750cc John Player Norton Racer
July 3rd, 2008The 1974-spec 750c John Player Norton racer that joined our collection in March has been in action at Mallory Park circuit for final sorting. Norman White, who restored the machine with assistance from former Norton race team colleague John McLaren, turned in several laps before pronouncing that all was well with the newly-built machine.
Built to exactly the same specification as the three Player Nortons built for the 1974 season, this bike has the ‘spaceframe’ chassis introduced for that year. It has been painstakingly sif-bronze welded together from resilient 18-guage 531 tubing. Glass-fibre mouldings were produced by a specialist company, making moulds from an aluminium ‘master’ crafted by John McLaren.
Even the stickers are totally correct. Norman White had the foresight to keep some Seventies’ originals, used as reference to make exact copies.
Acquiring the 1974 ‘spaceframe’ has completed the Museum’s collection of Norton team machines raced from 1972 to 1977. They are all in pristine condition, which is how team manager Frank Perris liked to present Norton hardware at circuits in its heyday.
The 1974 750cc John Player Norton, built exactly to original drawings
Restorer Norman White warms up the Norton’s 70bhp twin-cylinder engine for some laps of Mallory Park
The 35 year old chassis looks strikingly modern
