T.T. Pioneers

The automobile of today owes much to what happened on a small island between 1904 and 1922. In an era when cars were regarded as noisy monstrosities of little value except as amusement for the rich, car tech¬nology was in its infancy and needed a challenge to encourage advancement, pressure to excite innovation, and a place where it could be tested - to destruction if necessary. The challenge came in racing over the most testing course imaginable. The pressure required changes in specifica¬tion for the cars that could race. This forced engineers into pioneering experi¬mentation. The place was the self-gov¬erning Isle of Man and the TT Circuit. This is the story of the early, pioneer¬ing days of the Car T.T. - the first race of its kind in the world. Men who bequeathed their names to motoring helped establish the founda¬tions of the British motor industry here. They included Rolls, Bentley, Austin, Girling, Thornycroft, Dennis, Clement, Brabazon, and Bianchi. They were adventurous, exciting and testing days - an era of risk-taking over rutted, muddy roads that exposed the host island to condemnation as 'The Isle of Manslaughter.' Yet without them, the modern car would never have developed as fast as it did. Within the pages of this book is told the story of the early TT events in 1904 to 1908, 1914, 1922, 1929 – 1992 and homecoming hopes (after they moved, to run the event on the Ards Circuit in Northern Ireland). Maps of the circuits and a wealth of period photographs help to bring the story alive, along with period artwork which highlights the condition in which the cars competed.