Book Review: Stirling Moss – Racing with the Maestro by Karl Ludvigsen
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Positives
Negatives
Vale Sir Stirling Moss – a driver that is most often labelled as the greatest F1 driver never to have won a F1 world championship. I’ve reviewed various Stirling Moss books in the past. A decent one that was published more than 20 yrs is Karl Ludvigsen’s “Stirling Moss – Racing with the Maestro”. This […]
Vale Sir Stirling Moss – a driver that is most often labelled as the greatest F1 driver never to have won a F1 world championship. I’ve reviewed various Stirling Moss books in the past. A decent one that was published more than 20 yrs is Karl Ludvigsen’s “Stirling Moss – Racing with the Maestro”. This book is part of the series of driver biographies published by Patrick Stephens Limited that also include Ascari (also by the same author), Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart and Ken Tyrrell.
When reading this book, it’s easy to forget how many different racing categories that Moss was dominant in – grand prix, rallying, sportscars. In the Moss era, drivers were obviously keen to race in any four wheel racing category across the globe. You can see Fernando Alonso now is trying to be the modern era equivalent.
Ludvigsen managed to gather an impressive collection of racing photos for this book – a significant portion are from Rudolfo Mailander photos and Ludvigsen’s own personal archive. Add in Bernard Cahier and Chris Nixon amongst others, and you get a sense of the level of renown motorsport photographers included. Although, the photos are predominantly monochrome, there are 16 pages of colour photos spanning 1958 to 1994 (lots of shots of Moss in the Lotus-Climax). Through the book’s photos you really get an appreciation for the diverse number of cars that Sir Stirling raced in throughout his career.
The author, a motor industry executive and journalist, knew Moss personally and this shows in his writing. There are lots of personal quotes and Ludvigsen has managed to trace Moss early beginnings with the backing of Moss’ father, through the lower formula categories in Formula 3, sports cars and Grand Prix racing. The book has less of a focus on the Mercedes era of Fangio and Moss – there’s much more content on his pre Mercedes days and his time in the British marques like Vanwall, BRM, Cooper and Lotus. Added to this, the foreword is written by Moss’ contemporary the 1961 champion and Ferrari driver, Phil Hill.
The narrative is more a reflection of Moss’ career and achievements rather than a pure biography (for which numerous other books have been published including “My Racing Life”, “All My Races” and Robert Edwards’ authorised biography). Ludvigsen’s book is more of photo album for Moss and F1 history aficionados.
Wow Factor/Money Shot: Mailander on the scenes photography of Moss hitting a tree racing the HWM at Naples in 1950.
Suitable for: Moss fans and F1 history buffs
