Flying Corkman: Go and break my 40-year-old land-speed record

Mel Nolan (right) and Denis Collins, team manager, at the Carrigrohane (Straight) Road, Cork, with the National Aluminium Turbo Honda Special on the 40th anniversary of breaking the Irish Landspeed Record and the World 1,000cc. Picture: Denis Minihane.

A legend of Irish motorsport, the speed-merchant nicknamed the Flying Corkman, has urged someone to break his 40-year-old Irish land-speed record.

Mel Nolan, 75, from Togher on the city's southside, said he knows it can be done as the city marked the 40th anniversary yesterday of his record-breaking feat on the Carrigrohane Road four decades ago.

“It just needs someone to go out and do the job,” Mr Nolan said.

Mel Nolan (right) and Denis Collins. "It’s not simple... but it can be done.” Photo Denis Minihane

“There are machines out there that I know can do it. Now, it’s not simple. It takes a lot of organisation and determination but it can be done.” 

Mr Nolan spent years building his home-built, turbocharged motorcycle with his pal, Denis Collins, before taking on the land-speed challenge twice over the three days in July 1981.

Thousands lined the route on the Carrigrohane 'straight' Road shortly after dawn on July 16 for the first attempt, setting a new record. But they ran the route again just after 6am on July 18, setting another new record, clocking 294.56kph (184.1mph) over the ‘flying kilometre’.

Cork's Lord Mayor, Cllr. Paud Black congratulates Mel Nolan for breaking the Irish Landspeed record on the Carrigrohane Road in Cork on July 16, 1981. Photo: Denis Minihane

Mr Nolan said: “The atmosphere was incredible - the quiet of the morning, with the mist over the Lee Fields and then the noise of the engine.

“I was confident that we’d set a record. We had put in years building the machine.

“I had run it for over a year at that stage and was confident in both its performance and reliability.

Mel Nolan setting the new Irish landspeed record in July 1981. Photo: Denis Minihane

“My job was to make sure it kept on track along the broken concrete surface. The bike was bouncing up and down, and jumping from side to side, but it went by in seconds.” 

He went on to set a new 1000cc ‘flying mile speed record’ of 290.416kmp which has since been broken but the Irish land-speed record still stands.

Mr Nolan and Mr Collins wheeled the magnificent machine out yesterday for a photo shoot near the finish line with Irish Examiner photographer, Denis Minihane, who was there in 1981 to capture the historic moment. 

Photo: Denis Minihane

The bike and all three men are all still in mint condition.

The Carrigrohane Road is one of a few roads in Europe where a record can be run because it's within 1 degree of flatness over 2.2 miles.

It has an illustrious motorsport history, hosting speed trials in 1903, in which Charles Rolls came second, a world motorcycle land-speed record set by Joe Wright from the UK in the 1930s, an International Motor Race in 1937 and the Cork Grand Prix in 1938 when 40,000 spectators came to see the famous Prince Bira of Siam Race.

Celebrating the Irish Landspeed record on Cork's Carrigrohane Road in 1981. Photo: Denis Minihane

After World War 2, it also hosted the Munster 100 races and the annual Speed Weekends for cars and motorcycles right up to 1985, when the last event was run alongside the Cork 800 celebrations.

Mr Nolan said he would love to see the road host motorsport events again.