At the Swedish Sports Car Grand Prix at Kristianstadt on August 7, Stirling was lying second in the 300 SLR Mercedes, having waved team leader Fangio past, when something smashed his goggles and hit him on the forehead, cutting him quite badly. He continued the race - he and Fangio clocking equal fastest lap - with Stirling finishing just 3/10th second behind the maestro. Afterwards he went to the hospital to have some metal removed from his left eye. He still went to the dinner dance in the evening though!

During the month, Stirling’s name was linked with several attractive girls, and he was rumoured to be engaged to Jean Clarke (Miss Televisual) and American TV star, Claudia Hall. Sally Weston, whose real name was Jennifer Clare Tollitt, was also a friend of his and, when she disappeared for three weeks, this triggered a ‘Three Nation Hunt’ involving Interpol and Scotland Yard.

Stirling had a bad start at the Goodwood Nine Hours as a result, according to Autosport, of him stalling the Porsche but after about six hours he was laying 1st in class and 4th overall. However, an hour later “Crook [Tony Crook of Bristol fame] spun off & came back & hit me whilst I had 7 laps lead”. He walked back to the pits, fuming!