Motorsport · Britain · Competition association · not ownership

Stirling Moss

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR · no. 722 · W 196 S

Stirling Moss driving the silver Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR number 722 past spectators at Goodwood in 2015.
Stirling Moss driving the actual 1955 Mille Miglia-winning Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR no. 722 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 28, 2015, photographed by Edvvc.Photo: Edvvc · CC BY 2.0. Joyride serves the 3736 × 2102 Commons JPEG byte-for-byte. No crop, resize, retouching, generation or vehicle reconstruction; responsive presentation may crop displayed edges.
Stirling Moss in a 1957 identification portrait by Harry Pot for Anefo.
Stirling Moss1957 · Identification portraitHarry Pot / Anefo · CC0 1.0. Joyride crops an 820 × 1080 identification portrait from the 3504 × 2724 Dutch National Archives JPEG at x=1390, y=340, then JPEG-compresses at quality 96. The crop excludes the visible registration and is separate from the story’s car photograph. No generative alteration, retouching or vehicle reconstruction.

How a 7:22 start became three immortal red digits

Connection
Competition association · not ownership
When
Mille Miglia winner, May 1, 1955 · museum display documented April 22, 2025
Identity
Original 1955 Mille Miglia-winning Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR · W 196 S · start no. 722

At 7:22 a.m. on May 1, 1955, Stirling Moss and navigator Denis Jenkinson started the Mille Miglia in Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR number 722. Mercedes-Benz records their overall win in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, an average 157.6 km/h and a time never bettered before the original road race ended. The digits were a start time before they became a legend.

This is a competition association, not personal ownership. Mercedes-Benz identifies the original winning sports-racing car as a 300 SLR, internal series W 196 S, and names Moss and Jenkinson as its crew. Joyride does not turn Moss’s drive, later ambassador appearances or the affectionate wording ‘his 300 SLR’ into an ownership claim. Nor does this individual racer establish coverage of the roadgoing 300 SL family.

The same original no. 722 continued to appear in public history. Moss returned to a 300 SLR no. 722 on the Mille Miglia route in 2015, and Edvvc photographed him driving the exact winner at Goodwood that June. Mercedes-Benz sent the car through London for the 2021 tribute film The Last Blast, then described its return to a fixed place in the Mercedes-Benz Museum. An April 22, 2025 museum feature documents no. 722 in Legend Room 7; that is the latest custody evidence used here.

Documented custody

Where the car went next

  1. May 1, 1955The 7:22 start

    Moss and Jenkinson left Brescia in the W 196 S racing sports car whose start time supplied its number.

  2. 10:07:48 laterAn unbeaten Mille Miglia time

    Mercedes-Benz records an overall win at an average 157.6 km/h—the event’s enduring record.

  3. June 28, 2015Moss back in no. 722

    Edvvc photographed Moss driving the original winner at the Goodwood Festival of Speed; the licensed image shown here is that exact car.

  4. September–December 2021The Last Blast

    Mercedes-Benz drove the original through London for its Moss tribute film and recorded its return to the museum.

  5. April 22, 2025Museum display documented

    Mercedes-Benz’s museum feature places no. 722 in Legend Room 7. Joyride makes no later custody claim.

Follow the evidence

Sources for this story

Mercedes-Benz identifies the original W 196 S no. 722 as the 1955 Mille Miglia winner driven by Moss with Denis Jenkinson, records the 10:07:48 result, documents the 2021 London tribute and return to the museum, and places the car in Legend Room 7 on April 22, 2025. Edvvc’s licensed 2015 photograph shows that exact car in motion and identifies Moss as the driver. No personal ownership, chassis serial, road-car equivalence or later custody is claimed.

Reviewed

Why this is the actual car
  • Photo identity evidence

    Mercedes-Benz identifies no. 722 as the original W 196 S in which Moss and Jenkinson won the 1955 Mille Miglia.

  • Photo identity evidence

    Edvvc identifies the June 28, 2015 Goodwood photograph as the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR no. 722, records Moss as the driver and licenses the file CC BY 2.0.

The matching photographer, venue, date and vehicle history establish the identification; the chassis stamp is not visible in these photographs.