“Norman White Norton” restores Works F750 / Proddie Nortons for National Motorcycle Museum.
On 13th September 2003, a fire ravaged through the Birmingham National Motorcycle. The fire is thought to have started from a stray cigarette dropped in a rubbish bin - surprisingly, the Museum didn’t have a sprinkler system. Not surprisingly the fire destroyed or partially destroyed several million pounds worth of Motorcycles, including numerous famous UK and European racing bikes, and TT winners. The 1973 monocoque Norton ridden by Peter Williams to victory in the 1973 TT F750 race, and the 1973 NVPS Norvil Proddie racer on which Rex Butcher and Norman White won the Thruxton 500 race in 1973 were both in the fire.

After the fire, the Museum committed to restoring the bikes and museum to the former glory – with sprinkler systems. Norman White Racing was commissioned to rebuild / restore five works Nortons for the reopening of the museum in 2004.

The following article was written by Mick Duckworth, with photographs by John Norton and appeared in UK Classic Bike Magazine in February 2004. This article is reprinted with full permission from 'Classic Bike' , Mick and John. 'Norton Racing' wishes to gratefully acknowledge allowing us use this material and photographs to help publicise the visit of Norman White and Peter Williams to New Zealand in 2006 and 2007.

Article reprint (with minor tense changes)
Restorations don’t come much more specialised, or demanding than the four bike project recently completed at Norman White Norton. It was the obvious place for the National Motorcycle Museum to send the Norton racers badly damaged in the Septembers fire, since White was in the team that created them in the seventies. He was joined by three other key technicians from John Player Norton and NVT days, but event so the team faced a daunting task.
“There are no drawings for a lot of this stuff. We used to make it freehand, and by the time it had been drawn we would have already modified it” explains John McLaren, former AMC and Norton team fabrication wizard. “We’re a group of blokes trying to remember exactly what we did thirty years ago” jokes Peter Pukett, whose CV lists building motocrossers at Rickman, and creating a replica Spitfire, as will as being JPN technician and Dave Croxfords regular mechanic.
Drawings for cycle parts do exist; even if some were penned retrospectively. They were dug out of storage by the fourth member of the restoration team, Basil Knight, former Norton team draughtsman. who now has a premises by the Thruxton circuit, near Norman White, and a stones throw from the old Norton race HQ.

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The National Motorcycle Museum had to have four Nortons back in original condition for the December 2004 opening: a 1973 750cc John Player Norton, two examples of the 1975 -76 Cosworth –powered NVT Challenge, and a JPN Production race commando in 1973 trim.
The 1973 formula 750 JPN has a monocoque chassis, and was the brainchild of Norton team rider and engineer Peter Williams. Its one of the most ingenious designs in the history of motorcycle racing. The elegant monocoque is also a fuel tank, engine cooling duct, airbox and fairing mount. Built around an archaic Commando engine lacking its rivals power, the Norton majored on flat-out cornering stability and superior aerodynamics. Its finest hour came when Williams won the 1973 F750 TT followed by Mick Grant in second place on a similar machine. This monocoque, one of four laboriously crafted from stainless steel sheet by mcLaren and the late John Clist, survived the Museum inferno in fairly good shape. “After the fire the whole thing was tipped up on end. So when we put it on our jig we were amazed to fined it was still true”, says White, who repaired this same bike after it suffered minor fire damage while in private ownership in the 80s. The three other stainless monocoques survive: one in the UK, one in Spain, and one unrestored specimen in the USA, while a mild steel prototype survives in Britain.
Vapour blasting cleaned up the chassis exterior, but John had to cut away the walls of the fuel tank protrusions on either side of the monocoque to access the interior with its complex baffling and fuel pump pick-up tubes. The oil tank, a stainless fabrication rubber-mounted unit ahead of the engine survived, as did most of the exhaust system. Unsurprisingly, not a trace was left of the bikes magnesium alloy wheels and fork sliders, or the glass-fibre fairings. The engine and gearbox, suspended in the chassis on Nortons Isolastic rubber bushes were in poor shape. The engine and gearbox suspended in the chassis were in poor shape. Luckily White already had a small stock of newly –cast magnesium primary chaincases, as he uses a 1973 –type transmission on the 1972 JPN replica he races.

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An aluminium fabrication was considered as a replacement for the original set and top cover moulding, but the Museum insisted on glass fibre for originality, so a mould was made off a metal pattern. To obtain the right shape, period photos of an unfaired 1973 machine were enlarged and cardboard templates taken from it. The monococques twin –disc front end, incorporating AJS stormer fork yokes and stanchions was shared with Cosworth bikes, as are the five spoke cast wheels. The team ordered three sets of fork slider and wheel castings for the bikes. The foundry also produced a pair of cast alloy swinging arms for the Challenge chassis from a period Knight Drawing. The cosworth power unit, a bulky liquid-cooled dohc 750 cc parallel twin, is a stressed chassis member with the swinging arm pivoted at the rear of its integral gearbox. The minimal frame consists of two pieces of triangulated tubework supporting the steering head ahead of the engine, and the twin shocks’ upper mounts, plus the seat. New structures have been brazed up for both bikes to replace damaged originals.
Originally, the Norton team finally got the Cosworth unit late in the 1975 season, long after Player had pulled out and just as an injured Williams joined NVTs long redundancy list. Despite the best efforts of Perris, main rider Dave Croxford, White, McLaren, Pykett, Knight and others, the Challenge flopped and the team disbanded at the end of 1976. To ensure Formula 750 homologation, 25 Cosworth engines were originally made, although it’s thought that some had no internals. After the race shop closed, enthusiast Ian Sutherland bought the hardware and persevered with developing the bikes.
“The Proddie Commando was a quick and easy job compared to the other three” says White. “It was mostly made from stock Norton parts, with some minor modifications. The Thruxton equipped two production bikes from 1970 to 1973, updating them each season. This survivor was restored with a new frame, an ex-works item painted in read”. White believes this is the machine on which he won the 1973 Thruxton 500 miler with co-rider Rex Butcher. A tester, as well as mechanic, White acted as a reserve race team rider and rode at Thruxton because Williams was racing at Ontario Speedway in California. Nortons number one tram – Dave Croxford and Percy Tait – came eighth that year at Thruxton, slowed by a broken exhaust and ignition trouble.
“Wouldn’t it be great to run this lot with some of the bikes Les Willliams and his crew are restoring the museum?” says White. “The Triumph lads were our main rivals in the seventies, and it would be great to be in the same paddock again”

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