inside of Stirling Moss' Mayfair home seemed to feature heavily in this kind of book. Another book I own, 'Future World' (which has dozens of Atari 2600 screenshots in the inside front and back covers), has a profile of it as well. It's filled with switches to control windows, air conditioning, coffee machines and whatnot, and the bath, too, which Moss likes to be '104 degrees' precisely. As this was 1983, the book doesn't need to say '104 degrees fahrenheit', because centigrade was perhaps a bit too hi-tech. A remote-controlled bath seems like an odd anachronism nowadays. Showers are now much more common. Perhaps Moss liked to hire prostitutes and slowly boil them from afar, I don't know.

The LP with the dotty cover next to the ultra-cool reel-to-reel tape machine is called 'Persuasive Percussion'. It was released in 1959 and consisted of easy-listening songs arranged in a percussive style by Enoch Light. Nowadays it is still available on CD and is an easy-listening lounge music classic, although in 1983 it would have been laughable. The reel-to-reel was probably fantastically expensive at the time, and I should imagine it would fetch quite a lot of money nowadays. The video recorder has a certain nostalgia value and the record player might also be quite valuable if it's by Linn or somebody similar, but I can't see the television fetching much. Moss himself is well-preserved; apart from grey hair, he looks much the same nowadays as he did in 1983.

Stirling Moss, on designing the complex electrical system that powers the gadgets:
"I quite literally walked into the answer to my problems when I entered the magnificent Beverly Hills home of Steve McQueen."
Like Paul Newman, McQueen was an actor also famous for being a race-car enthusiast. Unlike Newman, McQueen never turned professional, and didn't run a racing team. During the mid-70s Keith Moon lived next door to Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw in Beverly Hills, and at one point he was revived from a drugs overdose by Larry Hagman, his other neighbour, who later went on to play J R Ewing in Dallas.This is absolutely true. Whether Stirling Moss ever met Keith Moon is undocumented. Moon would have loved Moss' house. He would have played with the gadgets until they broke.

Stirling Moss (now a Sir) is a very famous British racing driver, although nobody under the age of sixty remembers him actually racing. If the police stop you for speeding, they will ask you if you think you are Stirling Moss; the correct response is 'No, officer', to which the officer will reply 'So why were you going at 120mph?'. If you actually are Stirling Moss, the correct answer is 'As a matter of fact, I am, officer', to which the officer will reply 'Well, you might be able to go that fast on a racetrack, but not on public roads. You should know that, Mr Moss. I must say, I'm very disappointed. Can I have your autograph?'

Speeding. It's a mug's game. Don't do it.

I don't know if Stirling Moss still lives in his hi-tech home, or if has moved. If the latter, it would be interesting to know whether the current owner has ripped the electronics out.