Sir Stirling celebrates his 80th birthday this year.

The keynote of his motor racing career was versatility, which sprang out of his enjoyment of driving lots of different cars in lots of different types of event - circuit racing, road racing, international rallies, speed records and so on. He was able to do this by always remaining a freelance all rounder, thus being able to keep his options open. At one stage he was driving in both Formula 1 and Formula 3 events at the same time when Formula 3 cars were powered by 500cc motor cycle engines.

To a lot of people, Stirling Moss is synonymous with Daimler Benz, and the slick team organisation, pits management and technical development were a highlight of his career. Amusing and pungent anecdotes featured personalities such as Alfred Neubauer, the formidable 20 stone Supremo, and Rudi Uhlenhaut, technical manager. On one occasion, when the vestigial windscreen broke on the 300 SLR he was driving, a replacement was fitted in the pits in 39 seconds!

A former outstanding event in Southern Italy was the Mille Miglia, a 1,000 mile race on public roads, attracting 2 million spectators. Stirling Moss won it in 1955 in a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR with Jenks (Motor Sport's Continental Correspondent Denis Jenkinson) navigating. On one 73 mile section near Cremona he averaged 165 mph and also averaged fractionally under 100mph for the whole 1,000 miles - all this on roads without dual carriageways and where members of the public were liable to appear without warning. This event has been revived featuring period cars, but whereas today's event lasts for three days, Moss did the whole distance in 10 hours.

In Formula 1 in 1955 the nr1 Mercedes driver was J M Fangio, with Moss nr 2. He said he learned a lot by studying Fangio's technique while following him. He won the Formula 1 race at Aintree that year. He mentioned in passing that Fangio disliked driving sports cars. A driver whom Moss did not like to follow was Jack Brabham, who was inclined to drive on the edge of the track where he could flip up various bits of debris onto following cars.

In a Formula 1 race in Portugal in 1958 Mike Hawthorn was driving a Ferrari and Moss a Vanwall which he said was somewhat tricky to drive. Hawthorn spun and stalled the engine and had to do a downhill clutch start against the race traffic to get it going again. He was disqualified for this, and although he eventually won the race, Moss was declared the winner. Moss argued with the stewards, resulting in Hawthorn being allowed to keep his 1st place.

In the 1959 TT 6 hour race at Goodwood, Moss shared an Aston Martin with Roy Salvadori, competing for the sports car championships. Whilst being refuelled the car caught fire and was badly damaged. Moss got hold of another car and went on to win the event and the championship.

In the Land Speed Record field Moss went on to the salt flats at Utah, USA with the MG team and drove a class record breaker. With 300hp on tap he achieved a speed of 240mph over a course consisting of a 5 mile run up, 1 timed mile and a 5 mile wind down in each direction. The car ran on slick tyres and had very little in the way of brakes. He found the reclining position uncomfortable and when the canopy was clipped on with Zust fasteners he wondered if he would ever be able to get out.

When young, Moss by-passed the motor bike phase and commented that most youngsters these days seem to come up by the karting route. He liked horse riding, however, and learned to pay attention to the feedback he could get through his hands.

Early racing was very dangerous and that is why Moss did it. The scenery around circuits included trees and buildings and there were no run-off areas after corners, making for exciting circuits like Dundrod. Drivers raced with small safety margins and and many were killed - Moss himself was nearly killed at Monza. He thinks that racing today is too safe, although he considers that Ayrton Senna met his end because an Armco barrier on a corner was too near the track. Mechanical reliability was not as good today and it was not always possible to use all the performance available if one wanted to finish, discretion being the better part.

On likes and dislikes Moss has never been an enthusiast for shared drives and has strong views on pedal layout - any car with a central accelerator has to have the pedals rearranged before he is comfortable.

Moss's full time racing career came to an end on Easter Monday in 1962 at Goodwood at the age of 32 when he had a serious accident. Since then he has continued to drive in other events and is now fascinated by driving historic racing cars. When driving his OSCA he refuses to wear a modern safety helmet and overalls, and has now set his sights on getting a Porsche.

Amongst various questions from the floor, when asked when he would have retired if it had not been for the accident, Moss thought he would probably have carried on until he was about 50. If he had then needed something to do he might have considered standing for Parliament or becoming an estate agent.

Still going strong, still competitive at 80 - what a man!