File:Flickr - ronsaunders47 - NORTON CLASSIC. ROTARY TWIN CYLINDER ENGINE. 1987 UK..jpg

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English: The Norton Classic is a motorcycle made by Norton Motors in 1987.


Norton built the Classic as a limited edition of 100 machines. Only one livery was offered: the traditional Norton colours of silver-grey with black graphics and black and red lining.
When Philippe Le Roux took over Norton Motors Ltd he found an exhaustively-tested product in the form of the Interpol II, but nothing to sell to private customers. The answer of the marketing man in this case was to come up with a limited edition model to attract collectors. The answer of the production manager was to take an Interpol II and, with radical changes to styling but as little change as possible to the actual well-tested motorcycle, produce a fully evaluated but, to the eyes of the public, completely new model.
The Classic is not just a collectors item, but a very nice motorcycle. The low centre of gravity makes it feel lighter than it actually is, and free of all the police equipment and fairing handles well on twisty roads. In British tradition, it has a functionally well-made centre stand that can dig scrape the road surface with its footstep on sharp left-handers.
The Classic is basically Interpol II with re-styled fuel tank and side panels, and no fairing. As such, there are some high-mileage examples about that have done great distances with minimum fuss, but there are also some low-mileage ones around, which have suffered from being in storage. A Wankel engine is prone to corrosion when laid up for long periods without necessary precautions. By the time it is started up after a long period, possibly in a damp environment such as an unheated garage, things can go seriously and expensively wrong. Norton Motors, being aware of the problem, sent out a service release about how to prepare a Classic for storage. 100 Classics were built, as well as one prototype, and several more were later made by private owners from Interpol IIs. The giveaway is always the engine and frame numbers, which on Classics run from P43LE001 to P43LE100.

At the Birmingham Show in 1989, Norton showed a prototype "Classic Mk2" with a water-cooled engine as a teaser for the public. Norton was in deep trouble financially, and the show did not bring in any orders that would justify a production run, but the show bike was sold. The factory converted one standard Classic was converted to water-cooling some time later.
Date
Source Norton Classic. Rotary twin engine. 1987 UK.
Author Ronald Saunders from Warrington, UK
Camera location53° 48′ 00.72″ N, 2° 18′ 54.18″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by ronsaunders47 at https://www.flickr.com/photos/46781500@N00/3771651617. It was reviewed on 26 October 2012 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

26 October 2012

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current07:43, 26 October 2012Thumbnail for version as of 07:43, 26 October 20123,008 × 2,000 (1.56 MB)Matanya (talk | contribs)== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description=The Norton Classic is a motorcycle made by Norton Motors in 1987. Norton built the Classic as a Special edition of just 100 machines. Only one livery was offered: the traditional Norton colours of silv...

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