A CENTURY OF SPEED AT THE TT

WRITER AND VINCENT enthusiast David Wright has made his home on motorcycling’s Mecca, the Isle of Man where, for more than 100 years the world’s best motorcycle racers have pitted themselves against the gruelling 37¾ mile TT course.

The TT represents perhaps the greatest challenge that the sport of motorcycle racing can offer. David’s new book, Speed at the TT Races, tells the history of the races, from yesterday’s heroes riding the earliest single-cylinder, belt-driven machines with outputs of under 10bhp, to those coping with today’s sophisticated four-cylinder machines giving well over 200bhp.

Top names in road racing – Collier, Wood, Duke, Hailwood, Agostini, Hislop, Jefferies, McGuinness, Hutchinson and the Dunlop dynasty – have all considered the pursuit of a Tourist Trophy to be their ultimate goal. Generations of riders have risked their lives to satisfy the desire to go faster than the next man and win a TT. In the process they have lifted lap speeds by almost 100mph. Exactly how that huge increase has been achieved is told in this book, which contains more than 200 photos from the earliest days of the TT to the current scene. Speed at the TT Races costs £25 and is available from The Crowood Press. Visit crowood.com

For the rest of this story and more, buy the August issue of CBG