Stirling Moss’s own Porsche RS-61 Spyder up for auction at Goodwood

Stirling Moss’s own Porsche RS-61 Spyder – the last car he drove on track – is up for auction at Goodwood later this month with an estimate of  £1.7 to £2 million.

There are lots of cars that like to claim they’ve been driven by the legend (and we don’t use that word lightly) that is Sir Stirling Moss. But this car – a 1961  Porsche RS-61 Spyder – is actually owned by Stirling and was the last racing car he drove before retiring from the track in 2011.

The decision to end his racing outings came after Stirling had a prang at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, just five months after he fell down a lift shaft and not long after he’d bought the RS-61 at the Amelia Island sale in Florida for a record $1.7 million (about £1.1 million at today’s exchange rate).

The prang at Laguna Seca wasn’t Stirling’s fault (he spun off after the gearbox broke and a Lotus hit him), but the accident was fortuitous in many ways as it led to yet another rebuild of the RS61 – which sorted all the previous rebuilds in the process – ready for Stirling to drive again.

That opportunity came at the Le Mans 24-Hours in 2011, but in practice for the supporting historic race Stirling realised that the temptation to overtake, amongst other cars with driver skill levels he was unsure of, made him afraid for the first time in a race car. He returned to the pits and declared his racing days were over.

The Mosss RS-61 is one of just 14 made, featuring a 1.6 litre flat-four engine good for a modest (by modern standards) 150bhp and a top speed of over 140mph. It’s a car with a good history, looked after (and restored in period and again in 1995 as well as after Stirling’s prang) which is no doubt why Stirling paid top money for it.

But now Stirling has no real use for his RS-61, so it’s being auctioned off at Bonhams sale at the Goodwood Festival of Speed later this month with an estimate of getting on for £2 million. Which should give Stirling a return on his investment. And give its new owner the claim to fame of having not just an ex-Stirling Moss Porsche, but Stirling’s last ever race car too.

If only we could find a spare £2 million down the back of the sofa.