New Irish land speed record

corglass · 13-03-2015 8:06am #1

Hey guys,

I was curious as to who holds the current Irish land speed record. I didn't find anything definitive, but did find a very useful thread describing various attempts and challenges on backroads.ie here.

Anyone got any further info? From the thread above it seems any future records may simply use a dragster car and a private runway. ..

ironclaw · 13-03-2015 8:22am

In my opinion, anyone can go fast in a straight line on closed roads and its a meaningless record seeing as the land speed record is in the Mach's. The difference being the person behind the wheel is Irish? Makes it kinda hollow to me. The real skill is going back to the Canonball and more recent Alex Roy (32 hours 7 minutes) in my opinion.

I'd be more interested in most easterly / westerly or Malin to Mizen fastest time. That would actually be impressive but stupidly dangerous all the same.

Special Circumstances · 13-03-2015 9:21am

I think the inverse record is usually the target on Irish N-roads. Kinda like how slow can you cycle without putting your foot down, large numbers of dazed and confused drivers congregate on Sundays after matches and religious events to see how unnecessarily slow a convoy 3 miles long can drive.

Drummerboy08 · 13-03-2015 9:42am

I think Martin Birrane holds that record. Or at least he did at one point.

mb1725 · 13-03-2015 10:45am

I remember being in Cork back in the 70s when Rosemary Smith broke the Irish land speed record in a white Jaguar. She has a few passes on the Carrigrohane straight and reached about 180mph. The record only stood for a few hours when some bloke broke it again on a bike !

jimgoose · 13-03-2015 10:51am

mb1725 wrote: »

I remember being in Cork back in the 70s when Rosemary Smith broke the Irish land speed record in a white Jaguar. She has a few passes on the Carrigrohane straight and reached about 180mph. The record only stood for a few hours when some bloke broke it again on a bike !

That was Danny Keany, former MD of Yamaha Ireland, at 184mph. That was beaten again by Mel Nolan who pulled 186mph on a dragbike. I believe the current record is held by another drag-artist, Eddie Galvin.

corglass · 13-03-2015 11:17am

jimgoose wrote: »

That was Danny Keany, former MD of Yamaha Ireland, at 184mph. That was beaten again by Mel Nolan who pulled 186mph on a dragbike. I believe the current record is held by another drag-artist, Eddie Galvin.

I presume these are all on bikes?

Do you know what the 4 wheels record is?

jimgoose · 13-03-2015 11:20am

corglass wrote: »

I presume these are all on bikes?

Do you know what the 4 wheels record is?

There's a lot of talk about Irish fellas setting records in other jurisdictions, but as far as I'm concerned an Irish land-speed record is set on the Carrigrohane Straight in Cork biy, with much imbibing of porter in the Rendezvous bar afterwards. I'm not quite sure what the four-wheel position is currently, but I'll tell you this much - it'd be some car that'd out-pull an actual dragbike. :pac:

corglass · 13-03-2015 11:23am

I agree. I think a bike will always hold a higher top speed in Ireland. I'm just curious what the max official car speed is?

jimgoose · 13-03-2015 11:28am

corglass wrote: »

I agree. I think a bike will always hold a higher top speed in Ireland. I'm just curious what the max official car speed is?

The official car land-speed record in Ireland is held by 22-year-old Wayne Houlihan from Tubbercurry. His heavily-modified and chipped Volkswagen Bora pulled 135.6 mph before exploding on the N17 on the night of October 20th 2013. His girlfriend and chief engineer Jacinta "Hosepipe" Farrell was quoted as saying, "There was some boo outta her, laaaaaaaad!!". *

* Strictly speaking I may have made this up.

The12thMan · 13-03-2015 12:30pm

mine stands @ 152mph, on motorway going towards Dublin, just outside Cashel about 4am with NOBODY else on the road.

jimgoose · 13-03-2015 2:05pm

The12thMan wrote: »

mine stands @ 152mph, on motorway going towards Dublin, just outside Cashel about 4am with NOBODY else on the road.

No good, chief - I've got a 170mph meself, but without offee-shul confirmation it doesn't count. In young Houlihan's case the event was witnessed by Garda Tadhg Looney, who said "If 'tis a ting dat I cetch the little bollix I'll have him off de road for twinty year, so I will!!"

New Irish land speed record

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