GOING COMMANDO!

Apart from one-off prototypes, few Norton twins are as rare and mysterious as the Thruxton Club racer.

Barely a handful exist: and even those who own them can’t really be sure where the others are. Amongst fans of Norton racing lore, the machine, also known as the TX750, is seen as the factory’s most highly-developed version of the Commando to be sold by the factory.

It was a project started by the Norton racing team based at the Thruxton circuit in 1975, during the period after the successful John Player-backed Commando-powered racers developed by Peter Williams had yet to be replaced by the more powerful DOHC eight-valve Cosworth twin designed by Keith Duckworth using Formula 1 engine practice.

Aimed at club racers, the TX750 would use a higher-revving short-stroke version of the 850 model launched in March 1973. Announcing the new engine at the launch, Norton-Villiers managing director Dennis Poore said that a batch of at least 200 short-stroke 750 engines would be homologated for FIM and AMA production machine and F750 rules. The original plan was to also use the short-stroke engine to power the works racers entered for the Daytona 200 the following week. But that changed because they weren’t ready. “We shall want some of the short-stroke engines for our own use,” said Poore, “and shall probably fit them in the John Player Nortons.”

And tantalisingly, he said the special engines would be fitted to Roadster versions of the Commando. “The main batch of machines will be made in Roadster form, because so many countries have local rules, as in Canada,”