yves norton seeley
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Here is the history from the Dunstall 500 Lowboy Norton
Dear Yves
In the 1958/59 seasons, Paul Dunstall raced a home-built 600cc Dominator Model 99 for Club Racing. His close friend, Fred Neville, raced a 500cc Gold Star BSA. At a practice day the two riders swapped bikes to compare performance. Neville lapped much faster on the Dominator than Paul had and, shortly after the test runs, Paul suggested that Fred should race the Norton 99 Special in unlimited class races, resulting in good finishes which put the name Dunstall on the map.
In 1960 Norton Motorcycles built a batch of lowboy frames for 500cc racing twin engines to race in 1961. A fantastic third place finish in the 1961 IoM Senior TT Race with Tom Phillis justified the project. It was the first push rod engine motorcycle to lap the TT circuit at over 100mph.
Norton MC built a number of Domiracers with both lowboy and Manx chassis as 500cc and 650cc machines.
At the closure of the Norton works in Birmingham in 1962, Paul Dunstall was invited to bid for the race development twin cylinder bikes and parts. On arrival at Bracebridge Street he loaded his van to the max with very special parts and headed back to London.
In 1962 Dave Downer rode for Paul in 350cc, 500cc and unlimited classes, all using the low boy frames. Sadly, one year later Downer lost his life following a crash at Brands Hatch with Derek Minter, who was seriously injured.
With riders like Dave Degans, Griff Jenkins, Rex Butcher and Ray Pickrell, Team Dunstall had good results with both 650cc and 750cc bikes in low boy frames for six seasons until Paul developed a special Dunstall large diameter tube frame machine as he had reached the limit of the low boys handling with the more powerful engines.
I purchased my Norton framed machine in 1988 as a box of parts. The engine was rebuilt by the late Graham Sanders who had worked with Doug Hele at the Norton factory in the 1950’s. The engine is a standard 66mm x 72.6mm bore and stroke, non-squish Head with big valves, needle roller bearing camshaft with pressure end oil feed, twin 30mm Amal GP cards, Lucas rotating magnet flanged magneto made by Lucas for special race bike projects. The gear box is a 5-speed Schafleitner unit with a Manx clutch. The front brake is an Oldani unit, the rear brake is a Manx conical. It is lighter than a standard Manx Norton with better acceleration but with a similar top speed, Paul Dunstall offered a Dunstall designed frame kit in the late 60’s. It had similar dimensions to the Norton frame but had a modified top tube arrangement.
It is suggested that, had Norton continued in Birmingham, the Domiracer would have replaced the Manx Norton single cylinder machine with a new, stronger Domi engine designed as a race engine, not a converted, much modified road based engine. Who knows what might have been!
Regards
Michael Braid
On 19 Feb 2017, at 12:32, marina.kips@skynet.be wrote:
Hi Michael,
Thanks for coming to Wieze, it was realy great
I post the story on access norton forum, but someone wish to know more about the history from your Dunstall Domiracer, can you give me more details Please?
Best Regards
Yves
Dear Yves
In the 1958/59 seasons, Paul Dunstall raced a home-built 600cc Dominator Model 99 for Club Racing. His close friend, Fred Neville, raced a 500cc Gold Star BSA. At a practice day the two riders swapped bikes to compare performance. Neville lapped much faster on the Dominator than Paul had and, shortly after the test runs, Paul suggested that Fred should race the Norton 99 Special in unlimited class races, resulting in good finishes which put the name Dunstall on the map.
In 1960 Norton Motorcycles built a batch of lowboy frames for 500cc racing twin engines to race in 1961. A fantastic third place finish in the 1961 IoM Senior TT Race with Tom Phillis justified the project. It was the first push rod engine motorcycle to lap the TT circuit at over 100mph.
Norton MC built a number of Domiracers with both lowboy and Manx chassis as 500cc and 650cc machines.
At the closure of the Norton works in Birmingham in 1962, Paul Dunstall was invited to bid for the race development twin cylinder bikes and parts. On arrival at Bracebridge Street he loaded his van to the max with very special parts and headed back to London.
In 1962 Dave Downer rode for Paul in 350cc, 500cc and unlimited classes, all using the low boy frames. Sadly, one year later Downer lost his life following a crash at Brands Hatch with Derek Minter, who was seriously injured.
With riders like Dave Degans, Griff Jenkins, Rex Butcher and Ray Pickrell, Team Dunstall had good results with both 650cc and 750cc bikes in low boy frames for six seasons until Paul developed a special Dunstall large diameter tube frame machine as he had reached the limit of the low boys handling with the more powerful engines.
I purchased my Norton framed machine in 1988 as a box of parts. The engine was rebuilt by the late Graham Sanders who had worked with Doug Hele at the Norton factory in the 1950’s. The engine is a standard 66mm x 72.6mm bore and stroke, non-squish Head with big valves, needle roller bearing camshaft with pressure end oil feed, twin 30mm Amal GP cards, Lucas rotating magnet flanged magneto made by Lucas for special race bike projects. The gear box is a 5-speed Schafleitner unit with a Manx clutch. The front brake is an Oldani unit, the rear brake is a Manx conical. It is lighter than a standard Manx Norton with better acceleration but with a similar top speed, Paul Dunstall offered a Dunstall designed frame kit in the late 60’s. It had similar dimensions to the Norton frame but had a modified top tube arrangement.
It is suggested that, had Norton continued in Birmingham, the Domiracer would have replaced the Manx Norton single cylinder machine with a new, stronger Domi engine designed as a race engine, not a converted, much modified road based engine. Who knows what might have been!
Regards
Michael Braid
On 19 Feb 2017, at 12:32, marina.kips@skynet.be wrote:
Hi Michael,
Thanks for coming to Wieze, it was realy great
I post the story on access norton forum, but someone wish to know more about the history from your Dunstall Domiracer, can you give me more details Please?
Best Regards
Yves