My interest in Norton Rotaries started in the summer of 1987 when I headed over to Snetterton to watch the club racing. As I wandered around the paddock I stumbled upon a modern looking race bike with a red, silver and blue paint job with the historic 'Norton' logo on the tank. I will never forget the moment they fired it up, in my humble opinion there is nothing to rival the sound of a race-prepped wankel engine.

The next time I saw the Norton was October 1988 at Brands Hatch. Steve Spray took the Norton to two wins in two hard fought battles against Terry Rymer on the Loctite Yamaha. The famous historic British marquee was now beating the best modern Superbikes from Japan. During 1989 I followed the Norton race team all over the UK (on a Honda), from Brands to Knockhill and from the Isle of Man to Cadwell, to watch Spray win the National F1 Championship. In 1992 Steve Hislop famously won the 'Senior' race at the Isle of Man on the 'White Charger' Norton. The Norton Rotary Company folded under the pressure of huge debts in 1992 and the race team ceased at the close of the 1994 season having just won the National Championship for a second time.

I always dreamed of owning a Norton Rotary and in 2002 I met the owner of an Interpol 2 engined Streetfighter and learned that he could sell me another Interpol 2 that he had in his garage. Towards the end of 2002 I took delivery of the Norton fitted with a new Stainless and Titanium race rep exhaust. I love riding the Rotary mainly because it brings back to me the ‘Glory years’ of the Norton race bikes. I often find myself playing sweet music with the exhaust note just for the sake of it, blipping on down changes, rolling on and off the throttle through villages and howling along country roads. At my old age the bike is quick enough for me, I’ve done a 12.35 sec, 110mph ¼ mile on it. There is much talk of how different they are to ride compared to a piston engined bike but in my opinion there is very little difference. Compared to my last bike (a Harley 1200) the Rotary has just as much low down torque, a lot less vibration and a little less engine braking but at the end of the day it’s still a petrol engine, it just sounds so different.

Derek Nicol.