Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FEATURE Norton's Nemesis By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kyoichi Nakamura orton is back - again! After its roller-coaster ride of recent years, " >. Britain's - indeed, arguably, the world's - oldest and most historic extant motorcycle marque celebrated its corporate 100th birthday in style on April 8, when orton was relaunched yet again as a promised volume manufacturer in a ceremony in London's prestigious Dorchester Hotel. There, the prototype of a 1500cc V-eight-powered motorcycle was publicly unveiled - its mold-breaking specification further spiced up by computer-generated projections of a 225-mph top speed, from a claimed 280 bhp. It's the Norton Nemesis, due according to orton executives, to enter production later this year as a 1999 model. Fruit of a merger between British, American and Canadian business interests, the Nemesis is the first of a range of five different types of motorcycle which Norton plans to launch over the next few years, each of them featuring avant-garde technology that is the product of prolific British engine-design guru Al Melling, whose 10-man consulting company MCD has also been responsible Jor both the leading-edge engine designs and the equally unconventional emesis chassis package. Melling, 54, has a solid record of achievement in four-wheeled engineeri;tg circles, most recently through his connection with Britain's flourishing sports-car manufacturer TVR, for whom he designed the distinctive, lightweight AJP V-eight dry-sump motor with flatplane crank that currently powers the best-selling Chimaera and Cerbera models, as well as having the new straight-six and V-12 engines recently announced by TVR. Melling has also worked as a consultant on specific projects for many other car manufacturers all over the world, as well as having designed a V-lO Formula One engine last season for the abortive Lola Fl project, which reportedly will soon see the grid in the hands of another race team. But at heart, says Melling, he remains a motorcyclist. To prove it, he has a collection of bikes, including a pair of Harleys, that he rides at least once a week on Sunday mornings. And spearheading Norton's announced return to the marketplace will be the Nemesis, a 1500cc, veight-powered superbike the company predicts will be capable of 225 mph. in fact, Melling started MCD to hi!ndle regular design work for various Japanese companies that grew out of his early fascination with the Isle of Man TT races. For that reason, he says, the Norton project allows him to return to his roots by designing a high-end range of bikes aimed at bringing Britain's most historic marque back to \he prominence it deserves, on road and race track. At the born-again orton marque's London launch, Mellirig disclosed an impressive list of mouthwatering new models which, he says, Norton plans to launch within the next few years. This is headed by two versions of the 1500cc Nemesis, both using the same 32-valve, four-camshaft, 60-degree V-eight wetsump engine, with gear cam drive off either end of tlle crarlk, and short-stroke dimensions of 73 x 44.7mm - the same as a current Kawasaki ZX-7R. In the Nemesis A version that will top the orton lineup, the MCDdesigned 1497cc engine (which, as on the TVR motor, uses a flat-plane crarlk) is fitted with three spark plugs per cylinder - as on the Rotax-built 60degree V-twin in the new Aprilia RSVI000 superbike - and a six-speed gearbox with Fl-style push-button gear selection and clutch operation. An MCD-MBE engine management system, incorporating multipoint electronic fuel injection and Fl-type rotating-barrel throttles cast into the cylinder head (to offer improved intake flow), help deliver the claimed 280 bhp at 14,000 rpm that Melling says the Nemesis A will produce, coupled with 110 ft.lb. of torque at 11,000 rpm - enough for a claimed potential top speed of 225 mph. Bowever, when asked to confirm that any of the new Norton engines had as yet run on the dyno, Melling declined to do so, thus 'indicating that these are computer projections for engine designs which are still en route to reaching completion in metal - though unconfirmed reports say plans call for the V-eight to be fired up for the first time before the end of May. Using single rather than triple ignition, the second Nemesis model is targeted to deliver 235 bhp at 12,500 rpm, and 111 ft.-lb. of torque at 9000 rpm. This radical multicylinder motorcycle engine will be housed in a chassis similarly created by Melling's MCD design team, which was also responsible for the sleek, distinctive styling of the Nemesis prototype on display in London. A lightweight, thin-wall, cast-aluminium (magnesium for the A model), one-piece, twin-spar frame is claimed to be the stiffest motorcycle chassis yet produced, fitted with a monos hock swingarm which is also cast in aluminium and magnesium, which incorporates the rear brake caliper in the casting to save weight. Up front, the brake calipers are also cast into the fork sliders, each of which is internally valved for the brake hydraulics and also forms one half of the front mudguard, all in the interests of reducing weight yet adding stiffness. The same objective also sees largediameter alloy tubes comprise the wheel spindles and swingarm pivot, helping together with the carbon-fiber bodywork to achieve target weights of 477 pounds for the base-model emesis and 404 pounds for the Nemesis A. This

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