Norton challenge

Norton management penned a deal with legendary British engineering firm Cosworth to develop a modern parallel twin with double overhead cams, four-valves per cylinder, and unit construction, with enough strength to act as the central motorcycle frame.

What the engineers at Cosworth did was essentially lop off two cylinders from one bank of the Cosworth DFV Formula 1 V8 engine, make a slew of modifications, and bolt them to a new crankcase. There was far more to it than this of course, but the general gist is accurate. Then design of the P86 used the frame as a stressed member — so much so that the other components of the bike were all essentially bolted onto it. The front suspension is bolted to a tubular steel subframe that bolts to the top of the Cosworth parallel twin, and the swingarm pivots in the gearbox casing.

This is common in high-end bikes today, but back in the s it was groundbreaking. The two most significant were that the engine would be carburetor-fed, with just a single carb on the street version, and that it have the flywheel mounted between the connecting rods right where the centre main bearing should have been. These two issues resulted in less power than had originally been planned, and an issue with the engine potentially grenading itself if it was held at 4, rpm for too long.

These issues could be fixed on a race bike of course, but they were a no-go for a production machine. Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the Norton Challenge P86 project was its incredible potential. If the powers that be at Norton had simply outsourced the engine design to Cosworth and they stayed out of it, it may very well have saved the company. The final twist in the story is that Cosworth would end up reworking the engine a full 10 years later, they added fuel injection, they increased the size from cc to cc and they made a slew of other updates.

This would be followed up a year later with an outright race win — showing the world what might have been. My machine was assembled from the engines and spares purchased by Ian Sutherland when the NVT race team was liquidated. According to original team mechanic and development rider, Norman White, the works team produced a prototype and then only ever had two completed racing Challenges at any one time, which they continuously developed.

There was another UK owner after Sutherland and then two in the States, one of whom I purchased the machine from in The bike has been developed a bit more from the mid-seventies, currently running programmable Motec fuel injection. I also have the original Amal Mk2 carburetors. In The Norton , "The Harlem Renaissance" section is presented as - , the next section "Realism, Naturalism, and Modenrism" is - , and "The Black Arts era" is presented as - Those eras are presented as 21 years, 20 years, and 15 years, respectively.

By contrast, the "Contemporary Period" is presented as 38 years. The "Contemporary Period" section is too long. Those previous sections are too short. Or, there's something else going on with periodicity that deserves our attention. Ideally, more rigorous and visible scholarship on the contemporary period, whenever it is, will assist with future efforts to define the time period or periods. Posted by H. Phil has been a Ducati rider for 45 years and professional photographer for the last Best of both worlds really!

AU is a specialist on-line resource that provides motorcycle news for motorcyclists. MCNews covers all areas of interest for the motorcycling public including news, reviews and comprehensive racing coverage. Friday, January 14, March 22, Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share. Become a Patron for MCNews! Related Posts.