Norton's 92 TT WIN with a Rotary

Laverda SF

Laverda SF

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The Shocking Truth Behind Norton’s Rotary That Silenced Honda 1992:

Steve Hislop wins the 1992 Senior TT Race for Norton:

Norton conventional engine on "FULL LENGTH" practice lap on Isle of Man TT Course in 2017
WizNorton Racing - Classic TT 2017 Josh Brookes:
Christ - 37.730 mi (60.721 km) in 19 minutes - Check the video time stamps from start to finish.
Such that: 60/19 x's 37.73 = 119.14 mph avg spd.
Man them Blokes have Balls of Steel.

The Powers That Be not only banned the Wankel Engine for Motorcycle Racing but also for Automotive Racing.
Remember the 4 Rotor Mazda 787b 1991 WIN at Le Mans.
How This Car Changed History, And Got BANNED

Mazda is about to introduce a NEW Redesigned Rotary/Hybrid combo.
I do believe Hybrids will be the future as EV's are not practicable in nothing but perfect climates.
Could Mazda’s Rotary Engine Technology Change the Future of Electric Vehicles?:
Or will it be BANNED as well ;o)

For now I believe China's BYD Hybrids are leading the way.

I've got to get off my ass, away from this PC and do some walking and exercise to strengthen my legs after my surgery ;o)
 
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Stay on YouTube and put the whiskey bottle at the other end of your house.

You can walk back and forth all night. A man has to build up his exercise doing something he enjoys 😜
 
Chrisk - There's a Beer & Liquor outlet just down the street from me. I believe by Monday I should be in condition to jaunt down there.
Haven't had a shot of scotch or a cigarette since Xmas when it all started. However, I did open a pack of cigs a couple of days ago which I regret - seems just sitting in front of this PC invokes me to light up - I did not miss smoking while I was in the hospital and I really want to quit ;o)
 
Laverda SF said:
Chrisk - There's a Beer & Liquor outlet just down the street from me. I believe by Monday I should be in condition to jaunt down there.
Haven't had a shot of scotch or a cigarette since Xmas when it all started. However, I did open a pack of cigs a couple of days ago which I regret - seems just sitting in front of this PC invokes me to light up - I did not miss smoking while I was in the hospital and I really want to quit ;o)
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It’s your life, do what you will with it. We’re all going to cash in our chips at some stage

Enjoy while you can, you’re a long time dead.
 
chrisk said:
It’s your life, do what you will with it. We’re all going to cash in our chips at some stage

Enjoy while you can, you’re a long time dead.
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Dunno about that ....... Somehow I`ve managed to collect five " for life " recycleable plastic bags from the local supermarket ..........

On that basis I reckon I`m going to live for ever .................


Which reminds me of when I took my cat to the vets to be put down ........ Worked out very expensive ...... I had to make nine separate appointments ...........
 
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BTW ......... Barry Simmonds reckoned Hislop`s Norton ran so hot they had to remove the front mudguard to aid cooling ......... and it drank so much fuel the engine was basically petrol-cooled ......... although it " couldn`t help but make power " apparently .

In the early days of development there`s a picture of David Garside holding an early 90 bhp water-cooled rotary engine in his arms as if it were a new-born baby .......... which in his case it kind of was ............

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This isn`t the pic I was thinking of ..... ( which was in an investment brochure from the Le Roux era ) ........ This one features in Ron`s video , and shows Garside with a lightweight air-cooled version intended for a military drone ( 1980`s version ) .......... Doug Hele joins in for the photo ...............
 
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Eocketonarail - It's a fact that the rotary, in spite of its victories back in to early 90's was flawed as you point out BUT can the design redeem itself with to days advanced materials and technology and be successful in the future - Mazda seems to be confident it will. It's kind of between a piston engine and a turbine yet very powerful considering how small and light it is with only 1 moving part ;o)
 
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The Norton Rotary was born back in the ( dying ) days of Norton Villiers Triumph .........

I believe it was BSA who actually kicked the whole thing into motion back in the late `sixties .......... I think their early experimentation was based on the air - cooled single rotor Hercules / Sachs motor ......... Also marketed as a DKW .......

As far as the Sachs licencing permission was concerned , I think BSA had a bit of a dispute with DKW / Sachs because BSA were developing a twin rotor version , which fell foul of the DKW / Sachs agreement , as the Deek / Hercules was , as mentioned earlier , a single rotor .......

Two single rotor 294 cc DKW`s equal one twin rotor 588 cc Norton .......

I`m going by memory here , so all this is either fairly accurate info , or complete bollocks .........


The weekly paper MCW had a feature of an early NVT development bike which was an air - cooled twin rotor housed in Triumph T140V Bonneville chassis / running gear , but with upswept annular discharge silencers .......

It was a good looking bike ......... small and light , and although it was work in progress , still capable of a silky smooth 130 mph ........... ( quite decent for 1976 ) .............

The paper said it made some other people look a little bit silly .......... meaning Suzuki with their RE5 , which even though a single rotor weighed a top heavy tonne and needed funny spark plugs and oil ....... ( Shell Rotella I think ? ) ........... and was more expensive and no faster than the same company`s GT550 two stroke triple .........

Something eventually surfaced as the Norton Classic Rotary , but it lacked the sparse lithe attitude of the original development bike ........

( I`ve just remembered there`s a guy on here with a RE5 ......... so I better not be too rude about them , although he`s over in New Zealand I think , so I should be safe enough ......... and the early ones with the flip - up instrument pod looked really cool ....... ) .............. :whistle: ...................


There was also an article in Bike magazine around 1977 which was offered up by a couple of Laverda triple riders , complete with photos taken by them ..........
They`d bumped into a police patrolman who was riding one of the first Interpols with the air - cooled twin rotor ........ I`m not sure if he let them have a go on the Norton ....... he may have done , although maybe a little unlikely ...... but even so , even with all the police junk ( radios , fairing , paniers ) fitted , they reckoned it was easily a match for their Jotas ...........

I still wouldn`t mind that early lightweight NVT development bike .........
 
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Taken at the 1990 TT. Sorry for the pic quality. I think the Norton's were clocked at 195mph down the Creg that year. It was pretty amazing sitting along the road bank as they flew by only three feet away.

A poor combustion chamber, apex seal wear and a terrible thirst for fuel have relegated the rotary engine into the history books....... But the Mazda 787b Group C racer is one of the best sounds ever created by man.
 
Ian Short said:
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Taken at the 1990 TT. Sorry for the pic quality. I think the Norton's were clocked at 195mph down the Creg that year. It was pretty amazing sitting along the road bank as they flew by only three feet away.

A poor combustion chamber, apex seal wear and a terrible thirst for fuel have relegated the rotary engine into the history books....... But the Mazda 787b Group C racer is one of the best sounds ever created by man.
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I'm not sure about hitting 195mph coming down from Kate's Cottage to the Creg as, it's actually not that long a straight. allowing for the necessary braking for the Creg. I'd say Sulby Straight is the fastest section of the TT circuit where they could have hit 195mph and where James Hillier managed 206 mph, on the Kawasaki H2R when that first hit the market in 2015.
 
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In V Four Victory , there`s a dip / crest in the road halfway down between Kate`s and the Creg where Joey gets the Honda`s front wheel airborne ........

Chis Carter goes " There`s a lot of sky there Joseph ..... " , to which Joey replies " Ah , it`s not so bad unless you get the wind beneath it .... then it`s difficult to get it back down again .... " ...........

Once you`re through the Creg , there`s a long straight down to Hillberry ( I think ) , which always looks fast to me ........
 
RGS1000RGS said:
I'm not sure about hitting 195mph coming down from Kate's Cottage to the Creg as, it's actually not that long a straight. allowing for the necessary braking for the Creg. I'd say Sulby Straight is the fastest section of the TT circuit where they could have hit 195mph and where James Hillier managed 206 mph, on the Kawasaki H2R when that first hit the market in 2015.
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I believe it was from the Creg down to Brandish that they were clocked doing that speed...... I recall hearing that over Manx radio...... and while I can't confirm the speed I can confirm that they sounded fantastic.
 
Ian Short said:
I believe it was from the Creg down to Brandish that they were clocked doing that speed...... I recall hearing that over Manx radio...... and while I can't confirm the speed I can confirm that they sounded fantastic.
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The sound of the Norton rotaries is indeed magnificent, and I've seen a good number of parade laps of them around the TT circuit. I marshall on the sector which starts at the Creg-ny-ba hotel to the finish line. It maybe 160 is more realistic as back then Brandish corner was a lot tighter compared to today, and would have required a lot more scrubbing off of speed for the corner. These days the corner speed at Brandish is a lot higher as it's more of a curve than bend, but the approach speed would be higher due to that.
 
RGS1000RGS said:
The sound of the Norton rotaries is indeed magnificent, and I've seen a good number of parade laps of them around the TT circuit. I marshall on the sector which starts at the Creg-ny-ba hotel to the finish line. It maybe 160 is more realistic as back then Brandish corner was a lot tighter compared to today, and would have required a lot more scrubbing off of speed for the corner. These days the corner speed at Brandish is a lot higher as it's more of a curve than bend, but the approach speed would be higher due to that.
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As you wish.... but I most certainly can tell the difference between 160mph and 190mph. I had an acquaintance who was a Marshall at Brandish for serveral years; perhaps you knew of him, Norman Collins. He was very involved with CBX's.
 
Ian Short said:
As you wish.... but I most certainly can tell the difference between 160mph and 190mph. I had an acquaintance who was a Marshall at Brandish for serveral years; perhaps you knew of him, Norman Collins. He was very involved with CBX's.
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Back in the early 90's, whether it was 160mph or 190 mph, it would have been interesting (or terrifying), as the bikes relied on the brakes mainy, as they had sod all engine braking, and as I said, Brandish was a proper bend, rather than today's fairly gentle curve where the riders can hold a decent speed.. Sorry, I've not heard of Norman Collins, but I'll ask when I go over got this year's TT; Marshals do sometimes move to different sectors, and some have 'retired' due to costs of getting there. organisational changes etcetera.
 
I was mechanic at the TT and was behind the Norton guys buying petrol- I was surprised they were running regular pump gas to be honest.
Early Norton Rotary had 5 speed Bonneville gear box but I think the Oxford bike ran an EXUP gearbox which entailed running the motor backwards. It also ran brass slide mk2 Amal’s which made for a really heavy throttle, later the carbs were changed for lighter action.
Hislop whipped it to the win ( don’t think anyone else could have..) and rather like the Hailwood Ducati it only just made the distance.
Crowd went bonkers and Norton win Tee shirts were on sale as we got back to Douglas.
 
The TT speed trap used to be at the Highlander, now it’s on Sulby Straight? (correction please) I wouldn’t have wanted to brake into the Creg from 200+
 
I was told by Steve Hislop the Honda RVF race bikes were theoretically geared for approaching 200mph on the Sulby straight in the 1990’s, but I doubt they were getting anywhere near that. Generally, the bikes were geared so that you could nearly hit max revs going up the mountain mile, which obviously meant you would be over revving on the down hill sections so wouldn’t be getting to the maximum possible speed. Therefore, although travelling pretty rapidly down from the Creg, I very much doubt it would be at 195 mph or even on the run down to Brandish.
 
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