This article is about the Dunstall 'Drainpipe' 750 cc racing machine.
Check out Dunstall Road Nortons for an excellent Internet resource for Road machines.

These photos are of one of the three original Dunstall team 'drainpipe' Nortons. The four black and whites are originals taken outside the front of Paul Dunstall Ltd. shortly before the bike was first sold to a Swiss motorcycle dealer in 1970. The photos have stayed with the bike ever since. The bottom two colour photos are of the same bike and were a few months ago.

My thanks to owner Jamie Waters for letting us use them. Cheers Jamie.

Some background
Paul Dunstall is one of the 60s and 70s British Norton racing legends. He was well known for his tuning abilties which allowed the Norton Dominator twin to be competitive on the British short circuits against Norton Manxes and the like. But he is probably best known internationally for his Dunstall 'after-market' performance parts for Commandos, and later for Japanese bikes after the day of the Commando was over.

There was the famous 500 Norton Factory 'Domiracer' of 1961/2. There was the Dunstall 500 Domiracer which followed once Paul had bought the Norton Domiracer factory parts when Norton stopped Dommiracer development. The Domiracer remains in Norton folk-lore.

Paul developed the Norton 650 and Atlas powered Domiracer using a selection of Manx Featherbed and Manx 'lowboy' frames. Riders such as Dave Downer, Derek Minter, Phil Read, Dave Degens, Paul Smart, Rex Butcher and Syd Mizzen raced on Dommiracers prepared by Paul between 1963 and 67. Numerous national level races were won, ncluding placings at IOM - and a new 750 class 'hour' World record of 126.7 mph set at Monza in September 1967 by Rex Butcher. The record stood for four years until beaten by a Moto Guzzi.

Ray Pickerell enjoyed 17 1st places on a Featherbed framed 750 Dunstall Dommiracer in a very successful 1968 racing year. Ray's successes that year included 'Master of Mallory', 'King of Brands', 1sts at Oulton Park, Cadwell Park, Thruxton, Crystal Palace and Snetterton. Ray also won the '68 IOM production TT race with a new race record of 99.39 mph.

But this article is supposed to be about the 'drainpipe Norton..

Despite the successes in 1968, Ray was fighting hard to keep ahead of the 50 bhp Manx singles. To try to keep competitive advantage Paul developed a radically new frame which had a lower frontal area than a Featherbed. Eddie Robinson designed the frame which was based on a 3 inch (16 gauge) vertical spine tube which also served as the oil tank and used 1 inch (17 gauge) support tubes. Not hard to see why it was nicknamed 'Drainpipe' is it really.

A five point rear engine mounting instead of the normal three-point fixture was used to contain the engine plate and swinging arm assembly. The swinging arm pivot was unusual in that it pivoted through the 3-in centre tube as well as the two outside pivots making it an important frame member - similar to some of the American built dragsters of the time.

The 1969 season started well with a win at Brands Hatch. Pickrell then tried the new frame at Mallory Park where he came in third, missing first place through a missed gear. He went on to gain firsts at Crystal Palace and Thruxton and a 3rd at Snetterton.

This bike was exported to Switzerland in 1970. It was raced in Europe over time and had one other european owner before the current owner. It now lives in New York and is still raced - with original motor safely tucked away in a box.

A second example is in the Birmingham National Motorcycle Museum. The existence of the third original Team bike is not known to the author.

Reproduction frames are made in New Zealand by ace Kiwi frame builder and ex GP rider: Ray Brennigan.

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