While reading an article in the December issue of Classic Bike magazine, about the new Norton Motorcycle company, which recently returned to British hands, I noticed a statement by Brian Crighton, technical director of the company saying they would like to try qualifying for the new 4 stroke 600cc class which will replace the 2 stroke 250cc bikes in 2011. The twin rotor Norton NRV588 is usually rated as a 588cc engine and if the ruling authorities in GP will accept that displacement, Crighton figures the Norton can be competitive with the 600cc piston engines.
Norton certainly has an aggressive plan to bring out both racing and road bikes later this year, but that was the first I had heard of the GP racing plan. If you’re going to dream, dream big.
Personally, I think it’s a great idea and might be a nice way to add some excitement and interest to the new series. Having rotaries mixing it up with the piston engines would spark interest among a whole lot of motorheads and wouldn’t it be cool to see a Norton logo in the paddock? I like it!
Link: Norton
hoyt says
This would be awesome.
Also note: the 600 cc GP class is not allowed to use a stock chassis, so that is another added bonus of interest.
I’d like to see the Moto Czysz front-end used in this series.
JR says
I think there are plenty of people that have been wanting to see some bikes being built with rotary engines, they seem to suit a sportbike very well.
Cool!
tim says
I’d want to watch that. Hear that, advertisers. I am a consumer WANTING your product!
Roderick says
Brilliant idea, I hope that Dorna will consider it. MotoGP is in dire need of some new blood. I would love to see more manufacturers taking part, and rider against rider, not black box against black box racing.
Walt says
I’m dating myself but I used to love watching Andy Granatelli race the Novi, then his turbines against the legions of Offenhauser-powered roadsters at Indy. Really spiced it up for me to see some creative technical thinking beyond the detail level.
This is exactly the opposite of what we see now in most racing, NASCAR being the main example of homogenized technology. Yet the NASCAR approach does put the driver and crew at the forefront. I love technological innovation but to see one machine run off and hide from the rest makes for lousy competition. So bring on the rotaries, with a caution.
hoyt says
John Hopkins is a British-American and he may need a ride next year.
Chaz says
Norton wanted to race the rotary when they were building them decades ago. The race organizers calculated the displacement by counting the number of power pulses per revolution. That gave results similar to comparing 2 strokes and 4 strokes of the same displacement.
Dorna specify the engine design and management system in their new regulations, so it seems unlikely that they would be open to this idea.
Jason says
Nice! The engine sounds sweet, sort of a two stroke tone. Good looking too. I’ll take one.
Motoxyogi says
Dorna would be stupid not to consider it. A rotary bike would bring a fair bit of attention to the series especially if it was competitive. The good old underdog complex would get norton a great deal of support.
On an engineering note, most race bikes these days do near 20,000rpm, what would a modern rotary racer clock up. I remember reading that the mazda 787B Le Mans winner actually had it’s revs capped so it could survive the 24 hours without self destructing.
James Bowman says
I can’t see the other bike manufacturers allowing this, the wankel is to light and powerful for them to compete, 2 strokes would be a fair race. I would love to see these racing and its exiting but 4 stroke makers are too numerous and will object strongly. It seems that the wankels attributes make it a race engine where under race conditions it is actually more efficient than four strokes in almost every way, while trying to idle and stop starting in not its strong suit. I hope I am wrong in a big way here.
Benjamin says
When I read this I was dearly hoping a rotary could be permitted, however recent news suggests a rule in place for a single manufacturer of engine. Seriously sad on many fronts if this is true. On the other hand I was pondering whether a single manufacturer of engine would be better, as will force greater innovation in chassis technology, arguably to a higher level that is commonplace in the MotoGP category. With the exception of Ducati’s carbon frame, none of the manufacturers are pushing the boundaries really.