Factory Turbo Norton Commando

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thmpr

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I'n new to this forum and seeking information regarding two very rare, factory-built 1974 Turbo Commandos. I am being told only two (2) were made at the Norton factory specifically for an American hillclimb champion. Something like: "From the Norton Factory" is cast into the turbo housing and the bikes include a 16 page letter from Norton outlining all the changes the factory had made to the engine to handle the addition of the turbo. Supposedly, the hillclimber suffered a career-ending accident prior to modifying the bike(s) to hillclimb duty.

From the seller who was a very close friend of the now-deceased hillclimber: this bike was uncrated in 1975, assembled, ridden on an approximately 150 mile loop to verify proper operation and experience the turbo's boost, drained, prepped for long-term storage and kept in a temperature controlled warehouse. He is not sure of the second turbo Norton's location. I will have a chance to view this turbo bike in June, and if the provenance is proven valid, possibly buy it. I would restore it to ride gingerly about once a month and display it in my liviing room next to the Magni Sfida. Being single again has it's privilages :-)

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Glenn
thmpr
1999 Magni Sfida 1000 4V
1992 Suzuki DR 800 custom cafe
1986 Yamaha SRX-6 custom hooligan
2014 KTM Duke 690 (have to own one bike that's dependable ... LOL)
 
Interesting, and welcome here.

thmpr said:
Something like: "From the Norton Factory" is cast into the turbo housing
Click to expand...

That sounds a bit cheesy...

thmpr said:
and the bikes include a 16 page letter from Norton outlining all the changes the factory had made to the engine to handle the addition of the turbo.
Click to expand...

If that letter could be located - or produced - to back up this story, it would add 100% to such a claim.
16 pages sounds like a lot of changes though !!

Drouin produced a supercharger kit for Nortons somewhere back then, and a few exponents here have raved about the experiences/performance.
As we are sure you know, Nortons were a bit marginal in reliability on a few points back then,
so clutches, brakes and even cranks and gearboxes tended to suffer if thrashed too far beyond their limits.
 
Not only a letter, but remember, this is well within living memory of the factory employees who are out there. For a company that was very skint, I doubt if they had turbo castings made.
 
thmpr said:
I'n new to this forum and seeking information regarding two very rare, factory-built 1974 Turbo Commandos. I am being told only two (2) were made at the Norton factory specifically for an American hillclimb champion. Something like: "From the Norton Factory" is cast into the turbo housing and the bikes include a 16 page letter from Norton outlining all the changes the factory had made to the engine to handle the addition of the turbo. Supposedly, the hillclimber suffered a career-ending accident prior to modifying the bike(s) to hillclimb duty.

From the seller who was a very close friend of the now-deceased hillclimber: this bike was uncrated in 1975, assembled, ridden on an approximately 150 mile loop to verify proper operation and experience the turbo's boost, drained, prepped for long-term storage and kept in a temperature controlled warehouse. He is not sure of the second turbo Norton's location. I will have a chance to view this turbo bike in June, and if the provenance is proven valid, possibly buy it. I would restore it to ride gingerly about once a month and display it in my liviing room next to the Magni Sfida. Being single again has it's privilages :-)

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Glenn
thmpr
1999 Magni Sfida 1000 4V
1992 Suzuki DR 800 custom cafe
1986 Yamaha SRX-6 custom hooligan
2014 KTM Duke 690 (have to own one bike that's dependable ... LOL)
Click to expand...

Please do view it and please take plenty of pictures and please post them here.

I would say its not genuine for the following reasons:

1. Why have these bikes never been heard of before, published in books or magazines?
2. Norton was already skint then, they did not have money to develop turbo charged bikes, especially to only make two.
3. Turbo technology was in its infancy then, this even pre dates the Japanese turbo bikes. Any manufacturer doing this would have bought a suitable turbo unit from a turbo manufacturer. They would definitely not have made their own. So the "from the Norton factory" casting mark claim makes it sound even more false.

Having said all of that, I would dearly love to be proven wrong, if this is true its a real find. Even if its not true, but is well executed special, it is still a really nice find.
 
Yes, please do check it out and report back here. I think it is entirely possible that the factory did something like this. They did a lot of odd one-offs and experimental stuff in the race shop, apparently with very little documentation. Then again, it could be a private party build. In either case, I too would love to see how it was done. I've been curious about putting a turbo on a Commando ever since I saw an 850 with turbo run at the El Mirage dry lake meet back around 2000-2001. The rider told me it was a pretty much stock engine. It set a 1000 MPS-PBG (modified partially streamlined blown gas) class record of 148.891 mph at Bonneville in 1999 that still stands. Putting a turbo on a Commando seems counter intuitive for all the reasons given above, but it has been done at least once.

Ken
 
Fitting a turbo to a commando doesn't sound counter-intuitive to me. If it increases torque without the need for lifting the rev-limit, it cannot be all bad.
 
I wonder how many guys 'improve' their commandos, yet do not increase the overall gearing ? If a bike is under geared, it often does not accelerate any faster.
 
Tend to agree with the counter intuitive Ken, especially for a hill climber. My thoughts are whenever you need to dramatically modulate the throttle (hill climbing) unless you have sorted out turbo lag, it will work against you. Land speed trials makes sense as it is WOT or nearly that
 
Thanks for all the feedback. The seller is a friend, extremely technical, very reputable and has many very rare vehicles and one-offs. When we were at a vintage bike swap and saw a Norton for sale, I told him of my 20 year on-off quest to find a Norton 850 MKIII and how a few slipped through my fingers. He said I have a rare Norton stored away. How badly do you want one?

All your concerns about the turbo mimic mine - but could be possible from the race shop as "lcrken" wrote. It would be stunning to hear a factory employee chime in; "Oh yea, yea, yea. I kinda' do remember something like that. Are those Frankenortons still out there?"

The story continues that the hillclimber was very successful previously with Norton product before Japanese multi's arrived. This was an effort by Norton to fend-off the oriental attack. On the 150 mile test loop with a Honda 750 four, the turbo Norton barely kept up, then would launch past when on boost. I think the turbo shares engine oil and there is a large cooler. Bike is being brought from storage in Michigan to Arizona for inspection.

I will take loads of pictures and scans and report back in June.

thmpr
 
I've sent your initial post to a friend of mine who worked at Norton at the time, and spent a lot of time in the race department picking their brains for his own race efforts. If he knows anything about such a bike, I'll post the info. Another likely person to ask would be Norman White. Maybe one of the listers who is still in touch with him could ask.

Ken
 
I find this turbo story VERY hard to believe but will ask Norman White and Richard Negus.
Joe/Andover Norton
 
Well I have a seen a Norton hillclimber whup everything in sight at the Eqypt NY hillclimb back in the late 70's early 80's but it wasn't turbocharged.
 
Here's a spy shot:

Factory Turbo Norton Commando
 
This is my friend's reply. He worked at Wolverhampton from 1972 till 1974, when he moved to Kitts Green, and then on to Shenstone.

"To my knowledge we never had a turbo Norton, Thruxton may have, but i doubt it as they were too busy with the JPN race bikes. Andover Norton could have done something but more likely if the project existed, it came out of Norton on the West coast. Sam Wheeler may know more. Something does not ring true though, in the early 70s turbocharging on bikes was unheard of. No small turbos existed, Honda and Kawasaki had not yet launched their turbo bikes."

I suspect that if there is any truth to the story, Joe will get it out of Norman White or Dick Negus.

On the other hand, I just happen to have a new small turbo sitting on the shelf that would be just the right size for a Commando. Bought it for a different project that never happened. I could see using it for a landspeed bike, particularly if run on methanol for the cooling effect, but that's about the only application I would attempt it for. Let's see, that would be number 5 in the current list of unfinished Norton projects.

Ken
 
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