Too Much of a GOOD THING

The Manx Norton has no rivals for the accolade of being the ultimate British racing single in both 350/500cc guises. As a production racebike only the later TZ250/350 Yamahas can match its global appeal and formidable record of success over so extended a period in the hands of its customers. Indeed, the Manx’s popularity and copious race wins imbued the Norton marque with an aura of quality that extended right down to its humblest roadster, in a way few other brands have ever managed. That’s a key commercial justification for going racing in the first place, a strategy perpetuated today by the marque’s current owner Stuart Garner, in taking Norton TT racing in the Isle of Man with some degree of success.

The introduction in 1950 of the double-knocker Manx motor and the Ulster-built Featherbed frame, designed by the McCandless brothers, enabled Norton’s Bracebridge Street factory post-WW2 to keep abreast of the European multi-cylinder opposition for a few extra years. This after providing Geoff Duke with the means to take both 350cc and 500cc World Championships in 1951, and the 350cc title again in 1952.

Thanks to the efforts of the factory race team, in those Fab Fifties Norton held a similar status on two wheels in the British public’s consciousness as Jaguar had earned on four through its World records and Le Mans 24-Hour race victories. In Norton’s case this was achieved by Duke’s against-all-odds World titles, and maintained by a brave if stubborn defiance of the inevitable threat posed by the so-called ‘foreign’ multi-cylinder designs from Italy and Germany which, as the Fifties flew by, challenged Norton’s racing dominance ever more successfully. The single-cylinder Manx Norton ultimately represented a gallant example of the traditional British love of the underdog, so that even after the factory team withdrew from racing at the end of 1954, Norton’s image was upheld by the hundreds of privateers from many different nations who continued to race Manx Nortons