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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Stirling Moss
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(b. 1929) Racing driver who was runner-up in the world championship in four successive seasons (1955–8), the first three times to Fangio and then to Mike Hawthorn; he had previously had many successes in Formula Three with *Cooper. In 1955 he used the most painstaking professionalism to win the famous Italian Mille Miglia, which was raced – as the name states – over a distance of approximately 1000 miles on ordinary roads. Moss had logged every corner of the route, noting speeds and gears; his partner in the Mercedes (Denis Jenkinson, acting as navigator) read the charts and conveyed the information by hand signals. They won by the huge margin of 32 minutes over Fangio in the other Mercedes, with an average speed of 158kph/98mph – breaking the previous record by nearly 16kph/10mph.
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