Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eTEST 8 ~ By Alan Cathcar t Pho tos by Kyoichi Nakamura he ongoing question of the exact ba sis o n wh ich th e Norto n Rotar y racer's capacity sho uld be assessed for World Champ io ns hi p roa d racing was settled a t th is year's FIM Congress in Hungary, with th e rubber-stamping of the Road Ra ce Commission's earlier decision to allow th e rad ical rotary to compete on eq ua l terms (i.e. o n 1:1 swep t volume basis) in 500cc GP racing for th e next two years o n a tri al basis. T his pragmatic decision, which marks the end of a three-year struggle by the new ' owner o f th e illustr ious British marque, Philippe LeR oux, to co nvince th e powers-th at -be of th e merits of Norton 's case, is mo reo ver full y su pported by the j apan ese manufacturers whose collec ti ve ap proach is to let Norton undertak e an expe rime n t into th e merits of the Wankel engi ne at GP level, th en see wh at comes of it. "T o be honest, no ne of us really kn ows for sure what sort of performance can be go t out of th e ro tary in 500cc form, whi le still meetin g FIM noise, weight and o ther regulations," says Yam ah a' s Paul Butler. " We figure that if. Norton wan ts to try to mak e .a compe ti tive race bike, they' ll be doi ng u s all a fa vor by sho wing wh ether it works or no t, as well as addi ng a lo t of interest 'to GP racing. After two years, we'll take a look an d see how it's worked out , an d whet her any adj ustments need to be made." Having received the green ligh t from the FIM , Le Ro ux 's next priority will be to fin d the sponsorship necessary to design an d develop an a ll-new 500cc GP rotary race bi ke, wh ich if all goes well might perhaps take to the track for the first time at th e end of next season, ready for a full GP campaign in 1992. But before th en , No rto n plans a fu rt her season of British and FIM TT F- l Cup competition with the bike tha t has taken th em this far alo ng the road to repeatin g th eir roa d raci ng success of yesteryear, . the twin-rotor RCW 588 wh ose black an d silver li very al so revives ano the r fam ou s collabora tio n from Norton 's pas t with their j ohn . Pl ay er tobacco sp o n so rs . Togeth er, Norton and jPS swept th e British scene in 1989 with the debut version of th e wat er-cool ed RCW , with Steve Spray winning the Bri tish F-l and Supercup titles, as well as setting a host of o utr igh t circui t lap records . togeth er with teammate Trevor Nati on. But som e em ba rrassi n gly in ept pe rforma nces abroad in japan and H oll and underl ined the team 's lack of organizatio nal expertise, lead ing to internal rifts and the departure of team man ager Nick Collis, wh o ca me o u t seco nd- best in a p ower struggle with th e creator of the Rotary ra cer, ' en gi neeri n g boffin Brian Crighton , wh o had hitherto run the team practically on his own. In spite of the internal soap opera, Norton finish ed th e '89 season o n th e crest of a wa ve, leading Philippe LeRoux to attempt a more ambitious program of meetings in 1990 under the ·aegis of a new team manager, the legendary former H onda Britain race boss Barry Symmons who amo ngst others was resp onsible for molding the careers of Wayne Gardner and j oey Dunlop. Unfortunat ely, the chemistry betw een him and the brilliant bu t wayward Crigh ton didn' t work any better, and especiall y no t with chassis . engineer Ron Williams, who m Syrnmons called in to try to reso lve some of the Norton 's persis tent handl ing problem s. Crighton again departed th e scene before the end of the seaso n, this tim e perhaps for good, leaving a big T 14 Norton RCW588 The jury's still out questi on mark over wh o will actually design th e 500cc G P rotary that th e factory pl ans to develop du ri ng the course of next season . T hese personal squabbles might not o therwise be worth record in g, were it not for th e fact th at firs tly, Crighton is unquestionabl y the ma n who ha s been resp ons ible for taking the Norton th is far in terms of engine development a n d p erf orm an ce th e bike' s undoubted stro ng point - and second, th e results this seaso n h ave been frankly disappointing, especially after 1989's all-conquer in g bl i tz of th e the rest of th e racing world was running scared and the dice were heavil y loaded against them getting their pri zed I ~I engine rat ing: too fast, said the scaremo ngers - especially those with Italian accents - so let' s p en al ize th em with ' a differential ca paci ty formula. Twel ve months la ter, those fears have receded , mainly becau se Rymer & Co. have sho wn th e Nortons in their present form can be beate n by a good 750 Superbike in the righ t hands. T ha t being th e case, what hope could a 500cc version possibly have aga ins t the j ap an ese V4s in GP sion working properly and reducing' the tendency for the front end to wash ou t in turns - a problem I'd noted wh en riding both the '87 protot ype and the '88 racing Nortons, and become reacq ua inted with th is season on my own race bike, an 888 Ducati with Spo ndon chassis all but identical Ito that of the Norton, even down to the ' choice of White Power upside down fork s. From the inadequate rear suspens ion travel , rearwards weight bias; insufficient swi n gar m d roop an d ultra-soft rear spring wh ich affli cted my bike as delivered and required) major alteration to amend, I can on ly deduce that Spondon has a nowadays unique philosophy in chassis design ' which cau ses real p roblems with 'normal' engi nes insta lled like the Du cati, and major o nes with the unique rotary, whose 'shoebox' archi-d tec t u re devoid of cylinders, rods, pistons, valves and all those other bit s and pi eces that add weight to the front While preparing a 500cc GP bike for the 1992 season, Norton will again campaign the twin-rotor RCW588 in 1991. British racing scen e. Wh ereas last season neither Yam ah a 's T erry Rym er nor Honda riders like Roger Burnett or Carl Fogarty cou ld keep Steve Spray in their sights, th is year the tabl es have been turned, particularly so in th e case of Rymer and fellow Loctite Yamaha rider Rob McElnea, who have domin ated British racing whenever they could spare the time fro m their World Superbike com mitment s. True, Norton 's Trevor Nation still looks like taking the British Superbike title, but only because Rymer and McE ln ea haven't bothered to co n test it seriously due to absence abroad, but by the high standards the jPS tearn .set in '89, they've not had th e success they o r th eir supporters must have expec ted, in spite of some encouraging results from the team 's open roads ex pert Robert Dunlop wi th rostrum fin ishes behind Carl Fogarty's works RC30 in the Isle . of Man and Uls ter G P. lronicall y, th is ma y have worked to Norto n 's adva ntage po litica lly, becau se a year ago wi th the ro taries blastin g all op posi tion into the weeds on Briti sh circ ui ts, raci ng? An in vitation to ride Steve Sp ray's rotary racer at a windy and ini tially very wet Snettert o n provided the answer - well , sort of, given that a purpose-designed G P rotary will surely co nta i n far fewer in h erent compro mises than the curren t streetderi ved engine wh ich powers the RCW 588. Compared to the two previous aircoo led twin-rotor Norton racers I'd sampled, the RCW has a more extreme rid ing position, with the rider pos itioned noticeably higher at the back with more weight on h is arms and wrists - in other words, a typical modern GP sta nce. The wide fairing with coo li ng vent s set in to its upper edges is capa cious and all-enveloping and like the big seat was ad opted this season in the search for better ai r pen etration. But chassis cons u ltan t \ Ro n Williams' main bri ef was to improve the handling of the Spondon aluminium twin-spar fram e, painted a fash io nabl e black for 1990 just like the Roberts Yarnah as, with particular emphasis on getting the rear suspe n- II.. of a motorcycle presents a special j-, challenge to the chassis designer. £ 0 The degree of effort required to hold.n the Norton on course ro und a long, sweeper lik e Sne tterton's Coram Curve.d confirms th e rotary 's Spondon cha ssis .v as a serious understeerer, reluctant to.) hold a tight line under power withour., a ·Io t of bullying from the rider, and ] even then o n ly with the greatest-, rel uctance. Admittedly, there was a strong wind blowing that day which might have pushed the front end on this exposed corner, but it was impos-: sib le to power into the corner confident s that you co u ld get round withou tg, having to ease the throttle an d pulln th e bike back into line. Raising the j ride height at th e rear , steepening the q head angle to 23 degrees and fitting to 26mm offsets on Spray's bike certainlyjj make th e Norton steer easily in slow Q corne rs like the Esses or Symmons'j; Folly, as the appall ing new chicane l i nflicted on Snetter ton by its previou s l track manager - wh o n owadays happens to be the jPS Norton team manager! - deserves to be known, but",

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