Miss Moss wrestled the beastly Austin-Healey 3000 to victory in the 1960 Liege-Rome-Liege Rally, likely the greatest drive of her distinguished career.
Really, this column should be called “Heroine” this time, because it’s about one of the greatest stars of post-war world rallying, a woman who took on the best men of their profession and beat them. Pat Moss became arguably the greatest woman rally driver of all time.
As Pirelli’s PR boss, I worked with Pat’s famous brother Stirling on and off for about 20 years, and during that period I also met Pat. She was with her husband, the late Erik Carlsson, who won Britain’s RAC Rally three consecutive times and was a double Monte Carlo Rally winner in his little two-stroke works Saabs, on an island off Savannah, Georgia, running a new Saab car launch, with their shiny new products on Pirelli tires. Pat was a gracious hostess, tremendously good company and, clearly, a woman of strong character.
