and decided to have a go at a real motoring adventure. It was a real privilege to sit and drink tea and talk with the great man and for him to take time out of his busy schedule to do so – a true inspiration to us all and what a way to end our trip.

I talked to him about engines and cars and the difference between the Humber Super Snipe that he took on the trip and the Land Rovers that we were using. He commented about the snorkel and wondered what route we had taken that required a snorkel for such deep water wading! He was quite impressed with my vehicle.

We talked about how he had invented ‘Rally Pace Notes’ which he first used on the Mille Miglia and brought to the world of rallying, which is now common place. On his Oslo to Lisbon challenge, he would drive the special stages when it got hard and there was lots of snow and difficult roads.

Where as modern F1 racing drivers only drive 17 Grand Prix’s per year, Stirling would compete in over 50 different races, from F1 to rallying and touring cars! At 80, he’s off to a race this afternoon and has not lost any of his competitive edge – determined to win his class in the 2-hour long circuit race – what a guy.

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