BMW, DPX 653. Moss was one of the Cooper Car Company's first customers, using winnings from competing in horse-riding events to pay the deposit on a Cooper 500 in 1948. He then persuaded his father, who opposed his son's racing career and wanted him to become a dentist, to let him buy it. He soon demonstrated his natural talent and ability with numerous wins at both the national and international levels, and continued to compete in Formula Three, with Coopers and Kiefts, after he had progressed to more senior categories. His first major international race victory came on the eve of his 21st birthday at the wheel of a Jaguar XK120 in the 1950 RAC Tourist Trophy in Northern Ireland. He went on to win the race six more times, in 1951 (with a Jaguar C-Type), 1955 (with a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR), 1958 and 1959 (with an Aston Martin DBR1), and 1960 and 1961 (with a Ferrari 250 GT). Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, approached Moss and offered him a Formula Two car to drive at the 1951 Bari Grand Prix before a full-season in 1952. Moss and his father went to Apulia only to find out that the Ferrari car was to be driven by Piero Taruffi and were incensed. Also a competent rally driver, Moss was one of three people to have won a Coupe d'Or for three consecutive penalty-free runs on the Alpine Rally. He finished second in the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally; driving a Sunbeam-Talbot 90 with Desmond Scannell and John Cooper as his co-drivers. In 1954, he became the first non-American to win the 12 Hours of Sebring, sharing the Cunningham team's 1.5-liter O.S.C.A. MT4 with Bill Lloyd. In 1953 Mercedes-Benz racing boss Alfred Neubauer had spoken to Moss's manager, Ken Gregory, about the possibility of Moss's joining Mercedes. Having seen him do well in a relatively uncompetitive car, and wanting to see how he would perform in a better one, Neubauer suggested that Moss buy a Maserati for the 1954 season. He bought a Maserati 250F, and although the car's unreliability prevented him from scoring high amounts of points in the 1954 Drivers' Championship, he qualified alongside the Mercedes front runners several times and performed well in the races. He achieved his first Formula One victory when he won the Oulton Park International Gold Cup. In the Italian Grand Prix he passed both drivers