When it comes to motorsport, Mille Miglia is one of those sacred competitions that gave the world legendary drivers. Sir Stirling Moss secured a place in motorsport's hall of fame by winning the 1955 Mille Miglia, and he is now reminiscent of that incredible story.
Lucky for us petrolheads, Petrolicious put together a video where Moss - just 25 years old at that time - talks about the way he and co-driver Denis Jenkinson took the 992 miles (1,596 km) of Italian countryside by storm.
At an average speed of 98.53 miles per hour (158.57 km/h) the duo managed to reach the finish line after 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds of grueling racing. With an enormous amount of modesty and a talent for storytelling, Stirling Moss talks about those glory days as he looks back on how he approached the race:
“Once the flag fell, I went flat out. Obviously, when I’d see a car I caught up with, I really felt great about it, but I had no idea of the enormity of what it meant to myself because it’s really—it’s quite the thing to have on your CV," Moss explained.
At that time, Juan Manuel Fangio was the en-titre two times Grand Prix World Champion but guess what? Stirling Moss finished ahead of him, as he managed to get the best out of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR #722. The car was a beast, even in today's terms: under the hood was a direct fuel-injected straight-8 monster, churning roughly 310 HP, capable of propelling the car to a top speed of 180 mph (290 km/h).
But it was also a dangerous affair, this kind of driving, with no regulations and safety measures being implemented back then.
Moss admits he had to wiggle the car from left to right on the road so that spectators would take a few steps back as he flew through the often small Italian towns along the route. Just imagine this happening today, in rally races or any other form of motorsport.
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