Isle of Man, the real greatest spectle in racing.

[Bob Riebe]

One of the last of the- for the brave only- races is in full swing right now.
I gotta get there one of these days, by hook or by crook.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

spectacle

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Spectacle

[inimitablestoo]

At those speeds it shakes a couple of letters out ;)

Always great to watch though, and ITV4 really goes to town with the programmes these days - considering it doesn't hold the live TV rights, anyway.

[driveace]

Only for the guys with very large testicles ,me thinks !!
One guy killed today,and two yesterday (sidecar racers)

[Bob Riebe]

SpectacleYou are absolutely correct sir, there is a reason I committed that fubar error, but no excuse.

[Malbec]

Must see TT3D closer to the edge....

[airshifter]

I've always wondered if there are any great places to view if you go in person. Has anyone here been? It just seems as though with the course being so long it would be similar to many rally viewing spots... you wait and then watch a vehicle or two fly by... and then wait some more.

The coverage we get here in the US (through Verizon anyway) is limited but of excellent quality.


On my bucket list regardless. :)

[Zeakiwi]

Steel cojones definitely. IOMTT is one of the few places to see road racing motorcycles jumping with both wheels well off the ground like a Motocross motorcycle.
Fast as any racetrack with lamp posts and stone walls etc each side of the road.

[Daniel]

I've always wondered if there are any great places to view if you go in person. Has anyone here been? It just seems as though with the course being so long it would be similar to many rally viewing spots... you wait and then watch a vehicle or two fly by... and then wait some more.

The coverage we get here in the US (through Verizon anyway) is limited but of excellent quality.


On my bucket list regardless. :)

Rallying is always going to be a different spectator experience than track racing of course, the spectacular action makes up for the fact that you only see the car/bike once :)

[airshifter]

Rallying is always going to be a different spectator experience than track racing of course, the spectacular action makes up for the fact that you only see the car/bike once :)

I can agree that such racing is still worth watching, but if you can find vantage points to see more of the racing area it's better still. Though I haven't seen any upper echelon rally racing, I've seen a number of big off road races such as the Baja races. Going off the beaten path and making a longer morning drive can often net some spectacular viewing areas. Much like rally it is really a time trial, but when you get several vehicles in view at a time you can get a better idea of the times the vehicles are running.

And for the record, some of the fanatics in Mexico make the average rally spectators seem like safety concerned wimps. Those people are seriously insane. :laugh:

[Daniel]

I can agree that such racing is still worth watching, but if you can find vantage points to see more of the racing area it's better still. Though I haven't seen any upper echelon rally racing, I've seen a number of big off road races such as the Baja races. Going off the beaten path and making a longer morning drive can often net some spectacular viewing areas. Much like rally it is really a time trial, but when you get several vehicles in view at a time you can get a better idea of the times the vehicles are running.

And for the record, some of the fanatics in Mexico make the average rally spectators seem like safety concerned wimps. Those people are seriously insane. :laugh:

Believe me I've stood in some pretty fantastic places which were perhaps not quite the safest ;)

[Bob Riebe]

This little bit from the TT website forum is an interesting little bit: Forums - The official Isle of Man TT website (http://www.iomtt.com/Home/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=246278)

[Andrewmcm]

I watch the TT coverage on ITV4 staring mainly in disbelief. Those guys really do have a severe lack of imagination.

[MrJan]

I can agree that such racing is still worth watching, but if you can find vantage points to see more of the racing area it's better still. Though I haven't seen any upper echelon rally racing, I've seen a number of big off road races such as the Baja races. Going off the beaten path and making a longer morning drive can often net some spectacular viewing areas. Much like rally it is really a time trial, but when you get several vehicles in view at a time you can get a better idea of the times the vehicles are running.

And for the record, some of the fanatics in Mexico make the average rally spectators seem like safety concerned wimps. Those people are seriously insane. :laugh:

Try watching some clips from rallies in Portugal in the '80s for some really mad spectators. As opposed to the ones from Mexico more recently that seem to like throwing rocks at cars :(

If you want to see see more of the course then there are 37 miles to choose from on the TT ;) But with the commentary/radio you can always know who's going quickly anyway, plus the fact that they leave in number order at 10 second intervals, so if number 6 comes into view with number 5 you know that he's actually 10 seconds up :) But as someone that's grown up with rallying I prefer making my own decisions on who looks quick through where I'm watching, it's amazing how often someone looks slow but actually wins the stage.

[Daniel]

Just watching some coverage now. Those guys have massive balls.....

[MrJan]

Michael Dunlop should be certified, all the other guys sit up (probably still doing 100mph+) and he went past them like they were stood still.

[Bob Riebe]

Senior top finishers

1 1 John McGuinness 999cc Honda / TT Legends 01 45 45.80 128.426 Silver
2 3 Guy Martin 1000cc Suzuki / Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing 01 45 53.00 128.281 Silver
3 5 Bruce Anstey 999cc Honda / Padgetts Motorcycles 01 46 01.50 128.109 Silver
4 6 Cameron Donald 1000cc Honda / Wilson Craig Racing 01 46 54.00 127.061 Silver
5 2 Keith Amor 999cc Honda / TT Legends 01 46 55.06 127.040 Silver
6 9 Michael Dunlop 1000cc Kawasaki / Street Sweep 01 47 27.35 126.404 Silver

John McGuinness has not lost a step.

I do not know if he is related but I think I will run down to the brewski store and buy a six-pack of Irish stout in his honor.

[GridGirl]

I've just been reading an article with Guy Martin in MBR magazine. He lives in a rented house, owns a 2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage and currently holds 21 points on his driving licence. The mans a lucky boy in being allowed to keep his driving licence let alone race in the TT. :rolleyes:

[MrJan]

Shopping list
New pants


WGcS8YD9fpw

[Daniel]

Shopping list
New pants


WGcS8YD9fpw

Wowsers.....

[Mark in Oshawa]

Wowsers.....

Wowsers, can someone please pass me a gun, I need to play something safe like Russian Roulette!

This guy should buy a lottery ticket......

[Bob Riebe]

The Irish Times

DEREK BRIEN is the third. This year, he’s the third. The 36-year-old died at the mystically named Gorse Lea. They often do die somewhere beautifully named. Snaefell Mountain, Rhencullen, Stonebreakers Hut. Ballaugh Bridge. Greeba Castle. Lambfell Cottage. Peaceful names, remote places, sometimes on a majestic sweep of mountain with nothing but the stone walls and greenery. Laurel Bank. Gob-o-Geay. Glentramman.

Brien’s tragedy is piled high on the list of names of those who have perished at the Isle of Man TT and again brings us to one of the most defiant pieces of rock on the planet. Like Everest the island accepts the riders every year and every year it takes a few. The unofficial list now is 234 deaths, not including officials or spectators. Everest’s appetite is just short of that and lists vary but one estimate stops at 216 deaths with around 150 bodies still on the mountain.

Within a month Brien’s crash brings together two Irish people that died for the sports that thrilled them. On May 21st John Delaney failed to come down the mountain, the added anguish to his family being that his body remains in the Everest ice near the summit. Perhaps there is a strange comfort in that, and also for the family of Brien. What consumed both was more than a dalliance with the intrinsic appeal of danger but a relationship, familiar and natural, one that gave enormous pleasure.

The Isle of Man TT is as stunning a spectacle as you will ever see. It is a place where mortality is force fed, where the riders appear to go too fast into bends but somehow come out the far side, where they rear out of the seat to use their bodies as air brakes, smash into birds at 180mph, hit sticks on the road, find slippery bits of white line on hairpin bends. It is the community as much as the sports themselves that are the attraction.

Extreme bike racing and mountaineering are lifestyles and asking people to stop contributing to the body count is to ask them to change their lives because of our own buttoned-up sensibilities and infatuation with living safe and long. It is to say that doing one thing with a life is better than another. In that debate the bravery and the tragic clarity of choice of Brien and Delaney seems a creditable one to take."

[markabilly]

Sad to hear. Very dangerous


Never knew much about the TT, until discovery channel---NOT Speed---started showing reruns from the BBC in high def a number of years ago.

Love at first sight........incredible.

[slinkster]

Must see TT3D closer to the edge....

Did you go to see it?

I took my other half and although it's not something I've ever paid much attention to- I was thoroughly gripped by the film. Learnt a bit too much about Guy Martin's pre race habits... but a thoroughly brilliant film. Moving and thrilling in equal measures. It's given me the thirst to get into more bike racing... Not sure if I could hold it together to go to the actual thing... I hate seeing crashes in four wheeled motor racing, let alone two!

[Daniel]

Sad to hear. Very dangerous


Never knew much about the TT, until discovery channel---NOT Speed---started showing reruns from the BBC in high def a number of years ago.

Love at first sight........incredible.
I think it's more or less impossible not to be amazed by the TT.

[BDunnell]

I think it's more or less impossible not to be amazed by the TT.

Nor, indeed, the spectacle of four-wheeled motorsport on the Isle of Man either.

[Daniel]

Nor, indeed, the spectacle of four-wheeled motorsport on the Isle of Man either.

Sadly the coverage isn't as easy to come by.....

This however is just fantastic, looks such a balanced car :)
0OtLVgVZpSo

[BDunnell]

Sadly the coverage isn't as easy to come by.....

My favourite ever was Tony Pond on the 1984 Manx International in the Group A Rover Vitesse. Sadly, the version of the ITV coverage on YouTube (see YouTube - ‪The 1984 Manx Rally‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pCbU6IljXA)) is very edited and doesn't show all the in-car footage. It was sensational. He worked the car so hard he boiled the fluid in the power steering pump...

[Daniel]

Nice! I've changed the video link above btw, it's not a minute or so longer :D

[BDunnell]

Nice! I've changed the video link above btw, it's not a minute or so longer :D

Splendid stuff. Of course, if you were a talented enough driver, it was possible to be spectacular on those roads in a two-litre hatchback. Pentti at his best...

YouTube - ‪Manx Rally 1987‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZT8FNGIv5c)
YouTube - ‪Manx Rally 1987 pt 2‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3lbTdnjrZY)
YouTube - ‪Manx rally 1987 pt 3‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe-7jEf7Xy4)

[Daniel]

Please stop!!!! I'm already nostalgic enough for the 80's after watching a few episodes tonight of Michael Palin's Around the world in 80 days.

[BDunnell]

Please stop!!!! I'm already nostalgic enough for the 80's after watching a few episodes tonight of Michael Palin's Around the world in 80 days.

One word to get you out of that reverie: Thatcher.

[Daniel]

I didn't live in the UK at the time so to me she's just some bint with weird hair who was on the news most nights. Apparently she wasn't for turning, though I didn't know this at the time.

[BDunnell]

She may not have been for turning, but I think she may soon be for burning.

[MrJan]

Has anyone seen the clip of Miggins having a moment at the bottom of Bray Hill in a scooby? Described it as "the biggest moment of my life". Also I think it said in the Motoring News that he did a lap time of 115mph, which ain't bad for 4 wheels, extra weight and a lower top speed than the bikes.

[Robinho]

i remember the year Dave Metcalfe in a 1.6 Nova GTE finished 4th on the Manx against much more powerful opposition, would love to see some footage of this

[Robinho]

yeah, pistonheads have it on, plus on youtube, incredible save