Norton Classic

The Norton Classic was a rotary-engined motorcycle built in 1987 by Norton as a special edition of just 100 machines, and it was the first Norton Wankel motorcycle. Its air-cooled twin-rotor engine came from David Garside's work at BSA's Umberslade Hall research facility, where he first fitted a bought-in Fichtel and Sachs engine into a BSA frame and then built a twin-rotor prototype under a 1972 licence from Felix Wankel. Because Wankel engines run so hot, Garside gave the motor very deep cooling fins and air cooling through the inside of the rotors, with a pressed-steel plenum doubling as the semi-monocoque frame. In other respects the Classic was a conventional twin-shock roadster, lighter and more powerful than the liquid-cooled Suzuki RE-5. After 100 were made it was replaced by the liquid-cooled Commander, and its engine was later developed into the MidWest aero-engine.