As one of Britain’s best-loved racing drivers, Sir Stirling Moss might be used to the power and performance of single-seat and Le Mans racers – but he’s just taken delivery of a new car that’s rather less potent. 

Complete with his ‘SM 7’ personalised numberplate, Sir Stirling’s new ride is none other than a Twizy, Renault’s two-seat electric city car with looks described at best as extrovert, and at worst as… well we’ll leave it up to you. 

But Sir Stirling rather rates his latest acquisition. “There are couple of big benefits of having a car like this,” he says. “First of all, it has two seats, so I can take somebody with me. There's no congestion charge, you can park nose into the pavement, or even in a metered bay without being charged. 

“Also it's quiet and the battery charge lasts for about 50 miles, so I think it's ideal as a city car. It wouldn't be so good in the country, where you have to drive 15 miles to get anywhere and still get back.”

But not content with having a stand-out runaround, Sir Stirling’s gone one better and souped up his example with aftermarket Bilstein suspension – normally the preserve of boy racers who want to make their cars stiffer so that they handle better. But in Sir Stirling’s case, the opposite was true. 

“I simply asked them to improve the chassis any way they saw fit. I told them about the stiffness of the original suspension and the number of potholes and cobblestone streets and hoped they would be able to help me not get shaken like hell. 

“Now it's completely, completely different. You don't notice the alterations so much in the front but on the back it's made a real difference.”

Sir Stirling’s completed the personalisation of his Twizy with a rather bright shade of green paintwork, some aftermarket window vents, and of course, his personalised numberplate. 

It might not be the sort of thing the majority of the public associate him with, but Sir Stirling actually has a history of pottering around London in small city cars. 

In fact, the car that wore his ‘SM 7’ numberplate before the Twizy was his previous runaround, an Aston Martin Cygnet.

Source: The Telegraph