Could Norton Have Pulled It Off With A Wankel? The Classic Motorcycle With A Revolutionary Engine 

Those interested in the Norton Nemesis V8 should see Allen Millyard's channel where he is currently documenting his very thorough restoration of the prototype.

The Wankel concept has been the kiss of death to many a motor manufacturer and Norton should have left this motor well alone.

I was fascinated by the Norton rotary and to that end, paid a visit to their factory, a former bacon packaging plant in Shenstone near Lichfield. This is the only occasion I've ever visited a motorbike manufacturer and it wasn't typical. There were no production lines as such, motorcycle assembly took place randomly around the plant in the open spaces between rows of heavy industrial shelving. I'd come to take their Commander demonstrator for a test ride, which I did on the local roads. It was like nothing I'd ever ridden before. Like a four stroke but also like a two stroke in some aspects. Maybe it was a three stroke? The torque was immense and the power delivery silky smooth and seemingly without end. As a person that hankers after the unconventional, and unusual, the Norton suited me perfectly. I determined that I should have one. I felt loyalty to the Norton brand, having once owned a 750 Commando as my first big bike. Somehow the Norton pedigree of the Commander rotary didn't shine through though. It was too much of a concept bike born of many interelated collaborations within what was left of the British bike industry. I part exchanged my beautiful BMW R90S for a used Commander with the legendary collector Tony Page. He wanted a good example of the BMW thoroughbred for his burgeoning collection and I wanted the rotary engine riding experience. I was not disappointed. I owned my Dorchester grey Commander for a seven years, covering several thousand trouble free miles. I rode it up and down Britain and even to Venice via the French Alps. It was the perfect motorway blaster, well able to sustain high cruising speeds for hour after hour. In town, during hot weather it was a different story. The spark plugs would foul and start to break down. Idling in traffic for more than a minute would very likely cause one of the chambers to cut out or misfire. The misfires were the loudest most percussive of any bike I've ridden. To that end, rather like two-strokes, the practise was to always have a good supply of spare plugs available to get you home. That not withstanding, the water cooled version of Norton's twin rotary was without doubt the best attempt at a practical Wankel engined motorbike. Way better than the Suzuki RE5, which was single chamber and much heavier than the Norton. This was evidenced by Norton's huge success with their race versions of the bike. So good in fact, their Japanese rivals tried to have it banned from competitive motorbike racing. With money, and more technical development the Norton rotary could have been a much bigger success than it turned out. I sadly parted with the Commander, selling it to a collector in Devon. There it joined his full set of Norton rotaries along with many other rare and desirable British bikes and a WWII Spitfire aircraft which he was re-building from scratchand intended to fly. Us boys love our toys!

Ryan F9 sums up the Wankel engine perfectly, "The engine that kills everything it touches". A move to horizontally split engine cases, to cut down in oil leaks, overhead cams, for performance & staying relevant, & not pedantically dicking around with the Rocket 3/Trident for almost 2 year might have saved NVT. But Honda didn't kill NVT & British motorcycles, it was small, cheap cars & a failure to realize that bikes were becoming optional & no longer someone's primary mode of transport.

The best of British style and humour, the Wanx Norton. As classic a name as the bike. Cheers Phil you definitely pulled it off with this video, not many gentlemen of your age can still do that

The Suzuki RE 5 almost sent Suzuki broke but they had enough money to build the GS750 and that saved Suzuki

A clever tag line… but i would have liked to see more development on an affordable road going version, it was an interesting engine.

I remember seeing one parked in front of a bike shop in Edinburgh in 1988. I believe it was part of their stock. It had a small puddle of oil beneath the engine. Still, I did follow it's development in the press, and hoped they'd make a go of it.

I had a late 1980s Mazda RX7 in the early 90s . The engine was like a turbine, the way it span up was incredible . Zero engine braking. It would roll down hill with it in gear, and the hand brake taken off ! The way it drank fuel and oil was also "incredible" . Glad I owned it for a year , it was an experience, but I went running back to some boring four pot, four stroke Ford Rep box car, which drank a whole lot less fuel but was also incredible in it's own way. It was incredibly boring , but my bank account appreciated its boringness ! The story of Norton winning the IoM with Steve Hislop, well that's a good one, but well it has been done already , I guess there's always space for another take on Hislop V Fogarty !

When I looked into buying an air-cooled Norton rotary I was told I had to buy $8,000 worth of stock in the company. Dish was the same price as the bike. I told them I would not waste my money on paper that was not worth wiping my butt on. I would have rather have bought two Norton rotary than to have a bunch of worthless stock. Financial shenanigans have been part and parcel of the Norton brand since the 1970s

Whenever a British company comes up with a loser of a motorcycle it gets purchased by the police department as well as the military. Instead of attempting to build science fiction motorcycles they should just have paid more attention to the quality and reliability of the motorcycles that they were currently producing instead of pi in the sky projects

The `Hercules` 300cc and the Suzuki 500cc were probably the most credible rotaries. The Norton 600 seems to have had a ton of power available, but there was always the question of `was it a 600 or an 1800cc engine`? as its combustion chamber fired 3 times in one revolution. I think the jury`s still out on that one. A friend said the Hercules was a very nice motorcycle and a bit more purist maybe

Ah more quotes from the journalist’s book of puns!

Yes they brought that Wankel to the market in the late 1970's and thank god the police wanted some bikes to ride, and all this after Suzuki had already brought their Wankel to market in 1975.

Remember seeing them as a student in early 80,s as the police in brum used them,they certainly seemed fast from my cg125 perspective anyway

More promissing and without going into iffy Wankel production was the 750 liquid cooled DOHC Norton Cosworth which died along with NVT. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Challenge_P86

Startright Motorcycles in Leeds specialise in Norton Commanders. They've often got a couple for sale.

Mr Garside is still making track based rotary engined motorcycles. They are very fast, but require the attention of a proper mechanic after every outing.

Millyards waving his Brilliance Wand over the V8 Norton engine at the moment on his very wankel channel if you want quick relief watching a genius.

I always thought Norton could have sold race ready rotarys to the public. Brian Crighton knew his stuff, but that's a whole other video...

The title make me smirl a little.....

Amusing video Phil, I have run two Norton Wankels, the factory prototype Classic and a production Classic, a great bike but it put me off with it oiling its plugs regularly not so much fun when you are out and about and run out of spare plugs.

Doubtful. Nobody ever wanted that wankel thing. Suzuki tried and failed, Zündapp/DKW/Hercules tried and failed, Van Veen tried and failed. Yamaha tried and decided it wasn’t good enough. Norton tried and failed. The Wankel really wasn’t the choice of prefered engine configuration for motorcyclists ever. A few were sold - very few - but clearly not enough to maintain a reasonable production. Sporty 2-strokes was a thing in the mid-80’s but disappeared too. And when it came to pollution and being enviroment friendly, the Wankels made the 2-strokes look rosy red in comparison. I’ve always said that the Norton motorcycle range, the Commander, Classic, F1 or Sport should have had a Yamaha TDM 850 parallel-twin as engine instead of loosing money on that Wankel project. But then we wouldn’t have had the “White Charger” winn at Isle of Man. 🏆 Which gave what in future sales? 🤔

So...the Wanks Norton riders would be called Wankers?

Another brilliant film, made with typical British sense of humour. I'm not sure they would ever get a Wankel engine by the strict emissions regulations now. I was lucky enough to chat (and film a little) of Brian Crighton. He's an absolute rotary genius and was heavily involved in turning those old Norton police bike engines into race engines. His current project is the CR700W with an amazing power to weight ratio. The engine in that fire spitting race bike is tiny. Sadly Carol and I had a run in with Mr Garner formally of Norton. How did that guy escape jail?

They should have produced the Triumph quadrant and the BSA rocket 4 instead of the rotary because those they could build on the production machinery they already had and it would fit into the line of motorcycles that they were producing and not being something sticking out on a limb all by itself

I don't think so! Experiments with exotic salutions are almost always the last straw and the rest of the money is tossed out of the window. As Hercules demonstrated with her W2000 only a few years earlier. By the by, the RE 5 nearly killed Suzuki's motorcycle division. The Wankel engine - pronounced like "uncle" with an additional "W" - killed NSU with the Wankel-Spider and the Ro 80. Velocette did not better with their Viceroy and the LE, alas!

Very nice video, like always. Like your wanking jokes. However, the ‚a‘ in Wankel is pronounced like if you’d say „Aaah!“ when you suddenly understood some tricky stuff.

Pulling off a Wankel?

The Wanx? No, no! Not the Wanx....