The Norton P-86 Challenge made its debut in 1975 and it was hoped to be the successor to the long-in-tooth Commando motor. Cosworth had been contracted by Norton to build the next British world beater and it was essentially a couple of cylinders from the successful F1 Cosworth 4 valve V8 adapted to a motorcycle engine. It was advanced for the time, with liquid cooling, balance shafts and a belt driven cam train. But the brief wasn't clear, it was to be a racer and a streetbike, the crankshaft was the familiar (and obsolete) British two outside bearing unit with center flywheel, The resultant engine weighed 195 lbs. with 75 lbs of that being rotating parts.
NVT was in the process of dying while the engine was being developed so the project was underfunded and after a few unsuccessful races, all was abandoned. Ten years later it would reappear as the Quantel, developed and modernized with FI and the bugs worked out and it would have success as a BOTT racer.
Much has been written about the whole sorry tale and people continue to argue about it, lots of info online.
Once again I'll be shallow and note that it was certainly never going to be known for its beauty.
Kevin Cameron's analysis here.
2 comments:
look how the rear break is mounted.
Mercy, that's homely.
Did not know about the Quantel. Thankew Mr. G.
Post a Comment