There is plenty to be said for these things happening several years after the fact. Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss OBE passed away aged 90 on 12 April 2020, just as the UK was in the grip of its first Covid lockdown. It simply wouldn’t have been possible for a service of thanksgiving to follow at a more conventional distance. In the end, that turned out to be a wonderful thing.
Four and a bit years after Moss died, magnificent Westminster Abbey was fit to burst with a couple of thousand of his friends, family and fans, the atmosphere beneath those high vaulted ceilings solemn, as it should be, but not funereal. We laughed loudly and listened awestruck to tales of his most outrageous derring-do, and it all seemed absolutely appropriate. This wasn’t a time to mourn but to celebrate, those four years having made all the difference.
Outside on Broad Sanctuary on Wednesday morning, several of his most famous competition cars gleamed in the spring sunshine. Among them were the beautiful Ferrari 250 GT SWB in Rob Walker colours in which he won the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood in 1960, and the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR, number 722, in which he delivered what remains the most extraordinary single day’s drive motor racing has ever witnessed. At an average speed of very nearly 100mph, Moss and navigator Denis Jenkinson won the 1955 Mille Miglia by 32 minutes after tearing around Italy for 1000 miles.
