A DRIVING legend will be racing today in a rare 55- year-old car that has been restored in a North-East village.

Sir Stirling Moss, 79, sent the OSCA MT4 – built by the Maserati Brothers, in Italy – to have its bodywork renovated at David Royle’s vehicle workshop in Staindrop, near Barnard Castle.

It took three months to put the badly-damaged vehicle back into its original shape.

The famous driver will be competing in the Gentleman Drivers GT race at Brands Hatch, in Kent.

Roger Tyrrell, workshop manager, said: “Sir Stirling was absolutely charming when he telephoned asking us to do the work and, once it started, he called several more times to check on its progress.

“He took a great interest all along the way and was excited about competing at Brands Hatch.”

Sir Stirling was knighted for his services to motor sport. He won 194 races, including 16 Formula One grand prix. He has officially retired, but still enjoys taking part in special races.

He will be 80 in September.

Mr Tyrrell said: “It is remarkable to think that he and his car will have a combined age of 135 years.

“He told us he won the 1954 Sebring 24-hour race in a similar OSCA car. He wanted one for a long time and eventually found this one in very poor condition in Italy. Only a few of the model were made, so this one must be extremely rare. There can be very few left in the world.”

Sir Stirling said he wanted as much of the OSCA’s original aluminium bodywork as possible to be retained, but some sections of it were so badly damaged that they had to be remade and welded in.

A specialist company restored the 1500cc engine and another firm is respraying the bodywork deep red in time for the race, Mr Tyrrell said: “Though the engine is fairly small, the car is so light that it can do 140mph. Some of those he beat in the 24-hour race had much bigger engines. I’m sure he will be going all out to win at Brands Hatch.”

■ OSCA stands for Officine Specializzate Construzioni Automobili.