One hundred years ago this weekend, a sporting legend was born.
The inaugural Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races roared into life when 25 motorbikes bearing little resemblance to today's high-tech chrome and carbon racing machines - including machines from now-defunct manufacturers such as Rex and Matchless - took to the Island's highways, as they do today.
The princely sum of £25 and the Marquis de Mouzilly Trophy, which is still presented, went to the winner of the blue-riband Senior TT, 15-quid to the runner-up, a tenner to third. The single-cylinder race was won by Charles R Collier riding a Matchless in a time of 4hr, 8min, 8sec, averaging 38.21mph. The winner of the twin-cylinder class, H Rem Fowler, finished almost 14 minutes later on a Peugeot-powered Norton, averaging 36.21mph.
In the first year, the TT was open to road-legal touring motorcycles with exhaust silencers; saddles, pedals and mudguards, and some were aided by pedal power. The ten laps of the St John's Short Course - 15 miles, 1,470 yards - have not changed. The Mountain Course that forms the basis of the Snaefell Mountain Course is 37.73 miles, with the premier six-lap Senior TT covering 226.38 miles of punishing, largely unprotected roads.
The TT database does not divulge details of Scots on the grid a century ago, but the influence of Scottish stars is writ large in an often-tragic history.
Hawick legend Jimmy Guthrie made his debut in 1923 and won six times, completing an unprecedented junior/senior double in 1934 and winning the Junior in '37 in his final TT. In the senior event he retired at the notorious Cutting, where a memorial was built after his death at the German Grand Prix that year. A statue was also erected in Hawick.
Glaswegian Robert McGregor McIntyre, or Bob Mac, was to motorcycle racing what Sir Roger Bannister was to the mile and Sir Edmund Hillary to Everest. He won the 50th anniversary TT aged 28, smashing the holy grail of 100mph average speed on four laps, adding the Junior to his Senior triumph.
McIntyre, who recorded a hat trick of wins on the Mountain Course, died in an accident at Oulton Park in 1962. Supremely confident and reputedly fearless, McIntyre reacted to an inquiry about experiencing fear: 'When I do, I'll quit.'
East Lothian specialist Jock Taylor, three-time Scottish, twice British and once World Sidecar champion, made his Manx debut in 1978 with a second-place finish, and won four times, in 1980, '81 and '82, which brought a double and a new lap record of 108.29mph that lasted seven years. Taylor, too, perished in an accident - at the 1982 Finnish Grand Prix.
Dead at 27, he was buried in his home village of Pencaitland, where a memorial was erected on the 25th anniversary of his death.
The village of Denholm, a short bike ride from Guthrie's Hawick memorial, spawned another TT legend, arguably the most successful of all, Steve Hislop.
'Hizzy' finished second on his debut at the Manx Grand Prix the year after his younger brother Gary had won.
Described by some as a flawed genius, Hislop was the only one of the quixotic quartet not to die from a racetrack crash.
Having won 11 times at the TT meeting, smashing the 120mph average speed in 1989, Hislop died doing the other thing that he loved, flying helicopters, crashing a few miles from his Borders home in July 2003.
Arguments persist among the close-knit biking community as to who was the best, and Ian Thomson, road race chairman of the SACA, is not about to shed too much light on a possible verdict.
He said:
'They all had their place in their particular generation on the machines of that era. Guthrie and McIntyre are inducted into the Scottish Hall of Fame, Taylor was top sidecar man for sure, and Hislop had most TT wins.'
'What is certain is the Scots have played a full and important part in the Isle of Man motorcycling mythology.'
The latest tartan moth to the Isle of Man flame is 35-year-old Falkirk rider Keith Amor, who is making his TT debut riding for the Irish-based Uel Duncan Racing on the Honda CBR 1000cc Fireblade and the Honda RR 600.
Amor will go in four races and is excited, if somewhat apprehensive, at the prospect.
He said:
'It's the ultimate challenge in road racing, the purest form of motor-cycle racing, and then there is all the history of the past 99 years. It costs around £100,000 a year to compete at this level, but my team and personal sponsors are fantastic.'
'Over in the Isle of Man and in Ireland, the road-racing scene is incredible, politicians and public bodies going out of their way to help with road closures, whereas sadly in Scotland, there's too much red tape, a can't-do mentality.'
Amor's ambitions for his Isle of Man debut are realistic. The 2005 Scottish Road Race champion said:
'It would be some sort of miracle if I won, but I'm going all out to be crowned best newcomer, and I'm hoping to beat the best-lap record for a newcomer, which stands at 122.7mph at present.'
Amor admits that the potential for tragedy is never far from a biker's thoughts:
'I'd always said I'd never do the Isle of Man TT, but it does draw you in, and once you are racing, you are just too focused to think about anything like that.'
'It demands total concentration and first-class fitness, and I expect the IoM circuit to be the ultimate challenge. These bikes are scary fast: the 1000cc Honda Fireblade does 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds, 0-100mph in under six, with a top speed of 195mph, so there's little margin for error.'
Memories of Manx motorcycling may immortalise Scots Guthrie, McIntyre, Taylor and Hislop, but in a sport where looking backwards can be dangerous, perhaps it's safe simply to say that, this weekend, Keith Amor will be the greatest Scottish Isle of Man TT rider alive.
Mike J Wilson