Quantal Cosworth Norton

1985 Quantal Cosworth Norton





http://bevelheaven.com/CosworthNorton.htm

Anyone know more about this bike?

Quantel was one of the Directors at Cosworths in the 90's ( if ive got it right . 0 the P wotsit ( Cosworth project No ) P - 86 was the only engine type theyd
built that had never won a race . :shock:

Therefore ' they got the big stick out .

I presume the confuser ( Computer Anaylisis ) & resorces ( Cosworth Engineering ) meant they went over it , on paper . or is that ' in electrons ' ,
and re - specd all relevant irregularies . Or was it they HAD got it right forst time , and the castings just needed to sit around for a few years to
Stress Relieve . :?

found these spiffing pictures . :wink: ( of the P-86 etc ) will try & find a tirade on the actual Quantel Trip .



Yer actual 1975 P-86 Cosworth Challenge . Coincided with ' bank trouble ' & Croxford tendancies ( crash )
on track .

" This is the famous and rare Quantel Cosworth raced by Paul Lewis in the 1986 Daytona AMA Battle of the Twins race. It one of the surprisingly frequent times that a BOTT motorcycle created the most buzz at Bike Week.

The Quantel Cosworth dripped with what seemed state-of-the-art technology, but the power plant was actually a 1973 Cosworth-designed motor commissioned by Norton in a last-ditch effort to save the failing British brand. The machine languished for years until revived by former World Champion John Surtees. The fuel-injected, liquid-cooled Twin was essentially two cylinders from the famous Cosworth auto racing engine.

Lewis was runner-up to Cagiva/Ducati rider Marco Lucchinelli at Daytona that year. Lewis had a controversial run in with AMA BOTT Champ Jimmy Adamo, which resulted in Adamo crashing on Daytona’s Tri-Oval at over 160 mph late in the race, while the two were battling over second.

The Quantel Cosworth returned to win the 1988 Daytona Pro Twins(BOTT) race with Brit Roger Marshall at the controls. "



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fontostique stoff eer ' . http://www.pit-lane.biz/t1182-oldies-le ... -monocoque



Now , when the silly Govt' was askled to choose between the workers co-operative , & NVT . they blew it. The Correct Answer , WAS " Both , Actually " . :x

70s chassis



90s chassis ( weel , 88 )



le tout dernier souffle de Cosworth associe a Norton . ( AGAIN ) http://www.pit-lane.biz/t1182-oldies-le ... -monocoque

The Noble Lineage . http://www.flickr.com/photos/nortonraci ... otostream/

if its any consolation , Bentley ran on borrowed money too , and the S6 Supermarine was out of Lady Houston's pocket .
7 these days if you buy a Rolls Royce , your actually getting a Volkswagon . :x . Who won the War , Anyway . :shock: :cry:

Crikey : a movie ; 86 / Daytona . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpyWzT7DZeI

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If youve got a hacksaw and a few hours spare , and chop a few cylinders of one of these ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQEL_4MkoNQ



youre pretty well there . :wink: :lol:


Snide engine review / anaylisis on P-86 Twin . http://classicbike.biz/Norton/Mags/1970 ... Norton.pdf

Wow, that's a blast from the past for me. I was racing my Norton in BOTT at Daytona in 1988, and ran into Roger Marshall in the line at the registration building. I was right behind him in line, and he was having some sort of problem with the AMA folks over how to pay his fees. Either he had a credit card, and they only took checks, or vice versa. I don't recall the details, but they went on about it for a while, and I finally offered to loan him cash, just so we could get the line moving. He took it and paid his entry fees, and later in the pits his wife came by and paid me back. Very nice people. I later had the chance to talk to him a bit and check out the bike. At the time, I was quite impressed with it, but then, I was crazy about any kind of Norton back then. Years later I was on a business trip to England, and took a little time off to visit the race at Oliver's Mount in Scarborough where some friends of mine were racing. I ran into Roger there, and he remembered me from Daytona, and took me for a tour of the track in the course marshall's car. I couldn't believe anyone would actually race on track. It's the scariest track I've ever seen.

I think 1988 was the year that the fork slider on my PR broke through the axle hole, making me crash at the International Horseshoe. I had the slider welded by the combo welder/machinist who brought a trailer with a basic machine shop in it to Daytona every year. It broke again at the weld in practice, but at least I managed not to crash this time. I took that as a sign from the gods that they didn't want me on the track that day, so I became a spectator, and got to watch Roger win the race.

Another year at Daytona, somewhere around the same time frame, at the motorcycle auction they held every year, I noticed a well used Cosworth Norton race bike. It was being sold by Rob Ianucci, so I talked to him about it. As I recall, he wanted $25,000 for it, and I would have had to mortgage my house to buy it, so I passed. Too bad. It would have been a great investment.

Ken

I think I read somewhere that Paul Lewis rode the Quantal, and it performed well. He was a fellow member of the Hartwell Motorcycle Club when I was racing in the 70s. BOTT is a great idea, I wish we had it in Australia, but limitted to air cooled or two valve motors, and NO TWO STROKES.

http://www.theriderfiles.com/?p=13775

Lookie lookie here <VIDEO> I want it, Must Have IT! oh Wait it ain't rubber mounted, never mind...


Quantel Cosworth

You know that Panigale? The one with the revolutionary MotoGP-derived structural airbox thing? It’s been done. Years ago. This is Daytona 1986 and the British-made Quantel, with its unique Cosworth-designed 820cc V-twin engine designed, like the Panigale, to be the structural core of the chassis; an engine that was actually designed in 1973 for an ailing Norton; an engine that was technically a quarter of the seminal V8 Cosworth DFV. This bike was totally revolutionary in 1986, but it suffered from the typical underfunding that maverick independents are prone to, and from being too damned unusual and borderline-heretical (because the motorcycle industry is far more conservative than we think it is. There’s 3000 words on that). Nevertheless it went on to win at Daytona in 1988. If it looks slightly familiar then that’s probably because of its spiritual equivalent, the Britten.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tpyWzT7DZeI[/video]


Oh yeah the later comer Ducati 1199 Panigale

http://ducati.com/1199_panigale/index.do

Lewis rode the Quantel at Daytona in '86. He switched to riding Martin Adam's Commonwealth Honda in 1987, and was riding it at Daytona in '88 where Roger Marshall was riding the Quantel. I checked my old notes, and '88 was the year I crashed my PR when the fork slider broke. When the crash truck came round to pick me up it already had Lewis in the back. He had just crashed the Honda, after ignoring his pit signals to come, because he really like the bike and wanted to do another lap. He was really worried about what Martin was going to say. In fact, Martin fired him on the spot, but was talked into keeping him on for the race by his chief mechanic, Ray Plumb, who had been loaned to him from Honda.

The Honda was an interesting bike. Not a Norton, of course, but at least the frame was built by John Caffrey, of Vendetta Norton frame fame. This is a shot of John with the freshly painted bike at Daytona in 1987.



The bike was based on the Honds RS750 dirt track engine. Quite fast, but plagued with reliability problems after they took it out to larger displacement for Martin's bike. This is a shot of the bike without the bodywork.



Ken

I might be a bit strange , however when I see twin cylinder bikes racing , it does it for me. I believe the sameness and lack of soul in four cylinder bikes will eventually kill off road racing. The two strokes are finished already, however they did give good competitive racing in the small capacity classes . While they were doing it, they killed off a lot of good bikes which were technologically different, and slightly slower.

Just to put Hobot in the picture, the Cosworth Norton was a parallel twin not a v. Look closely at the early photos in the thread.

acotrel said:

I believe the sameness and lack of soul in four cylinder bikes will eventually kill off road racing.

Click to expand...

People have been saying this since the 1930s, since the Rondine and then the Gilera and then the MV Augusta 4's were about.
And, not surprisingly, racing has been getting more and more popular.

And Honda alone now makes more motorcycles in one week than the entire british industry did in a year....

And where is road racing now ? - getting smaller by the minute. Since the mid 80s in Australia there has been a continual contraction. NIce that Mr Honda makes a d ollar, but the bastard has too much say with the controlling bodies. Road racing is dying in Australia - its hould be growing.

3 words answer this.
Superstock, Supersport and Superbikes.

Absolutely booming, all around the world.
If you watch the International Dorna series of these, there are turks and russians and americans and english and aussies and scots and italians and spanish and and and. Far more competitive than the GP series of old used to be, where only a priviledged few got to race....

You seem to be somewhat bitter at Mr Honda.
He makes a good product, AND knows something of the business of making a profit.
Would you rather motorcycles had disappeared ??

They Have . :shock: THOSE are ' motorbikes ' . they dont make things like they used to .

Matt Spencer said:

they dont make things like they used to .

Click to expand...

Indeed.
Was recently watching some old footage of 'scrambles' bikes, and Les Archer was romping away - on a manx norton based scrambler. !!

And, the 2013 Dakar, in Sth America these days, has just finished.
8500 km of sand dunes, dusty desert tracks, more sand dunes, old creek beds, more sand dunes.
Although only about half the competitors finished, amazing stuff.
Couldn't help but wonder how many would have finished if they'd made them 'like they used to' ??
Much as I like old bikes...

just read two books on the Paris Dakar . Only 414.000 entry fee . And theres a bit of back up , though thats a small part of the expense, they say .

Perhasps a allied Brand would help .





—Photo of Britain’s “No Penalty” Team, the very first to complete the course unpenalized, from the left #285 B H M Viney 500cc AJS, #293 S B Manns 500cc Matchless, #288 P H Alves 650cc Triumph, #276 J V Brittain 350cc Royal Enfield & #226 J W Stocker 350cc Royal Enfield in ISDT 1954

or being Steve McQueen .



of course , this is following a bit of track , as far as Rotaries Go .

Though , if THEY can Do It , SO CAN WE . A Capital Idea even . First Class . hop to it. We'd better have a whip around & get started . :wink:





capacity thing has generally been accepted as x 1.4 in motorsport . Dont tell the A.M.A. a rotisary will liven things up no end there .

—Photo of USA rider #235 Doug Wilford on one of the Wankel Rotary engined Hercules ISDT 1975
The Wankel Rotary engined machine, probably (not certain) it was 1975, ridden here by Doug Wilford of Amerhurst/Ohio, Italian team man Ivan Saravesi also rode one along with Germany’s Fritz Wetzel. All Hercules Wankel motor powered, DNF:- Wilford retired with broken ribs, I understand the pic belongs to Doug Wilford. Info like this stores history for all & we must thank the great Leo Keller for his help identifying for us.

getting closer , anyway . :lol: 8)



Heres one moto crossing . :wink:

NOW look whats happened . YOU must try to stick to the Subject , Rohan . Finding a picture of a off - road Cosworth is going to be difficult .



Not to worry ; found a picture of a N.V.T. Cosworth Enduro bike . 8)

Some days Matt, you are a worry......

Les Archers series of manx powered scramblers were legendary.
He and Ron Hanks (was it ?) were famous for them.
Took the Scrambles Championship of Europe how many times ?
Did we see Eric Cheney on one at one point too ?


They rarely were as shiny as this ?


So where is that Cosworth powered off road bike....