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Norton Rotary Development (6): Norton
Prototypes
After the banks had discouvered Philippe Le
Roux and his team had ruined Norton Group PLC through investment deals
that went seriously wrong, they brought in a liquidator in early 1991 whose job was
twofold; whilst, to the public and the disgruntled shareholders, he had to
pretend business was going on as before, and he was to save Norton Motors
Ltd, he was in fact selling off everything that could be turned into money- the
Norton Commando Spares Operation to Andover Norton Ltd at below inventory
value(!), the "Heller" CNC-machining centre at 1/10th of what it
had cost new 2 years before, and the components left over from F1 production were built
into the "F1 Sports" bikes whilst parts stocks lasted and,
again, sold below cost- whilst, at the same time, money was squandered on the
"development" of the very first Norton not designed by
motorcyclists, the "F2". This was but a re-styled F1,
bringing back all of the old problems of the F1, and adding new ones- the
all-enclosure of the F1with its inherent overheating tendencies was skillfully combined with
a fairing design allowing virtually no steering lock and
a design which was neither particularly innovative, nor exciting or called
for. What a sorry sight if put against the elegance of an F1!
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Two-and-a-half motorcycles
were built for the 1992 Birmingham show, two being delivered by
"Styling International" on the morning of the show
opening, neither rideable nor very convincingly executed. Steering
lock was minimal, the Yamaha FZ1000 components, including a
silver-painted exhaust, looked cheap in comparison to the previous
"White Power" suspension, PVM wheels, Brembo brakes and
purpose-made exhaust system, and few if any showgoers were
excited by it. |
Whilst this went on, the TT was won by
Steve Hislop, and the motorcyclists in the firms management dreamed up a
"civilian" version of the Hislop bike, basically converting the
"F1Sports" with a few known improvements on the ignition and
exhaust side, using the works racer fairing moulds, and thus, at very
little cost, creating a very desirable machine that was to cash in on the
TT sucess. The then CEO, himself a confessing non-motorcyclist, was
totally against it.
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This design drawing was
commissioned by Norton Motors (Deutschland) along ideas discussed with
Richard Negus and Bob Rowley, and was executed by John Hancox. It shows a
motorcycle that resembles the Steve Hislop TT-winning bike and was
to be the very first bike actually cashing in on the long but so far
unutilized Norton Race Team efforts and successes. Unfortunately, it
took another 13 years to finally be built. |
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