Walker had underwritten the stretching of Coventry Climax’s FPF ‘four’ to 1960cc in 1957 and Moss asked if he could use it in the Argentine GP after Vanwall declared itself unready for 1958’s mandatory use of Av-gas fuel. Walker’s laissez faire response ‘If Alf can do it…’ was met in the affirmative and history was made when Moss, despite wearing a patch over an injured eye and patches of canvas showing through his Continental tyres, upstaged Ferrari to score the first world championship GP victory for a car with its engine behind the driver.
Over the next four-and-a-bit seasons Moss and Walker would win almost half of their 100 starts across F1, F2, the Intercontinental Formula, Tasman and GT races. Among them were: the maiden GP wins for Cooper (as per previous paragraph) and Lotus; the only F1 win for a four-wheel drive car – Ferguson’s P99 at the 1961 Oulton Park Gold Cup; consecutive RAC TT wins at Goodwood; victories by an entire lap; victories in F2 for Porsche; Moss’s final victory; and his self-proclaimed finest. How they won and whom they beat, however, were as important to these overachieving underdogs.
Walker was swift to dip into his pocket to ensure that Moss had the best at his disposal, but privateer status and clashing fuel affiliations – they were with BP whereas Lotus boss Colin Chapman was with Esso – meant that theirs was not always the best of the best. That, though, suited Moss’s battling mindset and his defeat of a shoal of ‘Sharknose’ Ferraris at Monaco in 1961 in a year-old Lotus with a deficit of power was the summit of his powers. Two months later, modifications to his Lotus more cosmetic than fundamental, he had the identifying marks of Dunlop’s ‘green spot’ wet painted out before beating the circling Ferraris in a wet-dry-wet German GP at the Nürburgring. This after conning Enzo’s men that he planned to make a pit stop during the 1959 Italian GP at Monza – Moss had had ‘knock-off’ wire wheels fitted to the rear of his Cooper – before running non-stop to victory.
And the insouciant Moss kept abreast of his own serene progress in the 1960 RAC TT by listening to BBC’s commentary – as well as musical interludes – on the radio fitted in the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta run by Walker for Dick Wilkins. There were bumps in this gilded road, of course: badly cut gears cost Moss the 1959 world title; a wheel fell off his Lotus during practice at Spa in 1960 and cost him a bust nose, legs and back plus two months’ recuperation and another possible title; and a rare spat over preparation that was forgotten within hours and followed the next day by victory in the 1960 United States GP at Riverside.