- Joined
- Jun 17, 2009
- Messages
- 642
In 1973, Peter Williams won the F750 Senior TT, averaging over 105mph over the mountain course.
His performance was magnificent, winning by over three minutes ahead of the second place bike, and he also was brilliant on the British short circuits that year.
In the book, Norton: The Racing Story, attention is given to Peter's very significant involvement in the development of both the frame and engine improvements.
His TT winning bike was quoted as having had some 78 hp, I don't know if this is at the crank or rear wheel.
In the effort to extract as much power as possible without sacrificing race reliability, the valve angles were changed,
larger valves and stronger valve springs were fitted, along with a higher lift camshaft.
Also, the aluminum pushrods were replaced with steel ones, as the former were found to compress and expand unacceptably at very high RPM.
Interestingly, compression was not noted as being increased, presumably stayed the same as the 1972 works Commandos's, around 10/1.
A third bearing was fitted to the primary along with dished sprockets to relieve pressure on the shafts.
Well, the frame was not a real Commando frame, but it did have isolastic engine mounts.
Thus, 1973 was the last banner year for the factory Works race effort, as 1974 saw Peter Williams in very much disagreement over the changes to the frame. And of course by this time the Japanese two stroke fours were putting out well over 100 hp, rendering the long stroke twin virtually obsolete overnight.
End of an era, but Peter Williams was proven correct in his assertion that the ultimate development would still be a four stoke twin. Witness the tremendous success of the Ducati twins in world GP racing.
Interestingly, Norton itself had machined and tested very briefly a desmo 500cc twin in the late 50s!
His performance was magnificent, winning by over three minutes ahead of the second place bike, and he also was brilliant on the British short circuits that year.
In the book, Norton: The Racing Story, attention is given to Peter's very significant involvement in the development of both the frame and engine improvements.
His TT winning bike was quoted as having had some 78 hp, I don't know if this is at the crank or rear wheel.
In the effort to extract as much power as possible without sacrificing race reliability, the valve angles were changed,
larger valves and stronger valve springs were fitted, along with a higher lift camshaft.
Also, the aluminum pushrods were replaced with steel ones, as the former were found to compress and expand unacceptably at very high RPM.
Interestingly, compression was not noted as being increased, presumably stayed the same as the 1972 works Commandos's, around 10/1.
A third bearing was fitted to the primary along with dished sprockets to relieve pressure on the shafts.
Well, the frame was not a real Commando frame, but it did have isolastic engine mounts.
Thus, 1973 was the last banner year for the factory Works race effort, as 1974 saw Peter Williams in very much disagreement over the changes to the frame. And of course by this time the Japanese two stroke fours were putting out well over 100 hp, rendering the long stroke twin virtually obsolete overnight.
End of an era, but Peter Williams was proven correct in his assertion that the ultimate development would still be a four stoke twin. Witness the tremendous success of the Ducati twins in world GP racing.
Interestingly, Norton itself had machined and tested very briefly a desmo 500cc twin in the late 50s!
