Sir Stirling Moss to be at Lime Rock Historic Festival

[Tireman]

Not sure when this was announced, but how cool is this ? A living legend is honored at our little corner of the world.

http://www.limerock.com/index.php?op...id=1&Itemid=50

Viz

[oldredracer]

Never saw him race in person but I did watch him drift a Jaguar? pace car into Echo Valley at the Bridge in front of the CAN-AM field once. Still had the fire.

[dalyduo]

Couldn't get a ticket to the sold out event but sat outside the enclosed tent structure listening to Sir Stirling Moss, Mario Andretti, Carroll Shelby and Bobby Rahal being inducted into the Sebring Hall of Fame in 2004. As people were leaving snuck in and managed to meet the legend. Big time kid in a candy store moment.

In 1954 Sir Sterling was the first foreign driver to win the 12 Hours of Sebring. He described his O.S.C.A. driving experience, "... It didn't have any power, and it didn't have any brakes... But it had balance." Because of that and a relatively small engine that had better mileage and fewer fuel stops than his competitors he was able to nurse it around with enough speed to win the race outright. good stuff.

[oldredracer]

Originally Posted by dalyduo

..."... It didn't have any power, and it didn't have any brakes... But it had balance." Because of that and a relatively small engine that had better mileage and fewer fuel stops than his competitors he was able to nurse it around with enough speed to win the race outright. good stuff.

No power. No brakes. Nurse it around. Win outright. Yeah right.

Mansell used to do that ALL the time. His post-race interview usually consisted of explaining to the adoring multitude how he literally lifted his ailing car up and carried it across the finish line while a dentist performed a root canal on the tooth which was so painful it was blurring his vision.
He also once derided Prost for spending so much time on setup that he became nothing more than a chauffeur with the car doing all the work. To which Prost replied, 'Isn't that the object of the exercise?'

[dalyduo]

My sense wasn't that he was framing his drive as heroic, just that there were other cars with more power and better brakes that either had more fuel or repair stops and he was able to use the good handling balance of his car to full effect to win the race.

I did a PBOC 6 hour event at Sebring in a spec miata a few years ago and had as close to a parallel universe experience as I'll ever have. The Miata had great balance and probably the least power of any car on the track. Can't tell you how many heavier more powerful cars I could run up the back of or even around through the turns and then give back on the straights. In the grand scheme of things we covered more ground than many of them because our overall lap times weren't dramatically different but consistency and a few less fuel stops did make up the difference. In that context his words made perfect sense.

Originally Posted by oldredracer

No power. No brakes. Nurse it around. Win outright. Yeah right.

Mansell used to do that ALL the time. His post-race interview usually consisted of explaining to the adoring multitude how he literally lifted his ailing car up and carried it across the finish line while a dentist performed a root canal on the tooth which was so painful it was blurring his vision.
He also once derided Prost for spending so much time on setup that he became nothing more than a chauffeur with the car doing all the work. To which Prost replied, 'Isn't that the object of the exercise?'