Norton expands Commando range to three

Norton has only been back in UK ownership for a few years now, but the strife-prone marque is now making huge inroads thanks to Midlands-based entrepreneur Stuart Garner.

Now based out of Donington Park, Norton recently announced a couple more Commandos -- the Café Racer and Sport -- to take their place alongside the limited-edition Commando 961SE.

The air-cooled, fuel injected 961cc parallel twin powering all three machines has been jointly designed by Norton and F1 engine builder MCT. It has push-rod valve actuation, a dry sump, balance shaft, and a 10.1:1 compression ratio.

Power is 80hp at 6500, with 90Nm of torque at 5200rpm.

Ohlins suspension and radial Ohlins brakes are welcome fare, and the frame is a steel tubular design with an oil tank -- so a dry sump engine. Dry weight is 188kg.

The UK allocation of the SE has already been sold out, at an Aussie equivalent of around $26,000. However, they haven't yet been released to customers until the company completes all its warranty testing.

The Café Racer and Sport are priced at $A23,000 and $A19,500 respectively, but in the short-term will only be available in the UK -- and only after SE deliveries have been satisfied.

According to Garner, Norton's finances are in good order.

"We have now completed all tooling and design costs with a complete stock of parts ready for volume production," said Garner.

"It is a huge undertaking to bring back such an iconic brand as Norton. However we have a cracking team here and have done remarkably well thus far.

"Norton is well financed for the future, and we knew from day one this was not going to be a small project."

Meanwhile, British weekly MCN is reporting that Norton is set to make a return to racing with a rotary-engined superbike.

Reports suggest it'll be ready for the 2011 Isle of Man TT, and later on for British and even world superbike racing.

Despite going bust -- and eventually falling into American ownership -- for the umpteenth time in the mid 1990s, Norton did have some racing success, with the piece de resistance Steve Hislop's victory in the 1992 Senior TT on a privateer JPS-liveried machine.