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Tourist Trophy review: Tourist Trophy

Tourist Trophy is (almost) the Gran Turismo of the motorcycle kingdom. That's no surprise really because it's also made by the crew at Polyphony Digital.

It's been the better part of a decade since the original Gran Turismo redefined racing on consoles, but Polyphony Digital has finally moved into the realm of two-wheeled racing with Tourist Trophy. The game maintains the compulsive drive for authenticity that the Gran Turismo series is known for, but with a much narrower focus. So while it may just be Gran Turismo with motorcycles, it's still a great racing game in its own right.

Tourist Trophy

The bottom line.

There are a tonne of motorcycles to choose from, and they all look and sound great

There are more than 120 motorcycles to ride in Tourist Trophy. The selection of bikes is very Japan-centric, with Hondas, Yamahas, and Suzukis making up the vast majority of the roster. There are a few bikes from BMW, Ducati, and Triumph as well, but the selection is limited in that regard. The motorcycles range from lightweight 125cc two-strokes to heavy 1,000cc-plus bikes. The variety is somewhat limited by the fact that you'll often see multiple versions of the same model of bike.

Regardless of how similar the bikes may be, they all have a distinct look, sound, and feel. The detail on the bikes matches what you've come to expect from Polyphony Digital, with everything from the gas tank to the oil pan being accurately detailed for each and every motorcycle. The only fault is that the over-the-handlebars view is pretty ugly. Each bike has a distinct display in this view, but the handlebars and rearview mirrors have a blurry, pasted-on look. All in all, though, the game looks great, and if you're a motorcycle enthusiast, you'll enjoy watching the replays of the races almost as much as you'll enjoy racing.

The bikes in Tourist Trophy are just as satisfying to ride as they are to look at. Each motorcycle handles differently, requiring you to adjust your riding style depending on the bike you're riding. The heavy bikes are great for speed but can be tough to stay on top of in tight turns. The lighter bikes are quick and nimble but don't have the power to keep up in the straight sections. Everything from the way a bike starts to shake as you hit speeds of 300km/h or more to the sound of wind rushing past your helmet as you top out in a straightaway makes you feel like you're teetering between a record-setting lap and a pelvis-shattering spill across the pavement. However, the crashes are the weakest part of the riding experience. In a standard race, if you really mess up and smash straight into a wall, you'll be slapped with a 10-second penalty, but most of the time when you take a spill you'll be instantly placed back on the track, sometimes even ahead of where you wiped out. You might lose a second or two as you get back up to speed, but it hardly seems like much of a penalty for a crash that would seemingly cost you the race, if not more.

Tourist Trophy is composed of two main modes: arcade and Tourist Trophy. Arcade mode is the place to go if you're just looking for a timed run, a quick race against up to three computer-controlled opponents, or a two-player split-screen race. Tourist Trophy mode is the equivalent of a career mode, where you start out by earning a licence and then work your way through various racing events and challenges to access new bikes and more challenges. It's similar to Gran Turismo mode in concept, but with some significant differences.

There's no money in Tourist Trophy mode, which means you don't have to repeat the same race 20 times to save up for that bike you've had your eye on

For one, there's no money in Tourist Trophy mode. You earn new bikes not by amassing wealth, but by winning challenges and race events. There are dozens of challenges to choose from, but they are locked according to the licences you've completed. The licence tests are extremely easy, though, so you might as well finish them all first thing to get them out of the way. Each challenge corresponds to a specific motorcycle, which you win by completing that challenge. The challenges are all pretty much the same, requiring you to overtake an opponent after starting at a disadvantage and then maintain the lead for 10 seconds or cross the finish line, whichever comes first. Some of the challenges can be completed in less than 30 seconds, but others can be quite difficult, especially because you're disqualified if you leave the track, wreck, or cause your opponents to wreck. Since these challenges are all available as soon as you complete the licence tests, you can conceivably pack your garage with a couple of dozen bikes after just a few hours of playing.

The best bikes are awarded for completing race events. There are 22 race events to start out with, but you can unlock several more by winning championship events. The events are all themed, and most are restricted to specific types of bikes. There are events designed around specific bike models, eras, and sizes. Most of the events are single, three-lap races where you're awarded for each individual race. There are also a handful of championship events where points are awarded for each race and the person with the most points at the end of the series is the champion. Most of the events aren't punishingly difficult, and they're short enough that they can be completed (or repeated, if necessary) relatively quickly.

The second major difference between Tourist Trophy and Gran Turismo is in the vehicle customisation. In Tourist Trophy you can tune your motorcycles by adjusting the gear ratio, brakes, shocks, tyre compound, and exhaust. But the tuning is extremely basic and is nowhere near as involved as in Gran Turismo. With that said, the tuning does make a big difference in how each bike handles, so it still pays to tweak your bike settings before each race. There are also no part upgrades in Tourist Trophy, so if your bike is underpowered, it will stay that way. All in all, the bike customisation leaves a lot to be desired in Tourist Trophy.

Oddly enough, the rider customisation is surprisingly robust. You can win all sorts of licensed riding gear from manufacturers such as Alpine Star, Shoei, and Arai. You can also customise your riding style to suit your needs. You can adjust everything from head roll to body lean, and the riding style you choose can make a big difference in how you're able to handle turns.

You'll see quite a variety of turns as well. Some are fast and exhilarating, while others demand hard braking and precise timing. There are more than 30 courses in all, although some of those courses are simply alternate arrangements of the same race track. The courses all look great, and there's plenty of variety to challenge every facet of your racing skills. The only problem is that all but one of the courses are recycled from the Gran Turismo games, so it will feel like well-worn territory if you've played those games. It's still a very different experience on two wheels, though, and all the courses feel well suited to motorcycle racing.

You've seen these courses before, but not from this perspective

In fact, the challenge comes almost entirely from the course, rather than from the competition. The artificial intelligence in the game is very mechanical. The opponents you face will occasionally take corners a bit slower than necessary, but you'll almost never see them take a corner wide and dump their bikes in the gravel or oversteer and take a spill coming out of a turn. The result is a race that feels more like a time trial than a heated sprint for the finish line. The biggest component of victory is the bike you choose to ride. If you're on an underpowered bike, you won't stand much of a chance of catching up, no matter how good you are. But, if you have a fast bike, you can easily compensate for sloppy cornering with quick acceleration and a high top speed.

Tourist Trophy feels very familiar, but at the same time it doesn't just feel like motorcycles were forced into a Gran Turismo game. The motorcycles all look and handle great, and there are plenty of events, challenges, and courses to keep you coming back for more. If you're even slightly interested in the world of motorcycles, you'll find a lot to enjoy in Tourist Trophy.

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Tourist Trophy – Review

Playstation 2, review by kamikazekyle.

Reviewed: 04/12/2006

A Physics Engine in a Box

• Rating:   6

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Tourist Trophy: The Real Riding Simulator Review

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Tourist Trophy has been hailed as the Gran Turismo of the motorbike world, but that’s a rather lofty claim. Gran Turismo isn’t for everyone, but it’s undoubtedly one of the premier driving (see what I did? Not racing) franchises available. For Tourist Trophy to match Gran Turismo it would have to be very impressive indeed. While it comes close – this is from Polyphony Digital after all – it falls short in a few areas.

Before you read any further it’s worth noting that unless you’re a fan of driving simulations and bikes, this isn’t for you. While Tourist Trophy might not model riding a bike 100 per cent accurately, it’s by no means an arcade-style riding model, with real care and attention needed if you’re going to make it around a corner. The fact that it’s bikes and not cars simply ramps up the difficulty another notch, as pulling off the perfect lap in a bike is very different to screaming around a track in your souped up Nissan Skyline.

With that little warning out of the way, Tourist Trophy is an impressive game. You can ride over 120 bikes on more than 30 courses (although this includes slight variations of the same courses) and there’s a substantial Tourist Trophy mode to work your way through. Rather than competing in events for cash, you compete to win bikes, either through race events or challenges. The race events are pretty self explanatory, but the challenges are a little different. You’ll generally have to maintain a certain lead over another rider for a set period of time or until you cross the finishing line. With your rider often starting some considerable distance behind the target, these challenges can be very tough, especially as slight slip-ups will end the challenge – crash, cause your opponent to crash or come off the track, and it’s challenge over.

Before you even start the quest to complete all the events and challenges that the game offers, you’ll need to prove yourself in the riding license tests. For anyone remotely interested in bikes, the first two licenses are formalities, but the two more advanced set of tests take a little more effort. Bike riding experts will no doubt pass with flying colours, but for the rest of us the latter tests will be a real struggle. You don’t have to pass all four licences to compete in events, but you will have to pass them all eventually, so tackling them all at the start isn’t a bad way to go about it. It’ll also set you up well for the races ahead.

I’ve used ‘race’ numerous times already, but in truth the racing is Tourist Trophy’s weakest aspect. Your opponents don’t exhibit much in the way of human-like AI, and tend to stick to the racing line at all times, occasionally taking a corner slower than usual, but never taking a risk and taking a corner too wide. The Gran Turismo games are the same in this respect, and because of this you more often than not feel like you’re in a time trial with other riders on the track, rather than a proper race. The sense of riding a bike at high speed is great, with the high-end bikes starting to shake when they hit their top speed, but as a racing experience Tourist Trophy is very disappointing.

Tinkerers will be glad that a certain amount of tuning can be performed on the bikes, and that your riding style can be tweaked, with both having an affect on how the bike handles. Even so, the tweaking isn’t as detailed as you’ll see in Gran Turismo 4 and you can’t upgrade your bikes with new parts. One of the most pleasing parts to the Gran Turismo games was being able to take your cheap Skyline and spend a fortune on parts to turn it into a beast. With money not being a part of the Tourist Trophy mode, upgrades would have had to be won, but it would still have been preferable to bikes not being upgradeable at all.

The Tourist Trophy mode isn’t all the game has to offer. If you just want to take to the track and compete against AI racers, the Arcade mode lets you get right into the action. Two players can also compete against each other via split-screen. With the Gran Turismo games lacking online play, it’s not surprising that online play isn’t present here either, but it’s still disappointing. Bike aficionados will be pleased to see that the photo mode from GT4 is also available in Tourist Trophy, so you can take snaps of your beauties for everyone to see. The lack of bike customisation sadly makes this feature less worthwhile than it was in GT4, though, as the bikes don’t feel like your own creations.

Technically the game looks and sounds great. This is pretty much Gran Turismo 4, but with bikes, so its technical prowess is hardly surprising. One downside to this is that most of the tracks have previously been seen in the Gran Turismo series. They look great, but long-time fans might find them a little too familiar. Bike sounds are equally as good, and the soundtrack is fitting, if not spectacular. As with Gran Turismo, damage modelling is non-existent, and while it’s not something to overlook, it is something that Polyphony Digital fans are used to. Anyone expecting the 1080i and 480p display setting options found in the US and Japanese versions of the game will be in for a shock, as they’re nowhere to be seen in the PAL release. A little annoying, but the game looks great anyway.

All in all, Tourist Trophy is very close to being the game Gran Turismo loving bike fans would have wanted. Racing isn’t the game’s strong point, and customisation is sorely lacking, but the selection of bikes (even though those on offer are very Japan-centric) and wealth of tracks makes this something of a must for motorbike fans. The learning curve might be a little steep for casual racing fans, and the racing can be somewhat dull, but for people who like nothing more than to look at bikes all day long, there’s little better.

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38 Miles of Terror Every year riders roar around the Isle of Man in the Tourist Trophy, a test of nerves and speed that may be sports' most dangerous event

• Author: Franz Lidz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ORIGINAL LAYOUT

Performing twice nightly last spring at a strip joint on the Isle of Man was an exotic dancer whose greatest attributes, according to leaflets, were the BIGGEST BOOBS IN THE IRISH SEA. ¶ Which turned out to be not exactly true. From May 24 to June 6, far bigger boobs--thousands of them, sometimes five abreast--bounced on motorcycles around the island's winding mountain roads and through its narrow village lanes in a treacherous road racing rite that has earned this place the nickname Isle of Manslaughter. ¶ The Tourist Trophy (TT), as the event is called, plays out on a tight 37 3/4-mile circuit featuring some 400 curves and kinks, each with its own particular hazard. In a variety of races sanctioned by the Manx government, leather-clad pros, reaching speeds of almost 200 mph, lap the course three, four or six times, depending on the category entered. They roar over humps and bumps and lumps and fog-cloaked manhole covers, often within inches of trees, poles, jutting pavements and spectators.

"There's a lot of stuff to hit on the course, and a lot of it is immovable," says Dave Roper, who in 1984 won a race for vintage bikes aboard a 1959 Matchless 500-cc G50. Now 54, the former Hicksville, N.Y., welder is still the only U.S. competitor to win a TT event. "As thrilling as the racing is, at times I've thought it shouldn't be legal. Looking back, I can't believe I even survived."

Since it began in 1907, the TT has claimed the lives of nearly 200 riders and onlookers. Seven died in 2000, 10 in '95 and 11 in the darkest year of all, '93. It is not without a certain irony that the starting line and grandstand abut a cemetery.

The grim tally of fatalities includes David Jefferies, who in 2002 became the first rider to cover the TT circuit in under 18 minutes, setting the still-standing lap record of 17 minutes, 47 seconds--an average speed of 127.29 mph. The 30-year-old Yorkshireman was touted as this year's favorite, having won nine TT races, three each in the past three years.

Last year Jefferies said of the event, "You have to be totally at ease with yourself, know exactly what you are doing and accept that you might be going home in a box." The remark was eerily prophetic. On May 29, during a practice run, Jefferies's 1,000-cc Suzuki spun out on an oil slick and smashed into a stone wall. Jeffries died on impact.

His bike skittered down the road, striking a telephone pole and bringing down wires that entangled another top rider, Jim Moodie. One wire wrapped around Moodie's throat, nearly strangling him. Amazingly, he was out of the hospital that evening and back on the road the next day. "I guess my time isn't up yet," Moodie said.

Time dawdles on in this self-governed tax haven, a possession of the British Crown, where the Manx motto Traa dy liooar (Time enough) is practically a constitutional tenet. In 1656 William Blundell finished his History of the Isle of Man. Demand was so great that the book wasn't published for another 220 years.

Today the steam locomotive that chugs the 16 miles between Port Erin in the south and Douglas on the east coast is restricted to 25 mph, and the horse-drawn railway in Cregneash--the oldest such conveyance in the world--clops along at an even slower pace. In this sleepiest of sleepy Manx towns, locals call more than a dozen vehicles on the road at one time "rush hour."

Manx Time is transformed during the TT, an event that accounts for a considerable chunk of the island's tourist trade. This spring 40,000 motorcycle enthusiasts descended on Man for two weeks of racing and revelry, bringing along 15,000 cycles. Some of the visitors were better lubed than their bikes. The lubrication of choice was Bushy's, a local brew known as the Ale of Man.

On the seaside promenade a carnival atmosphere prevailed. Over one four-day weekend police made 66 arrests, at least half booze-related. Eight people were charged with drunken driving (or, more accurately, riding). "Most of the bikers were well-behaved," police sergeant Ian Young said stoutly. "Frankly, the figures reflect that."

Not long ago in Douglas a reveler was booked after carving a predawn donut on a seafront street. Smoke issuing from his bike's rear wheel triggered alarms in a nearby hotel, which had to be evacuated. In his defense the donut maker claimed he was just aping something he had seen on a TT promotional video, Bikes, Boobs and Beer.

For many the highlight of race week is Mad Sunday, a racing off day. Only 400 can compete in the 10 or so sanctioned events in the TT, yet on Mad Sunday the circuit is thrown open to all comers. The Isle of Man has no speed limit outside town boundaries, so you can ride your bike as fast as you want.

"Where else in the world can you do 120 miles an hour on your Senna and get overtaken by a naked, sozzled fart on a Kawasaki doing 140?" asks Jon Cox, a mechanic from England. "For that matter, where else can you pass a policeman at 120 and smile?"

This year not everyone was smiling. "Snaking through a pack of five drunks at high speed could often be quite scary," says Steven Deman of New Zealand. "Especially if all they're wearing is a lace bra and panties." Deman himself snaked around the circuit in a Valhalla helmet to which he had glued bullhorns and blond braids.

You don't have to be mad to ride on Mad Sunday, though it certainly helps. "Nobody goes out on the course on Mad Sunday to kill himself," allows veteran F/1 motorcycle racer Thomas Montano. "Yet every year dozens of riders scream out onto the streets, throw themselves like lemmings against the dry stone walls, spill their guts and, occasionally, die."

By midafternoon stretches of the Mad Sunday track resembled the junkyard jungle in a Mad Max movie. Here, a mashed Ducati; there, a mangled Triumph or mutilated Motto Guzzi. More than one bore a note that read: THIRD-PARTY INSURANCE ONLY. PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY.

Darren Lucas of Nottingham blamed many of the wrecks on German bikers. "May I say they're the most aggressive bloody drivers on the island," he fumed. "The last thing I expect to see before I die is the German license plate of the bike that cuts in front of me."

The biggest problem Germans used to face on Mad Sunday was forgetting which side of the road they were on. These days the demanding mountain section is strictly one-way, and road signs have been posted in various languages to remind riders to keep to the left.

During the races and practice sessions, public roads are closed to traffic and 1,500 marshals patrol the route for anything--from a pebble to an oil slick--that might cause a mishap. Surface grip can vary from mile to mile: After a rain, overhanging trees cause some roads to dry out more slowly than others. "Certain bends have virtually no margin for error," says Montano. "Get it wrong and hit something, and there's a 99 percent chance you'll die."

Back in the early 1990s Montano got it right, hit something and lived. He was vrooming along at the head of the F/1 pack when he collided with a Manx pigeon. The bird pierced his visor and fractured his skull. "I drove on for another 100 feet or so until I collapsed," he recalls. "It didn't hurt, but when I tried to blow my nose, cerebral fluid oozed out."

He was helicoptered to Noble's Hospital in Douglas, where surgeons sliced through his leathers and found the dead bird plastered against the back of his neck. "Bizarre spills happen here," Montano says with a sigh. "Like the time the world champ, John Surtees, hit a cow. His bike was totaled, but the cow got up and walked away."

Perhaps the most bizarre accident occurred in 1986, when a rescue chopper landed and spooked a horse in an adjacent pasture. The animal bolted onto the course, killing another rider.

"We don't get the ones who are dead," says Jonathan Evans, chief of surgery at Noble's. "They're taken elsewhere." The crash victims who do show up in the ER suffer from a wide array of high-impact fractures. "Quite extraordinary injuries you only see in textbooks," Evans says with just a hint of sarcasm. "Wonderful injuries of the lower femur."

A survey of TT races from 1993 to '99 lists 73 deaths (37 of them competitors) and 539 surgical procedures for injuries ranging from abrasions and lacerations (91) to torn tendons (12) to broken pelvises (five) to cracked jaws (four) to ruptured spleens (three) to amputations (four).

This year's injury totals were padded considerably by local F/1 star Richard (Milky) Quayle, whose Suzuki slammed into a cliff face near Ballig Farm. He was treated for a collapsed lung, cracked ribs and a broken ankle. As an added bonus, his spleen was removed.

Plugged into a ventilator and unable to speak, Quayle scribbled notes to his wife, Lydia. One of his first: "No more bike races. From now on, I'm a full-time dad."

Lydia listened with that weary, seen-it-all look that spouses of TT racers share with homicide detectives, pool sharks and White House correspondents. "I've been there before," she later said, "and heard it all a thousand times."

To make it out of Man semi-intact, Roper says riders must learn the course's bends until they're second nature. "You need to memorize every last detail forward and backward," he says. "You need to know them down to the exact location of the mulberry tree at the turn near the hill at the 22nd milestone. Or whatever."

Temporary amnesia may have caused the 1991 wipeout that fractured Roper's left ankle and dislocated his hips. "That crash only reinforced to me how serious the TT is," he says, "and how right your effort has to be." The No. 1 rider on Team Obsolete decided to quit before he became extinct: He hasn't raced on Man since.

For many top riders, the TT remains little more than a menacing memory. After crashing in his one and only 250-cc production race in 1971, legendary British rider Barry Sheene refused to enter another TT. "Why bother?" he asked. "It's so much easier just to shoot yourself and get it over with."

Declaring that the risks were too great, Sheene led a successful campaign to have the race stripped of its Grand Prix status. The TT hasn't been part of the world championship since 1976.

Critics have been calling for a TT ban since the very first race in 1907, and for measures to hold down speeds since '11, when the fastest lap was 41 mph. (British bike manufacturers were incensed that American-made Indians took first, second and third.) Before the start of the '13 edition, suffragettes--aghast at the danger--scattered broken glass over the course. Road sweepers worked until 4 a.m. to clear the pavement.

The recent death of Jefferies stoked the righteous indignation of London's tabloids. A column in the Daily Mail headlined HOW MANY MORE WILL HAVE TO DIE began, "Carnage came a little earlier than usual this year on the Isle of Man...."

Defenders of the Manx races argue that participation is a personal choice. The hostility, they claim, results from snobbery--most of the riders are working-class lads from England, Scotland and Ireland who save up all year to compete.

The truth is, danger and death are what draw riders to the Isle of Man. "I intend to race on the island as long as there's a TT," says the 44-year-old Montano. "As much as my wife would like to see me stay in one piece, I can't stop. I'm just another lemming throwing myself at a wall."

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN WALTON/GETTY IMAGES TURN, TURN, TURN First used in 1907, the Isle of Man circuit features some 400 curves and kinks and remains as daunting to riders today as it was in 1932 (inset).

B/W PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES [See caption above]

B/W PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES FLIGHT PATH Forty-one years after A.J. Bell (top) took off in 1950, Nick Jefferies sailed past the same unprotected iron fence.

COLOR PHOTO: GOLD AND GOOSE PHOTOGRAPHY [See caption above]

B/W PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES GRANDSTANDIN' Throughout the race's history, Tourist Trophy spectators have found themselves on top of the action.

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN WATTERSON/ISLE OF MAN NEWSPAPERS SIDE SHOWS Among the events held during the TT are several that require some high-speed, three-wheeled teamwork.

COLOR PHOTO: SI ROBINSON/DOUBLE RED KEYED UP On Mad Sunday the course is opened to all comers, who sound a very different note from the pros.

B/W PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES EVOLUTION The course may not have changed since Oscar Godfrey won the Senior TT in 1911, but the bikes sure have.

COLOR PHOTO: JAMES WRIGHT/DOUBLE RED [See caption above]

B/W PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES SITTING PRETTY For F.W. Dixon and mate (top), as for three of this year's winners, just staying alive was reason to smile.

Since it began in 1907, the Tourist Trophy HAS CLAIMED THE LIVES OF NEARLY 200 RIDERS AND ONLOOKERS.

"There's a lot of stuff to hit, and a lot of it is immovable," says Roper, a TT winner. "Looking back, I CAN'T BELIEVE I SURVIVED."

By midafternoon, stretches of the Mad Sunday mountain track resembled THE JUNKYARD JUNGLE IN A MAD MAX MOVIE.

The world champion, John Surtees, hit a cow. His bike was totaled, BUT THE COW GOT UP AND WALKED AWAY.

Greatest Races – 1933 Tourist Trophy

1933 Tourist Trophy – Sensation at Syracuse

By richard hough.

“It seems perfectly apparent,” wrote Sammy Davis after the 1932 race, “that the prospects for next year are not particularly good.” They did, indeed, look bleak a week or two before the race, with no more to support the MGs than half a dozen or so Rileys, a pair of Invictas, and three straight-eight Alfas, manned this time by Rose-Richards and Brian Lewis, who had shifted their allegiance from Talbots, and by Earl Howe. Apart from this there was only a promised pair of tuned and supercharged Irish Morris Minors, but with a lap speed of little above 60 mph they were not likely to provide much excitement.

When it suddenly became known that Whitney Straight had persuaded Tazio Nuvolari to handle his new K-type supercharged MG Magnette; the event took on an entirely different complexion. Nuvolari dominated the scene from the moment he arrived for the first morning’s practice until he came in with a dry tank on Saturday evening, the trophy safely his, and with both the race speed and class lap records in his pocket. He broke the class lap record by some seven miles an hour.

The four factory-entered, class F 1 1/2 -liter Rileys was the most dangerous opposition to the four MG Magnettes. The Rileys were based on the rather unimpressive machine Maclure had driven in 1932, but had many modifications, including the use of new light alloys in both engine and chassis; they had six cylinders w three main crankshaft bearings. With the marquee’s great racing experience, and their superlative road holding, they should have been formidable. But they were not, and never found their last I 000 revs throughout the race for that old, old reason, lack of preparation. The smaller Rileys turned out to be a different proposition altogether and were a constant menace to the MGs. There were three of them, two entered by Victor Gillow. The third, tuned to perfection, specially lightened and much faster than the factory 11/2 s, was entered by Freddie Dixon.

Rose-Richards’ Alfa promised to be very fast. It was the car Chiron had driven at Le Mans and which had nearly killed his co-driver Cortese in a spectacular somersault.

The new J4 MG Midget, with the fashionable slab gasoline tank, had a special doorless racing body in light alloy. Among the other modifications involved was an increase in the brakedrum diameter from eight to twelve inches. The 1087-cc. K3 Magnettes, which had appeared in the Spring in the same month as the J4 Midgets, had the preselector planetary self-changing gearbox, operated by a fore-and-aft quadrant on an extension of the gearbox top. Even by modern standards they were phenomenally fast and could have comfortably left a 1961 MG-A. In their Mille Miglia debut they had frequently exceeded 110 mph in full touring trim.

Nuvolari saw this car for the first time soon after breakfast on the first practice morning. The working principles of the Wilson gearbox were explained to him by a blend of sign language and odd Italian words. There was no interpreter, and Nuvolari knew no English. In a very few minutes he climbed in beside Alec Hounslow, who was to be his mechanic, and set off.

Some wild things have been written about Nuvolari’s practice driving at Ards, including a report that he executed three 360degree turns in Newtownards Square on his first lap. Tazio was much too wise a driver to become involved in such extravagances. Determination and concentration, each to the ultimate degree, made him the greatest champion of all, and he displayed these qualities in familiarizing himself with this new and impressive car and intriguing gearbox, and in refamiliarizing himself with the course. The main impression he gave was one of extreme enjoyment. It is true he took a little time to get the hang of the box, but he was soon preselecting the appropriate gear for the next comer as he straightened out from the last. And it is true he went through eight sets of tires rather quickly (he used two sets in the race), but then what is practice for if not for experimentation? By half-past eleven the same day, Nuvolari knew as much as anyone about the handling of the blown K3 Magnette.

There were never more than a couple of seconds between them and at the end of the first hour they were keeping such close company that no one could tell them apart. Nobody else had left the field and everyone was having a good time. But, as always in the T.T., the first hour showed clearly who was going to be important-Hamilton, lapping furiously at 75 mph and leading on handicap by 53 seconds; Nuvolari, over a minute ahead of Eddie Hall and five minutes ahead of the big Rileys; Dixon and Gillow in close company in the 1100-cc. Rileys; and Brian Lewis and Rose-Richards in the Alfas.

Brian Lewis did a couple of laps at 83 mph, “and then I broke my transmission on that diabolical bump out of Newtownards.” Soon after, the first cars came in for their routine stops. How important the pit stops were in these T.T.’s with their Einstein like handicapping and quantities of identical machines! A misplaced blow with the hub hammer could lose a place; a trace of agitation could lose the race. And so it happened in 1933.

Dixon, who had been trailing his exhaust quite a lot, had been obliged to hitch it up from time to time. He lost more minutes at the pit with wire and pliers and was eventually disqualified. But the carefree manner in which he lifted his black Riley onto the axle stands created a sensation. Both Howe and Rose Richards were fast and efficient, but not spectacular.

At twenty minutes of two Nuvolari came in. Everyone watched with great interest, for it was known that he and Hounslow had had no pit practice. Everything went remarkably smoothly, the driver refueling and filling up the oil, and whipping around all four wheels to give them a final blow after Hounslow. A quick bite, a quick drink, and they were away in 3 min. 9 sec. It was a characteristically smooth performance, efficient and unflustered. Nuvolari did the next lap at 7 8.5 mph and then settled down to some remarkably fast and consistent driving, varying his lap time for the next three hours by no more than 19 seconds.

Hamilton had a handicap lead of only a few seconds before Nuvolari came in, and at once he speeded up still further, leaving the rest of his class ten minutes behind and breaking the class lap record again and again. At two o’clock he came charging in and at once began throwing away the race. Never calm or untemperamental, he shouted instructions at his mechanic, who responded the wrong way and became more ham-fisted as Hamilton became angrier. Fuel was thrown everywhere. The filler cap was left undone. It took a minute to raise the front axle. Then the starter failed, and the hood was raised again while the mechanic did his best to use a wrench as a switch, succeeding only in setting fire to his gasoline-soaked gloves and overalls with a spark from the terminals. The poor man was in such a state that he could not buckle the hood strap and-well, all in all it was nearly seven minutes before the furious Hammy was away.

Nuvolari took the lead again by a few seconds. The race was now between the wild, dark Irishman with the flashing, screwed-up eyes, who was tragically to be killed in the Swiss Grand Prix ten months later, and the great Italian, who was to pass away quietly in his bed twenty years later. Nuvolari was touching his brakes only momentarily at Comber and Dundonald, varying his distance, so it is said, from hubcap to stone wall at Comber by between three and nine inches lap after lap. Once he grazed a telegraph pole but even that moment gave Hounslow little cause for anxiety. Taking someone around Ards in an 1100-cc. car at 81 mph without creating any concern was perhaps his greatest achievement in a spectacular performance that resulted in his rounding off his Mille Miglia and Le Mans wins with the Tourist Trophy.

After 400 miles there were still only seconds between Hamilton and Nuvolari. These are their respective times in minutes and seconds for the last six laps:

On the next-to-last lap Hamilton’s fuel gauge was registering zero; he knew he would never get around again. To everyone’s bewilderment he tore in in a flurry of dust, threw in a can of gasoline in 20 seconds, and tore away again. It was remarkably fast work, but not fast enough. Nuvolari came by then, and Magnette led Midget. A few miles back Nuvolari’s engine had cut out; he had raised his hands in despair but replaced them promptly on the wheel as Hounslow switched over the fuel line to the reserve tank. This gave him enough, just enough, to keep ahead and complete the last lap, though the man with the checkered flag had Number 25 behind Number 17 in his right hand as he stepped forward.

1933 Tourist Trophy Results

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1963 Tourist Trophy

The Sheer Insanity Of The Isle Of Man Tourist Trophy

The oldest continuous motorrace event in the world is pure two-wheeled adrenaline fuelled madness..

As a biker myself for a little over a year now, and having recently purchased my very first motorcycle , my interest is not purely focused on cars anymore. Admittedly, next to watches cars are my biggest passion, but the love affair with two-wheeled motorized fun is growing stronger and stronger with every ride I take. This perfectly blends in my love for racing, on both four and two wheels, although I have no intention of taking to the tracks myself. Instead, I am much happier watching from the sidelines and seeing man and machine in perfect harmony dancing from corner to corner at breakneck speeds. Those breakneck speeds are to be taken quite literally with the oldest continuous motor race in history; the Isle of Man TT. And with the 2023 edition just behind us, I felt it was time to take a look at this pure adrenaline-fueled insanity!

Admittedly, racing motorbikes on closed circuits is one thing, but what we’re looking at in today’s Petrolhead Corner episode is a very different beast. First of all, a motorcycle race on open roads is extremely rare today, as most countries would simply not allow it to be organized. There have been some in the past, even today there are events like the Horice Road Race in the Czech Republic, the Macau Grand Prix (already a challenge on four wheels, let alone two) and the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb that hosts a motorcycle class. But the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, simply called the TT, is probably the most (in)famous. What’s also important to note, before we get into the details, is the fact it’s a timed event. Drivers race the clock, let loose with it10-second intervals, rather than battle it out on track. That doesn’t mean, however, there’s no close racing as some of the fastest competitors will almost definitely encounter slower ones at some point on the twisty 37-mile long track.

The oldest motor race in the world

The history of the Isle of Man TT goes back to the year 1907 which makes it not only one of the oldest motorcycle races in history but one of the oldest races in the world, period . In fact, the TT is the oldest continuous motorised racing event in the world, only not taking place during World War I and World War II and being cancelled in 2001, 2020 and 2021 due to viral outbreaks. To put it in perspective, the Targa Florio predates it by only 1 year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has just celebrated its centennial .

The racing under the TT regulations has changed quite a bit in the 116-year history of the event. In the earliest of days, it was pretty much open to anyone, but now you must be in the possession of a valid National Entrants or FIM Sponsors License for Road Racing and be able to present a valid UK driver’s license or one of a country with comparable laws. And although the majority of the entrants are from the UK area, the TT draws in fans and racers from across the world.

Racing is done across six classes; Senior TT, Junior TT, Superbike TT, Superstock TT, Supertwin TT and Sidecar TT, contested over 3, 4 or 5 laps with some classes racing twice during the event. The classes are predominantly categorized by engine configuration and size, and type of motorcycle. The Superstock TT class, for instance, allows for production-based motorcycles to be entered, whereas the Senior TT, Junior TT and Superbike TT classes are open to complete ground-up built racing bikes. And yes, there is a class for sidecar motorcycles, where a driver straddles a low-slung three-wheeled contraption on his belly, head forward and feet back, while a passenger leans in and out to balance the machine through corners. As I said, sheer insanity!

A lawless island

There is a plain and simple reason why this mad, mad race is held on the Isle of Man, an otherwise tranquil 222 square mile island between the UK and Ireland; it has no speed limits outside of residential areas. Back in 1903, as cars and motorcycles started to become more and more common as opposed to horses and carriages, the UK imposed a nationwide speed limit of 20mph (or 32 kph) on its roads. With this in place, the Secretary of the Automobile Club of Britain and Ireland, which was renamed the Royal Automobile Club or RAC in 1907, approached the local Isle of Man authorities to ask permission to race on the island’s public roads. A special Act was drawn up, which passed in 1904, allowing the use of a 52.15 mile (83.93km) Highroads Course across the island for the Gordon Bennet Trial for cars, the precursor to the Isle of Man TT.

A year later, motorcycles were entered into the event for the first time ever the day after the cars raced across the island. However, they couldn’t climb the steep Snaefell Mountain Road so the course for bikes was shortened. From that year onwards, motorcycles would race across the island almost every year, with the exception of the years from 1915 to 1919, 1940 to 1946 and the years 2001, 2020 and 2021.

To this day, the Isle of Man remains free of speed limits, although an enforced speed limit is in place in residential areas and speed controls are very strict during the racing weeks. So basically, you can drive across almost the entire island at any speed you feel comfortable with. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

The Tourist trophy

Racing nowadays is done on the Isle of Man Mountain Course, which starts in the island’s main town of Douglas and runs for 37.73 miles or 60.18 kilometres across the island. The course is run in a clockwise direction, and as the competitors leave behind Douglas, speeds in excess of 200mph or 320kph are reached are no exception. A total of 219 corners, some quite simple but some very tricky ones, have to be navigated in an attempt to be the fastest over the course of the multi-lap race. To say this is risky business is a huge understatement as the Isle of Man TT is considered the most dangerous road race in existence. Since its inception, 267 people have died in the event. This year Spanish driver Raúl Torras Martinez fatally crashed out near Aline Cottage, just outside of Ramsey in the northern part of the island.

The immense risks TT drivers take become apparent when you watch one of the countless YouTube clips of the Isle of Man TT. The roads are lined with sidewalks, flint-rock walls, posts, and all sorts of other immovable objects. And it’s not just that, it’s also the bumps and blind corners racers have to face, often resulting in full aerial jumps at speeds of 300kph or more. One of the most iconic bits of the course is Ballaugh Bridge, a humpback bridge that sits right in the middle of a left-and-right corner in Ballaugh along one of the fastest sections of the course. It’s utter insanity, but it remains absolutely mindboggling to watch!

The Isle of Man TT has seen some competitors grow into absolute legends of the sport. The names of Joey Dunlop and his nephew Michael Dunlop are atop of most people’s wind when it comes to the TT, winning 51 races between them (you can race in multiple classes each year). Going back a bit further in history, names like Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini pop up. This year was professional motorcycle racer Peter Hickman’s year though, winning 4 races in total and setting a single-lap average speed record of 136.358mph (219.447kmh) on his BWM M1000RR (the clip above shows the mental footage from the bike!). Mind you, this is across a daunting 37.73-mile-long track! His number of wins is now at 13, and he can also claim to have set the fastest-ever sector times across all six sectors of the lap.

For more information on the Isle of Man TT, please visit IOMTT.com or IOMTTRaces.com.

Editorial note:  All images in this article are used with permission of and provided by the Isle of Man TT organisatio.

3 responses

There is a strictly observer legal speed limit in the residential areas on the Isle of Man. The police enforce it very strictly.

I am an Isle of Man resident and we most definitely do have speed limits which are enforced, especially during TT fortnight.

Thank you very much for your reply, much appreciated. I will be updating the article with this little bit of extra information, thank you.

All the best, Robin.

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