Most racing drivers feed-off the adrenaline pumping through their veins when the car is roaring down the race track, and adoring fans are spectating on the sidelines.

The glory that comes with being number one or setting a world record is not without danger and at times these hazards can be fatal.

Fortunately Top Gear’s Richard Hammond and motorsport racing legend Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss are two drivers who have lived to tell the tale of their horrific ordeals.

We went on a fact finding mission to get some interesting points about the crashes that changed these professional drivers’ lives.

Richard Hammond

• Richard Hammond’s dragster,  called Vampire, could clock speeds of 595 km/h, at the time of the accident he was travelling at 463 km/h.
• The accident occurred during an attempt to break the British land speed record.
• A tyre blow out was reported as the cause of the accident.
• As a result of his injuries Hammond suffered from memory loss and depression.
• After the crash was aired on Top Gear on 28 January 2007, the Hamster requested that his co-presenters never mention the accident again.

Sir Stirling Moss

• Stirling Moss became a professional driver in 1948, at age 18, racing a Cooper 500.
• His accident in 1962 left him in a coma for 38 days and partially paralyzed for six months.
• Moss retired from the sport the following year, he did not feel in control of the car he was most accustomed to, the Lotus 19. His fans were elated when he returned to racing at the British Touring Car Championship in 1980.
• While Richard Hammond primarily drives cars for fun on Top Gear, in a single year, F1 ace, Stirling Moss, participated in 62 races...
• Legend has it, that for many years after he retired, the rhetorical phrase "Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?" was the standard question all British policemen asked speeding motorists.

Sir Stirling Moss and Richard Hammond compare their battle scars on Hammond Meets Moss on BBC Knowledge, on Friday 13 July 2012 at 22:00.

(Source  Wikipedia, www.tv.com)