Norton JPN Formula 750 monocoque - Peter Williams Isle of Man 1973 - photo

Description

WE ARE CLEARING OUT OUR ARCHIVES!
A superb and rare photo of the magnificent
Peter Williams
, seen in
WINNING
action with his very special
JPN John Player Norton F1
“
monocoque
“ factory racing bike during the
Formula 750 TT
race at the
Isle of Man TT
in
1973
.
Peter is seen climbing up the Mountain Section of the Isle of Man T.T. course, shortly after leaving the town of
Ramsey
.
Peter Williams would WIN the race with the photographed machine!
The 1973 John Player Norton (JPN) 'monocoque' with its JPN sponsorship colouring provided the best results of JPN Norton twin racing years. The 1973/74 bikes were coloured to represent Players No. 10 cigaret packets - vivid white, red and blue.
There were five 'monocoque' frames built, but only four complete bikes - the first frame was built out of mild steel as at prototype frame design excercise and did not get built up into a complete bike.
The year 1973 was the year that Peter Williams won the F750 TTat the
Isle of Man
, and Mick Grant, also riding a monocoque - the 'Croxford' bike, was second in the TT. In 73 Peter Williams was Norton's number one rider. David Croxford was Nortons number two rider in 1973 and into 74. He became Norton's number One rider in 74 after Williams crashed badly at
Oulton
Park
. Dave rode for Norton for 1975 and 76 and remains the last person to race (and crash) the Cosworth Norton - at Brands Hatch in 1976.
Peter Williams
was considered a true champion and was highly regarded by British motorcycle fans. his may have been in part because he chose to stay with an English Motorcycle manufacturer, striving to remain competitive against the onslaught of Japanese manufacturers which had substantially more power. It may also have been because he was arguably the last of talented engineers who was also a world class racer. Any event, open any book on Nortons, and in the non-Manx racing section, you will invariably see pictures of Peter Williams racing. Peter’s father was Jack Williams who was in charge of AMC race department. He told Peter he could go racing – when he could afford to pay for it. Peter first rode a 250 AJS supplied by Tom Arter and partnered Tony Wood to victory in the 1964 lightweight class at the Thruxton 500. He earnt a ride on Paul Dunstalls’ Domiracer at the 1965 IOM however blew up on the first lap. For 1966 Tom Arter took Peter under his wing, and Peter became one of
Britains
best short circuit scratchers. He turned down a factory ride for MZ that year. For several years in the late 60s Peter raced Toms G.50 powered “special” framed bike. Known as the “Arter" Matchless” the frame originally started off as a sister frame to a “Surtees” 7Rspecial, but was remodelled over time in larger diameter Reynolds tubing, and was refined in many subtle ways. Peter was already experimenting with reducing frontal fairing area, and maximising engine cooling by the use of cooling ducting within the fairing space. By a process of continuous refinement, and exceptional riding abilities, Peter was able to keep up with and occasionally beat Agostini on a works MV. The "Arter" Matchless (or Wagonwheels as it also came to be known) was indeed a special special !! The high spot of the 1966 season was his second place to Giacomo Agostini on a works MV Augusta. Peter was later to come second to Agostini three times in Senior TTs. He notes dryly that on the only occasion that he beat Agostini, Agostini fell off! Peter was second in the Senior TT in 1967 and led the World Championship for five weeks with other second places, but a major crash at the East German GP put him out of the rest of the season. He still finished fourth in the World Championship. Interestingly, during this season and at this race it was kiwi Dacus Swallow who was his mechanic – before Norman White came on the scene. So you see, Peter was already well known before he joined the Norton Villiers Performance Shop (NVPS) part time in 1968 and started working on Commandos.
During the 60s with his time with Tom Arter, Peter was the first person to race on non-spoke i.e. mag rims, and the first to use tubeless tyres? Peter designed six “spoked” mag rims in 67, and used them on the Arter Matchless in 1968. Dunlop encouraged Peter to experiment with tubeless tyres – which would give him a reduction in weight not otherwise achieved if using wire spoked wheels. Peter was also one of the first to experiment with disc brakes on a motorcycle. Peter recalls that the Tom Kirby racing team had started to use front disc brakes in 1966, and so did he. “We had special disc carrying hubs in wire spoke wheels in those days. But removal and re-assembly of the discs, callipers and wheels when you wanted to change tyres was a real pain in the neck I can tell you! We thought that cast magnesium wheels would answer the problems, and give us better consistency in the front end than a drum brake could not give, so I had some manufactured locally. I have a snapshot in my head of a guy on the tarmac in the paddock at Brands Hatch helpless with laughter when I wheeled the machine out for the first time”. Peter won the 500cc British championship in 1970 on the Arter Matchless. By this time Peter was working for Peter Inchley at the Norton Villiers Performance Shop (NVPS) developing Norton commando go faster parts for Proddie racer Norton’s. He joined on the understanding that he would be employed as a rider as well as in the drawing office – and whereby he worked on Nortons during the day, he was given workshop resources in the evenings to work on the Arter Matchless – which he continued to race until 1973. Frank Perris replaced Peter Inchley, and worked to obtain sponsorship from John Player cigarettes. In late 1971, the team decided to develop a full F750 racer,. So by now Peter was racing the Proddie Racer with Charlie Sanby and the F750 racers with Phil Read, Dave Croxford, and sometimes Mick Grant. Tony Rutter and John Cooper also had a burst riding for the John Player Norton team. But it was Peter and Dave Croxford who were the usual riders throughout the 69 – 74 period, and it was Peter who carried out the design work for the F750 effort having designed the 72 Frame and the 73 Monocoque machine. This machine used a frame made from sheet stainless steel. The monocoque frame performed a dual role by being the fuel tank as well as a structural member. But also it was designed to store the fuel as near the road as possible to lower the centre of gravity, and the structure was shaped so as to create the optimum cooling draught for the upper engine. The prototype monocoque was made in mild steel sheet in 1972, followed by the team’s four new race machines which were fabricated in stainless steel. Peter won 12 National level races in 1973, including setting a new lap record at the IOM at
107.27 mph
. (By comparison, Graeme Crosby was doing laps of around mph
110 in
1980). And it was Norman White who was Peter’s personal mechanic from 1969 to 74. The monocoque superlative handling worked well for short circuits. Peter broke the Silverstone outright lap record whilst dicing with Paul Smart on his 750 c Suzuki triple- and then ran out of petrol on the last lap. Ironic, since this had previously happed to Peter whilst leading at the
Isle of Man
in the 1969 Production race. Peter notes “I might have won the 1969 Production 750 TT having overtaken Malcolm Uphill at Creg-na-Baa on the last lap if I had not run out of fuel half a mile later. Also, Charlie Sanby and I would have won the 1971 Thruxton 500 on the Production Racer if I had not fallen off when two laps in the lead. Charlie - nor anybody else in the Norton team - were best pleased. Triumph were very pleased however”. Norton wanted to keep a British Bike at the forefront of international racing. Tough call when the new Kawasakis and TZ750s were putting out 25 more horsepower. The JPN managed to stay competitive with the Truimph triples on the home short circuit tracks and at the IOM into 1974. Unfortunately Peter had a big accident in August that year at Oulton when the seat / tank unit came adrift resulting in Peter suffering the partial loss of use of one arm. Peter hasn’t raced again since. In 1974 with the “space frame” JPN, the Norton lap times were less than those in 1973! By then the tide had turned with the Japanese bikes proving dominant, particularly with Suzuki and
Kawasaki
. In order to compete Norton engaged with Cosworth to develop the “next generation” Norton engine with a lot more power, however this was not a success. The new generation Cosworth Challenge, the design for which had begun in 1973, never showed the potential it should from 1975 onwards. By that time Peter had left Norton.
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. The 1946-1953 Long Stroke Manx Norton was 79.6 mm x
100 mm
, initially sohc, the dohc engine becoming available to favoured racers in 1949. The Short Stroke model (1953-1962) had bore and stroke of
86 mm
x 85.6 mm. It used a dry sump 499 cc single cylinder motor, with two valves operated by bevel drive, shaft driven twin overhead camshafts. Compression ratio was 11:1. It had an Amal GP carburettor, and a Lucas racing magneto. The 1962 500 cc Manx Nortons produced 47 bhp (35 kW) at 6500 rpm, weighed
142 kg
(
313 lb
), and had a top speed of
209 km/h
(
130 mph
).[6] The new price was £440. Manx Nortons also played a significant role in the development of post war car racing. At the end of 1950, the English national 500 cc regulations were adopted as the new Formula 3. The JAP Speedway engine had dominated the category initially but the Manx was capable of producing significantly more power and became the engine of choice. Many complete motorcycles were bought in order to strip the engine for 500 cc car racing, as Nortons would not sell separate engines. Manx rolling chassis were frequently resold, and equipped with Triumph engines. These motorcycles were known as Tritons. In
1960, a
new version of the featherbed frame was developed, with the upper frame rails bent inwards to reduce the width between the rider's knees for greater comfort. The move was also to accommodate the shorter rider, as the wide frame made it difficult to reach the ground. This frame was made in-house by AMC, and is known as the 'slimline' frame - the earlier frames then became known as the 'wideline'. The last Manx Nortons were sold in 1963. Even though Norton had pulled out of racing in 1954, the Manx had become the backbone of privateer racing, and even today are quite sought after. In January
1961 a
new Norton Manxman 650c was launched for the American market only. One year later a Norton 650SS appeared,for the
UK
market along with the Norton Atlas
750 in
1962. For the American market more power was desired. Featherbed frames were still used, but the increases to the vertical twins engine capacity had caused a vibration problem at 4500 rpm. A 500 cc vertical twin is smoother than a single cylinder, but if you enlarge the vertical twin's capacity, vibration increases. The 750 Norton Atlas proved too expensive, and costs could not be reduced. Financial problems gathered. There was an export bike primarily for use as a desert racer, sold up until 1969 as a Norton P11, AJS Model 33, and as a Matchless G15, which used the Norton Atlas engine in a modified Matchless G85CS scrambler frame, with Norton wheels and front forks. This bike was reputed to vibrate less than the featherbed frame model. AMC singles were also sold with Norton badging in this era. By the late 1960s competition from
Japan
and a rapidly declining home market had driven the whole British motorcycle industry into a precipitous decline. In 1966 AMC collapsed and was reformed as Norton-Villiers part of Manganese Bronze. The 750 Norton Atlas, was noted for its vibration. Rather than change engines, Norton decided to change the frame, and the isolastic-framed Norton Commando 750 was the result. In 1969 the Commando was introduced; its styling, innovative isolastic frame, and powerful engine made it an appealing package. The Commando easily outperformed Triumph and BSA, and was the most powerful and best-handling British motorcycle of its day. The "isolastic frame," derived from the Featherbed, made it much smoother than the Atlas. It used rubber bushings to isolate the engine and swingarm from the frame, forks, and rider. As the rubber bushings wore, however, the bike became prone to fishtailing in high-speed turns. The customer could choose between single and dual carburettors, and the bike came in several different styles: the standard street model, a pseudo-scrambler with upswept pipes, and the Interstate, packaged as a tourer. Electric start was introduced in 1974. Sales were respectable, but the company declined financially and went into liquidation in
1975. In
1976 a
Norton with a US-flag theme on the tank could be purchased for 76. The 'Combat' engine was released in January 1972, with a twin roller bearing crank, 10:1 compression and making 65 bhp (48.5 kW) at 6,500 rpm. Reliability immediately proved a problem. (Older engines had used one ball bearing main, and one roller bearing main.) This fragility did not show up well, especially when compared to the reliability of the Japanese bikes. In 1972, the former giant of British motorcycle manufacturing BSA was also in trouble. It was given government help on the condition that it merged with Norton-Villiers, and in 1973 the new Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT) was formed. The Triumph Motorcycles name came from BSA's Triumph subsidiary. In April 1973 an 8.5:1 compression 828 cc "850" engine was released with German SuperBlend bearings, which made 51 bhp (38 kW) at 6,250 rpm however the stated power does not give a true picture of the engine performance because increased torque seemed to make up for the lower horsepower. In 1974, the outgoing government withdrew the subsidies, although the incoming government restored them after the election. Rationalisation of the factory sites to
Wolverhampton
and
Birmingham
(BSA's Small Heath site) only caused industrial disputes at Triumph's
Coventry
site; Triumph would go on as a workers cooperative alone. Despite mounting losses, 1974 saw the release of the ‘828 Roadster’, ‘Mark 2 Hi Rider’, ‘JPN Replica’ (John Player Norton) and ‘Mk.2a Interstate’. In 1975 this was down to just two models, the 'Mark 3 Interstate' and the 'Roadster', but then the Government asked for a repayment of its loan and refused export credits, further damaging the company's ability to sell abroad. Production of the two lone models still made was ended and supplies dwindled.
This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful and very historic era of Norton and Peter Williams history in a wonderful way, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca.
8" x
12" (ca.
20 cm
x
30 cm
). It makes it perfectly suitable for framing!
We have more photos listed on Ebay, also other motorcycle and car racing photos! Check them out and use the shipping discount! You can always contact us for any requests.
Shipping costs will only be $ 7.00 regardless of how many photos you buy.   For 5 or more photos, shipping is free!
(Note: A. Herl, Inc. does not appear on photo, for ebay purposes only)
No copyright expressed or implied. Sold as collectable item only. We are clearing out our archives that we have gathered from various sources.
All items always sent well protected in PVC clear files
and board backed envelopes.
We have photographs that came from professional collections and/or were bought from the original photographer or press studio! They are all of professional and excellent quality.
After many decades of professionally collecting photographs and posters we are clearing out our archives. They make the perfect gift and are perfectly suited for framing. They will look gorgeous unframed and will be a true asset nicely framed with a border. They are a gorgeous and great asset in every home, workshop, workplace, restaurant, bar or club!
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