Norton 350cc factory racer Jack Brett 1953 Ulster Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Description

A
superb and rare photo of the famous
Jack
Brett
seen in action with his
350cc
Norton works racer
during the
1956
350cc Ulster Grand Prix
which
was ridden on
August 15, 1953
.
The Norton works racers looked very similar to the Norton Manx production
racers, yet they had heavily reworked insides and were exquisitely tuned.
Jack Brett
competed
from 1949 to
1960 in
the Grand
Prix world championship. He won his only world championship race in the 500cc
class at the 1952 500cc Swiss Grand Prix, riding an AJS. He was a two-time
winner at the
North West
200 race in
Northern
Ireland
and finished on the
podium four times at the Isle of Man TT. He rode history as part of the Norton
factory racing team in the 1950s, during which he scored many excellent results
in races at home and abroad.
The original
Norton
company was formed by James Lansdowne Norton (Known as Pa) in
Birmingham
in
1898.
In
1902 Norton began building motorcycles with
French and Swiss engines. In
1907 a
Norton
ridden by Rem Fowler won the twin-cylinder class in the first Isle of Man TT
race, beginning a sporting tradition that went on until the 1960s – The Isle of
Man Senior TT, the most prestigious of events, was won by Nortons ten times
between the wars and then every year from 1947 to 1954. The first Norton
engines were made in 1908, beginning a line of side-valve single cylinder
engines which continued with few changes until the late 1950s. In 1913 the
business declined, R.T. Shelley & Co., the main creditors, intervened and
saved it. Norton Motors Ltd was formed shortly afterwards under joint directorship
of James Norton and Bob Shelley. J.L. Norton died in 1925 aged only 56, but he
saw his motorcycles win the Senior and sidecar TTs in 1924.
Designed by Walter Moore, the CamShaft One
(CS1) engine appeared in 1927, based closely on the ES2 (pushrod) engine and
using many of its parts. On his departure to NSU in 1930, an entirely new OHC
engine was designed by Arthur Carroll, which was the basis for all later OHC
and DOHC Norton singles. (
Moore
‘s move to
NSU prompted staff to claim that NSU stood for “Norton Spares Used”)
That decade spawned the Norton racing legend. Of the nine Isle of Man Senior
TTs (500 cc) between 1931 and 1939 Norton won seven. Up to 1934, Norton
bought the excellent Sturmey Archer gearboxes and clutches. When Sturmey
decided to discontinue production, Norton bought the design rights, and had
them made by Burman, a manufacturer of proprietary gearboxes. Nortons also
appealed to ordinary motorcyclists who enjoyed the reliability and performance
offered by single-cylinder engines with separate gearboxes. The marque withdrew
their teams from racing in 1938, but between 1937 and 1945 nearly one quarter
(Over 100,000) of all British military motorcycles were Nortons, basically the
WD
16H
(solo) and WD Big Four
outfit (with driven sidecar wheel). After the War, Norton reverted to civilian
motorcycle production, gradually increasing the range. A major addition in 1949
was the Dominator, also known as the Model
7,
a
pushrod 500 cc twin cylinder machine
designed by Bert Hopwood. Its chassis was derived from the ES2 single, with
telescopic front and plunger rear suspension, and an updated version of the
gearbox known as the ‘horizontal’ box. Post war, Norton struggled to reclaim
its pre-WWII racing dominance, since the single cylinder machine was facing
fierce competition from the multi-cylinder Italians, and AJS at home. In the
1949 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, the first year of the world
championship, Norton only made fifth place, and AJS won. That was before the
Norton Featherbed frame appeared, developed for Norton by the McCandless
brothers of
Belfast
in January,
1950, used in the legendary Manx Norton, and raced by riders including Geoff
Duke, John Surtees and Derek Minter. Overnight the featherbed frame was the
benchmark by which all other frames were judged. Nortons were winners again.
Norton also experimented with engine placement, and discovered that moving the
engine slightly up/down, forward/back, or even right/left, could deliver a
“sweet spot” in terms of handling. In 1951 the Norton Dominator
became available in export markets as the Model 88 with the Featherbed frame.
Later, as production of this frame increased, it became a regular production
model, and was made in variants for other models, including the ohv single
cylinder machines. The racing successes were transferred to the street through
Cafe racers, some of whom would use the feather bed frame with an engine from
another manufacturer to make a hybrid machine with the best of both worlds. The
most famous of these were Tritons – Triumph twin engines in a Norton
feather-bed frame. Despite, or perhaps because of the racing successes, Norton
was in financial difficulty. Reynolds could not make many of the highly desired
featherbed frames, and customers lost interest in buying machines with the
older frames. In 1953, Norton was sold to Associated Motorcycles (AMC), who
also owned the brands AJS, Matchless, Francis-Barnett and James. The
Birmingham
factory was
closed in 1962 and production was moved to AMC’s Woolwich factory in south east
London
. Under AMC
ownership, a much improved version of the Norton gearbox was developed, to be
used on all the larger models within the corporation under the AJS, Matchless
and Norton banners. Again, the major changes were for improved gear selection.
In late
1955 a
600 cc
Dominator 99 appeared.
This
is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of 1950s
motorcycle history in a wonderful way. This is your rare chance to
own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca.
8″ x 12″ (ca. 20 x
30 cm
). It makes it
perfectly suitable for framing!
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