Donald to ride for Norton at the TT

I suggest that racing the 961 would be a useless exercise unless there was a class to suit which involved other bikes of similar technology, 'Racing improves the breed', and as soon as you start racing a new bike, bits start breaking and falling off it. For the factory to run the 961 in a superbike race would be foolish , it would probably give a very bad showing which would destroy potential sales. I cannot see the point in running a 'Norton' race bike with the Aprilia engine, however a decent performance might be a demonstration of competence on the part of the factory. As far as the rotaries were concerned, that was a pointless exercise - there was never going to be any spin-off for road machines. All that happens is the race speeds of all the bikes take a quantum leap upwards, and it all becomes that much more dangerous.
 
worntorn said:
Some rather memorable and much desired Marques used proprietary engines. Some people are known to mortgage the Grandchildren for the privilege of owning a Brough Superior, but it will not have a Brough engine, there are none. It will be J.A.P. or Matchless.
The early Vincents used Rudge Python engines and a few Blackburne engines. This was the case until the Vincent effort at the 32 IOM resulted in the failure of all/three JAP engined Vincent entries. After that Phil Irving entered the scene and penned the first in house Vincent engine, a 500 single. Eventually Vincent built machines that captured a great many world speed records ,one or two that have still not been broken ( Dave Matson, Vincent at Bonneville, world's fastest open motorcycle 220 +- MPH)
Years earlier, HRD himself, Howard Raymond Davies, built all of his bikes using proprietary engines. He went on to win the IOM riding one of these and still is the only person ever to have won the IOM on a machine of his own design and construction.

So carry on Stuart Garner. If History is any indication, great things lie ahead.

Glen
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They were obviously different times. It's relatively much easier to get an engine built today than years ago and I guess cheaper so they should design and build there own racing engine but it's cheaper still to go with the Aprillia engine.
 
'Different times' doesn't stop modern day event organisers from creating race classes which give certain types of bikes the opportunity to race pretty much 'on a level playing field'. If you look at what a 961 Norton actually is, there is plenty of other similar old garbage being sold to the public. In particular air cooled Ducati, Guzzi, BMW, Harley and Triumph twins. You would probably have to exclude the four valve stuff, however the rest all have similar tuning and development problems.
What you ride on public roads is a matter of choice - I don't believe I'd ever choose to ride a four cylinder bike or a two stroke, so what does that leave ? I believe racing four cylinder superbikes is silly stuff. I know I have to do it once before I die, just to find out what it is like.
 
I've just had a look at the Senior TT results, and see that Cam Donald managed two laps this time, first lap at 124mph, second at 118.

What happened?


cheers
wakeup
 
Heard he spun a tire on the rim.

One thing is for sure, that BMW is a beast in the hands of Michael Dunlop.
 
kernel65 said:
Heard he spun a tire on the rim.
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That's a new excuse isn't it? Smacks of something awry in the preparation to me.
cheers
wakeup
 
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