Hi all
We raced the Norton Roatary and without the Exhaust ejector and Ram air we
would not have been competitive, 588 cc twin rotor.
Timed in international race North West 200 at 194 mph, this over 23 years
ago.
Won the British Championship and BBC Supercup, Won the TT in the IOM.
See photos.
Bob Rowley
UK
IOM aye, where is the depression in the seat to accomodate the large
goolies required to win that race, crazy buggers, always makes good
viewing.
Thanks Bob
What sought of power were you getting out of that machine? and
what happened to the Norton Rotary, it obviously worked. Let me guess
they handicapped it out of existence. It would make a good alternative
engine for a midget mustang !!!!
Graeme Riley
Graeme,
I have some power curves, I am away the Bank Holiday weekend (Queens Diamond
Jubilee) but will find the graphs that compares two makes of exhaust
ejectors, one we designed in the factory and one we paid £30k for, you can
perhaps guess but the expensive one traded power for suction and at the
NW200 our chief mechanic (Dave Evans) and I had to travel overnight from
Liverpool Airport to Belfast carrying two engines each for hand luggage, as
a Norton Director I had to make myself unpopular by enforcing a high
tickover rule ( shutting the throttle from 190 mph just starved the engine
of airflow and oil, (no engine firing on shutdown no suction), change back
to the Oil that we raced on the year before, despite what the stickers said
and Dave modified the ejectors pipe runs best possible, we had to throw all
the ideas that we had as we only had one chance to qualify for the race on
the Sunday, Saturday was a day of rest so no riding at all on that day just
biting of finger nails.
Fridays practice was over so we arranged with a friendly RAF officer to use
an active runway for testing until nightfall, you can imagine that this was
in the days of the (Trouble) so I hate to think what the MOD mandarins back
in London would have said about it, Robert Dunlop was one of our riders and
he was such a smashing bloke and loved by all, anyway we Qualified and from
memory came in high up the running order and this from not finishing a lap
in main practice week.
We carried a1.5 handicap I think the power was 164 BHP but would rather be
sure and show you the Graphs when I find them in the Rowley archive.
BTW our riders hated the tickover, but it was a case of pack up and go home,
they chose to race, I some how had a feeling that the would a sort of red
mist descended in the paddock just when they started to prepare for the
race, I used to calculate the fuel to add and I allowed a red mist factor,
this value was different for different riders.
I remember one night in the bar just prior to going to bed hearing one of
our rider Trevor Nation saying I am positive that I can get around so and so
corner and another corner faster and this will get me up the road for the
next corner faster, the next corner he could take flat out with speed to
spare, I went to bed, could not sleep got my briefcase out and started to
check fuel loads, to complicate matters the tyre company was having tyres
disintegrate at high speed and needed us to change the back tyres at some
time in the race, we elected to run 2 laps change rear wheel then 4 th lap
splash and tyre inspection and if ok just short fill and dash for the line
as we could not run 3 laps on fuel in any case.
From memory on that race Honda won they ran 2 laps and then 3 laps without
the second tyre check and just got across the line stuttering out of fuel.
We had no regrets as the Rotary handling was not so finely tuned in those
days and our bike according to tyre company ( and our spotters mark one
eyeballs) was harder on tyres.
I remember a young apprentice mechanic filling up the bikes& filler cans
and numbering them was chatting to a JPS girl ( they was rather nice) I
asked him how many litres of fuel was in that tank, he had not marked it, I
made him drain all the bikes and start over, the race chief came up to me
and asked what I was doing and when I explained that we spent well over £20
k to race in this event I wanted to make sure that the fuel loads was spot
on.
Sorry to digress.
Bob
Hi Paul,
I used to do work for a customer who had one of those
Norton rotary motorbikes, he offered it to me to"take it for a spin", I
declined as I have ridden bikes since my teens
but not one of those machines, I know who would been spinning!! His
son races Buell? motorbikes and said it was just "frighting to ride",
because of the instant power.
John Burey.
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