My hero -- by Richard Attwood
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My hero:
I’m not sure that I would call him a hero but I always admired Stirling Moss. Everybody did. I read Derek Bell’s My Hero in the November issue and, like him, I wrote to Moss — and not just because I was a fan. When I learned that he had a Standard 10 as a road car — registration number SM7, I believe — that had all manner of special tuning bits (Borrani wire wheels), I wanted to find out more. I had a rather more normal Standard at the time and wrote him a letter asking what he’d done to his car as I was interested in making mine go faster. He did write back, too, although maybe not as quickly as he did with Derek’s request. Among other things, he told me that the engine’s got to breathe.
I really appreciated him taking the time to write back as he was probably inundated with letters and requests. As it happens, I started my career with that Standard, racing it at Goodwood and Mallory, before moving on to a TR3A and then into Formula Junior.
… & favourite road car:
I’m not really into road cars. Driving on the roads isn’t as much fun as it used to be as there’s such a volume of traffic. Then there is the depreciation on new cars which is ridiculous: I just won’t pay the money. At the moment, I drive a disreputable Peugeot 405 with a very high mileage, which has been featured in the press recently: it’s probably the best-known 405 in the country. I must admit that l am taken with the Audi A8 and am thinking of buying one — once the price is right, of course.