THE LAST LAUGH
The late George Cohen, who passed away in June 2016 from cancer, was globally recognised as the ultimate authority on Norton singles. And while a qualified medical doctor until 2004, before taking early retirement to concentrate on restoring Nortons and racing them, he’d been a hands-on engineer since an early age.
His father was the Head of Cambridge University’s engineering faculty, so George was able to observe skilled toolmakers and engineers at work while growing up, and by the age of 11 he had his own lathe, rescued from the skip behind the engineering lab. He’d worked down the years on an unrivalled roster of iconic Nortons, including reconstructing Rem Fowler’s V-twin winner of the very first Isle of Man TT race in 1907 after it was destroyed in the 2003 National Motorcycle Museum fire, then riding it in the Centenary TT parade held in 2007 over the original St. Johns Course.
As part of the Cohen collection of historic Norton racers, George had tracked down an array of genuine ex-works Daytona Nortons, proved as such by their matching engine and frame numbers – the entire Manx Norton production records have fortunately been saved for posterity. He ended up owning two of them, one from 1948, and another from 1952 – but, how come?
“It was very fortuitous,” said George, as we
