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Welcome
Introduction by Mac McDiarmid

6 HEAD TO HEAD
Ian Hutchinson and McGuinness were best of pals, but can friendship survive Hutch getting John’s HM Plant Honda ride, asks Mac McDiarmid.

10 RUNNERS & RIDERS
Island Racer’s in-depth Zedless guide to this year’s TT riders, from Alflatt to Yoshida.

30 IT HAPPENED LAST YEAR
The best TT weather for half a century, the highest speeds ever, a TT to remember. If you weren’t there, read this and pretend.

45 THE FIRST 100 YEARS
The Centenary marks not just a century of TT racing, but the history of motorcycling itself. The story starts here.

46 TT DECADES:
1907-1910
Boneshakers hell-for-leather over roads they’d condemn these days.

50 100 YEARS AGO:
THE 1907 TT
Some pedalled, some pushed, most punctured, a few burst into flames, many crashed – and just a tweed suit and flat cap by way of body armour.

52 TT DECADES:
1911-1919
The bike TT takes to the Mountain. Other than thanks to The Kaiser, Adolf and a live- stock disease, it’s been there ever since.

56 TT DECADES:
THE TWENTIES
Speeds soar, grids grow, manufacturer interest leaps as the TT becomes the greatest bike race on Earth.

60 TT DECADES:
THE THIRTIES
The golden age of the classic British single, and of Stanley Woods, racing’s first superstar.

64 75 YEARS AGO:
THE 1932 TT
That man Stanley scores his first Senior/Junior double, whilst Norton’s cammy single truly is unapproachable.

66 TT DECADES:
THE FORTIES
Bike racing begins to boom again as a cowed populace emerges from world war.

68 TT DECADES:
THE FIFTIES
More cylinders, more gears, more revs, more power and above all – more speed. And almost none of it British.

72 50 YEARS AGO:
THE 1957 TT
Bob McIntyre’s TT, no question. Gilera did pretty well, too.

74 TT DECADES:
THE SIXTIES
The Japanese – and a certain SMB Hailwood -- take the racing world by storm.

78 TT DECADES:
THE SEVENTIES
Abandoned by the grand prix stars and then by the grand prix series itself, the TT stands alone.

82 TT DECADES:
THE EIGHTIES
Rejuvenated by Formula racing, new riding talent, and another Irish legend, the TT prospers again.

86 25 YEARS AGO:
THE 1982 TT
One for the future, as all the major solo races produce maiden TT winners as the established stars flounder.

88 TT DECADES:
THE NINETIES
The vivid start delivered by Hislop and Fogarty belies a slow slide into the doldrums.

92 10 YEARS AGO:
THE 1997 TT
Emphatically Honda’s Year, and McCallan’s. And the weather was glorious.

94 TT DECADES:
2000-2007
The loss of Dunlop and Jefferies is immeasurable, but is a wave of young talent offering new vitality?

98 SIMPLY THE BEST:
RIDER AND MACHINE
One sometimes ran on tabs and vodka, the other on sheer revs. Both were glorious.

102 THE HEAD HUNTERS
For many years recruiting new aces to the Mountain Course was in the hands of a small band of local enthusiasts. John Watterson pays homage to The International TT Riders Fund.

104 TT RIDERS’ ASSOCIATION
Malcolm Wheeler looks back on over half a century of that special body, the TTRA.

107 HOW FAST IS FAST?
TAS Suzuki’s datalogging reveals exactly how fast Anstey’s Superbike is, on every straight and every bend of the Mountain Course.

108 THE MkV MOUNTAIN COURSE
Today’s course is the fifth to tackle the Mountain. Tom Laxey looks back at its evolution over ten decades of mud, bumps, errant livestock, double vision and bleeding kidneys.

115 BEAUTIFULLY BRUTAL
Mick Grant takes Bruce Anstey’s Superstock-winning GSX-R1000 for a lap. He was impressed.

120 A LAP WITH MIKE
In 1975, Mike Hailwood showed journalist John Brown around the Mountain Course. The master’s inside line turned out to be rather more inside than expected.

124 TT WHAT’S ON
Every TT is a feast of things two-wheeled but the 100th will be so much more. Start your planning here.

128 A DAY IN THE LIFE:
NEIL HANSON
Who’d be TT clerk of the course? Mac McDiarmid spent a day observing one of the toughest jobs in motorsport.

132 TT ENCYCLOPAEDIA
99 years of winners, records, and everything else you need to know to win bets down the pub.

152 2006 DUKE RANKINGS
Ian Lougher topped the Duke Road Race Rankings for the second successive year in 2006, but a new breed of riders chased him as never before.

154 THE 38th MILESTONE
The final juicy morsels of TT lore.

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