The new norton domiracer

I have a Kegler clutch in my Manxman, I expect you are familiar with his clutch modifcation. In the clutches that Kegler modified for customers he put an angle on the part of the clutch basket which the clutch plates would bear on under torque. This angle screwed the plates together giving the clutch a servo action so that less spring pressure was needed for the clutch to do it's job, and in turn much less pressure was needed on the clutch lever. The clutches that the Norton factory tested had the angle in the clutch hub though, which was much more expensive to do than modifying the clutch basket.

Kegler told me that he had three of these servo clutches that the factory tested and decided against implementing in production, thinking they were too much expense! When the factory did not want the special clutch hubs anymore, Kegler "liberated" them and used them in his Daytona 88 racer. In Kegler's personal notebook, he writes that if the experimental DOHC Norton twin would have made it to production, then it was supposed to have the servo clutch. Since Berliner was the largest distributor for Nortons in the world, if he did not buy any, none would be built.

Kegler tested the DOHC twin, deemed it a piece of junk as it broke down on every single test ride it was ever taken on, so Berliner told the Norton company it was a no-go. So if anyone is wondering why that neat looking DOHC Norton twin never made it into production, it was because it was tested and found not to be a good design at all Thank you for answering that.

I spoke briefly to Heinz when he wasmodifying my clutch, the swingarm brackets he made and some questions i had about the Laycock overdrive in my triumph. The clutchis a very nice and thorough modification. It had twobevel drive shafts going through the push-rod tunnels to a re-designed cylinder head.

The bevel drives meshed with a shaft in the camshaft housing with a beveled gear and small counter weights on it. What became of the engine is mystery?

I have a Early Norton Manxman and I am looking for a piar of mufflers for it if you may know of someone who has some for sale Yours Anna J Dixon annajeannette btinternet. At the completion of the 6 laps the DomiRacer came home in 3rdplace in doing so became the first twincylinder motorcycle to lap the TT circuit at over mph.

My DomiRacer is as close to the machine as you can get the only part I have been unable to find is the trick cylinder head. That is cool George. Maybe if you get a chance you could throw up some links to photos of your bike. I am corresponding now with a gentleman who claims to know the whereabouts of the original Phillis Domiracer and it's engine and is negotiating to get possession of it, we will see what happens with that!

Hi Benjamin, My engine is one of the short strokes with a one piece billet crank, with the special light weight con rods, and titanium push rods. In my quest to find a complete works DomiRacer I have been on many adventures and have been shown many so called ex works machines but all turned out to be fakes. I was looking at Mr. Seifert's paragraph above and thought I would comment on it. There are photographs of Thalhammer working on his Domiracer in one of the popular Norton books, and the engine does not have the eccentric rockers or alloy cylinder, it looks a lot more like the engine of the three Daytona twin racers.

If you read all the available material scattered around on Doug Hele's development of the Model 88 for racing, some interesting things pop up:. Some Domiracer style engine parts found their way into a few production road-racing efforts during Most photos of Domiracers show engines with iron cylinders and standard rocker pieces, not the fancy eccentric gear and alloy cylinders, including Thalhammer's machine.

So it is interesting to see that in a few short years Hele assembled just about every combination of parts possible into Domiracers, along with still doing development work on the Manx. He was certainly a very busy man with a lot of energy!!! I have what i thinkmay be an ex works bottom half that may have come from the Norton factory at Bracebridge Street. It came from Reg Dreadon as a friend of mine bought it back in the late 's, and then passed it on to me when he did not ride British bikes any more.

It has no crankcase numbers, the drive side part of the crankshaft that would haveheld the alternator has been machined off. The camshaft bearings are fitted with needle roller bearingsand there is a screw hole, in the end of the crankcasefor an oil feed direct into the camshaft to oil the needle roller bearings. This is where a breather was fitted to the Norton Atlas motor. Ithas been in thebottom of one of my wardrobes for years. It may or may not be an ex factory engine, but is looks a bit trick.

Well Reg Dearden did get a lot of factory goodies and in one of my books it mentions him getting Domiracer items along with Paul Dunstall after the race works was liquidated. If the cam is still in the bottom half you have it would be interesting to see what it is. The camshaft is still in my engine's bottom half, and the cam that came with it looks just like the one in the picture.

It also has oil holes in the same place as the picture that was posted. It has a number stamped just where the breather is,or i suspect the engine shop number. It only has three holes drilled on the drive side crankcaserather than the normal six. This may have been foran engine and clutch chain cover. The breather hole at the back of the crankcase that is used on the pre Atlas engines has been blocked off.

The bottom half looks like it had a different breather arrangement, and it could have used the inlet or exhaust rocker covers to breath out of. It is different and i never gave it that much thought, but i suspected it may have been a Norton ex works race engine. I would be interested to know what the numbers are on the cases, and it would also be nice to see some photos of it.

I have a lot of sets of early cases, including a bike with engine shop 2 in it. I would like to compare yours to these.

The Hele works racing twins had the cams like you are talking about, but Dunstall sold them also. Often Dunstall's were marked with the model number he used for the cam grind.

I wonder if he got hold of the vendor that supplied Doug Hele and had them make them for him too. Turning out a cam like that with holes drilled in hardened lobes was pretty unique. The Bracebridge Street Nortons from and earlier had a special breather on the intake rocker cover that was quickly discontinued after those works were shut down at the end of This breather is listed for some of the other Norton twins, but I have not seen any old original or cc bikes with the feature.

Of course it was a lot of small bits that were easily lost over time. I have seen first hand three old cc racing twins here in the USA with the pressure oil feed to the cam end, I am pretty sure one had it added later. I have some old drawings that show how to machine cases for this feature. My personal email is sportspecial hotmail. The engine number is And He as his Own little Museum of Norton Motorcycles 15 in all two of the Manxmans and a late 62 Polychromatic blue ss and it as a two tone tank been blue and dove grey just like his ES2 in Red and dove grey.

GP carbs 9" 4 LSB wheel hub. The barrell studs that are left in the crankcases that i have, are of the small thinlongtype nut that are standard at the front of all Norton twins, that hold the barrell to the crankcase.

They are all of them this size, so this engine may have had a different barrel to the standard Norton type, or even an alloy barrel. The camshaft dores not have any numbers on it, and it is just a plain camshaft. There are some numbers stamped inside the crankcases, inside the timing chest. The oil feed holes in the crankcases are also of the later largerdimensions. It had come to me from Roger Corbett who was associated with Paul Dunstall.

However ithad a needle roller Dunstall cam, the breather you describe and the crank and rods were mirror polished. Top end has special valves Dunstall? On another interesting note for all you who have been following the Norton Domiracer storey above, I have somewhere one of the original 1. I always intended to use it in a motor for the IOM but had no rods, and in those days that was a major stumbling block.

And you can stuff your dribbly, shonky old Tritons… Hand-in-hand with the modern monoshock is the cutting edge carbon fiber, lashings of CNC-milled-and-hand-polished alloy and top-spec, state-of-the-art cycle parts. Every variation of road bike of the last quarter century… But thumbing the open-megga-ed Domiracer into life was like opening a whole new dimension of sound and sensation, like Dorothy crossing the threshold from monochrome Kansas into Technicolor Oz. Contact Terms of Use Policy Links.

Norton Domiracer Limited Edition. Make Model. Four stroke, pushrod, 4 valve parallel twin. Bore x Stroke. Cooling System. Air cooled. Max Power. Max Torque. Final Drive. Front Suspension. Rear Suspension. Front Brakes. Motorcycles News Norton Roadster Cruisers. Read full bio. What do you think?

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