Bob McIntyre rode a Gilera when he became the first rider to lap the TT course at over 100 mph in 1957.
The Scottish rider achieved the landmark during the 1957 Senior TT on a four-cylinder Gilera 500. His fastest lap averaged 101.12 mph, making McIntyre the first competitor to break the symbolic 100 mph barrier around the Snaefell Mountain Course. The achievement came during the event’s Golden Jubilee celebrations and demonstrated how rapidly Grand Prix motorcycle technology was advancing.
McIntyre also won the eight-lap Senior TT, finishing more than two minutes ahead of John Surtees on an MV Agusta. The feat is sometimes misremembered as an MV Agusta achievement because Surtees and later champions made that marque famous at the TT. McIntyre’s Gilera was a factory-style 500cc Grand Prix machine with four cylinders, a significant step beyond the older single-cylinder and twin-cylinder motorcycles that had dominated earlier eras.