The Approachable Nortons

Norton’s release of a new “all-British V4” has us sifting through the sands of time, starting with the Monocoque Commando.

By Hamish Cooper
Published on October 22, 2019
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by Phil Aynsley
The Monocoque Commando, designed by innovative Norton engineer Peter Williams.

Norton’s tie-up with respected U.K. automotive engineering firm Ricardo has resulted in an all-new V4 engine. It’s the first clean-sheet 4-stroke performance model the famous company has made since the 1970s. Computer-designed and painstakingly developed, it is Norton’s new platform off which several models will spin.

This isn’t the first time a motorcycle manufacturer has joined forces with the car industry. Harley-Davidson did it twice with Porsche. The first time, in the 1980s, was the still-born “Nova” V4 engine. Their second union conceived the Revolution engine range, which powered the liquid-cooled V-Rod family launched in 2002.

However, Norton only needs to look back into its own history to read a cautionary tale. In the early 1970s it worked with Cosworth on what it hoped would be a world-beater, the so-called Norton Challenge P86. Sadly, this was a dead-end and the project was soon abandoned.

Long forgotten, it unexpectedly reappeared in the mid-1980s to win a major international race at Daytona’s speed bowl. The original Challenge project was planned to become the basis of a range of models and the current Norton V4 engine has already achieved this aim. As well as the V4 SS, Norton has revealed three 650cc parallel-twin models based on the V4 engine: the Superlight road racer, and the Nomad and Ranger retro street scramblers. All these bring back memories of Norton golden years of the 1970s. Hang on for a wild ride back in time.

Monocoque Commando

The sales success of Norton’s 1968 Commando was underpinned by its racing efforts. Just a year after production started, the Commando was up on the podium at major events in the U.S. and U.K. Often forgotten in the hype of Triumph’s legendary 1969 Isle of Man TT Production win at 99.99mph is that Norton rider Paul Smart finished second at 99.37mph.

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