Pat Moss: rally driver
Hyfler/Rosner
October 18, 2008
Pat Moss: rally driver
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4964575.ece
No one made greater strides towards equality for women in
motor sport than Pat Moss. Not for her the mere satisfaction
of a shelf full of Coupe des Dames. She wanted to beat the
men, and she frequently did so.
Pat Moss was born in Thames Ditton in 1934. Her original
sport was showjumping and she had no encouragement to start
driving cars from her brother, Stirling, or from her
parents. However, when Stirling's manager, Ken Gregory,
invited Pat to go on a treasure hunt, she enjoyed it
immensely and fancied a go herself. She was soon competing
regularly in British rallies with her Morris Minor
convertible. The rallying had to be fitted in around the
showjumping, at which she was highly successful - indeed, it
was the prize-money from the showjumping that enabled her to
buy a Triumph TR2 in 1954.
For the 1955 RAC Rally she had her first works drive, an MG
TF. Ice and snow were problems that year, and she had to be
satisfied with third in the Ladies Class, but her name was
starting to appear on the special test times. Other drives
from BMC followed, and her first continental outing was to
the Tulip Rally in 1955 with an MG Magnette. She was given
an Austin A90 for the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally, in which she
finished 87th after a couple of brake failures and minor
accidents.
She drove an MGA on the 1956 RAC Rally, where she nearly won
the Ladies Class. Various rallies in Riley 1.5s followed
until 1957, when she drove a Minor 1000 on the Tulip Rally
and then took one on the Liège-Rome-Liège, finishing 23rd.
More astonishing was the RAC Rally of 1958 when she finished
fourth overall, won her class and the Ladies Award into the
bargain. Later that summer she took an MGA to the Rally to
the Midnight Sun in Sweden and met Erik Carlsson.
She started driving a Healey 100/6 and took a fourth place
on the Liège and led the Healey team to win the
Manufacturer's
Award. It was the first time that a lady driver had finished
in the top ten on that gruelling event, and the points
gained assured her of the Ladies European Champion title.
Then for 1959 it was back to an Austin A40 for tenth overall
on the Monte Carlo and a Riley 1.5 on the Sestriere before
taking a Healey 3000 to the German Rally and tying for first
place with Carlsson's Saab.
In 1960 she drove big Healeys again, coming eighth on both
the Geneva and Tulip rallies, second on the Coupe des Alpes,
followed almost at once by an outright win on the Liège.
This was a stunning achievement, regardless of her gender,
and it elevated Moss to superstar status in the rallying
world. The year finished with an outing at the RAC Rally,
where she would have been fourth but for a time-card error.
The year 1961 was less dramatic but she did take a Healey to
second place at the RAC and then, bravely, took one to
Corsica where, against all the odds, she finished 16th. She
also decided to buy her own rally car, and bought a Saab 96
on advice from Carlsson. When he got a free entry on the
Safari by winning the RAC Rally, she took her car to Africa
and finished third on her first attempt at that difficult
event. Back in Europe and in a Mini Cooper, she won the
Tulip and German rallies, while in a Healey she was second
in Poland, and third on the Coupe des Alpes and RAC rallies.
She then accepted Ford's tempting offer to rally its new
Cortina in 1963, but the best result all year was sixth on
the Acropolis Rally. She and Carlsson were married in March
of that year, and towards the end of the season Ford tried
to sign Erik for 1964. However, when he decided to stay at
Saab, Moss left Ford and joined him there.
In 1964 the two-stroke Saab was past its zenith but you
would never have known it to see Mr and Mrs Carlsson driving
them. She rarely failed to finish and was rarely placed
outside the top ten. In four years with Saab, she was third
on the Acropolis, and fourth on both the Liège-Sofia-Liège
and RAC Rally, all in 1964, third on the savage Monte Carlo
of 1965, and third on the Czech Rally of 1967 in the new
Saab 96 V4. This heavier car was not to everyone's liking
and, with Erik retiring to a company PR job, Moss decided to
accept an offer from Lancia to drive a Fulvia Coupé in 1968.
On the Monte Carlo she finished 14th, but in San Remo she
was second overall and won the Sestriere Rally outright. In
1969 she took a Fulvia to sixth overall on the Monte Carlo
and drove in such famous road races as the Targa Florio. The
birth of her daughter then rather distracted her from
rallying and, though she made the occasional appearance, she
had effectively retired at the start of the 1970s. Moss
wrote two books: The Story so Far (1967), a memoir, and
(with her husband) The Art and Technique of Driving (1965).
In the two decades of her career she had shown unequivocally
that, where speed and stamina counted, there was every
reason that a woman driver could succeed against the men.
Certainly to the male drivers of that golden period, she was
a genuine rival.
In the 1980s Moss's interest in showjumping and horses in
general was rekindled as her daughter showed aptitude in
that direction. Soon horseboxes and estate cars had totally
ousted any thought of rally cars in the Moss-Carlsson
homestead outside Tring. But to the rally world Pat Moss
will remain an icon indicating that skill, endurance and
determination are the true measures of a rally driver's
ability.
Moss is survived by her husband, Erik Carlsson, and her
daughter, Suzy.
Pat Moss-Carlsson, rally driver, was born on December 27,
1934. She died after a long illness on October 14, 2008,
aged 73