Featured In the September 2021 issue of Roadracing World:
The year 1949 was significant for three reasons: It was the first year of the new Grand Prix series of road races which ultimately became MotoGP; the last year the Norton Manx had plunger rear suspension; and the first year private Manx buyers got a double overhead cam engine and other factory-bike features!
Although Norton’s first overhead cam engine was launched in 1927, Arthur Carroll and Edgar Franks re-designed the engine in 1929, giving us the classic Manx look. In 1930, Jimmy Simpson gave a Carroll-engined bike its first podium finish with a third in the Senior TT on the Isle of Man, and Stan Woods won the Ulster GP on a machine with an engine featuring a steeper downdraft intake. At this time, Norton did not list pure road racing machines in its product line but did build factory-bike replicas for “qualified” racers…
—Historic Racebike Illustrations: 1949 Norton Manx 30M, by Mick Ofield
Most companies that sell or lease racebikes develop features on factory bikes that are later incorporated on customer machines. In Norton’s case, later became much later; factory engines had double overhead cam engines back in 1937! Manx customers had to wait until 1949 before their models had DOHC engines, but the years allowed the company to advance the technology elsewhere, especially in the revolutionary “Featherbed” frame. Read the details in the latest issue of Roadracing World!
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