Lost potential of the Domiracer

Lost potential of
the Domiracer
NTIL 1941 Daytona Beach was
the happy hunting ground for
Indian and Harley Davidson
with their American-built 750cc side
valve vee-twins. Then Canadian Bill
Matthews went on the warpath to
Florida and beat them with a 500cc Manx
Norton.
That was the last race at Daytona
before the United States entered World
War Two. The thousands of American
servicemen who came here saw Britishstyle motor cycles for the first time and
they fuelled the post war demand for
British bikes.
The Daytona Beach race became an
important shop window and after 1947,
when the race was won by Ed Kretz on
an Indian, Nortons prepared by Steve
Lancefield and then Francis Beart,
enjoyed five years of domination and
boosted Norton sales in the United
States. Displeased American
manufacturers then pressured the
American Motorcycle Association into
U
52
Charlie Rous recalls
the birth of a
Norton twin that
could have achieved
a lot more than it did
framing regulations that favoured the
side-valvers!
The mies stipulated that machines had
to be based on standard production
design, fitted with kickstarters and
limited to a compression ratio of 7.5:1
which favoured the side valve 750cc
engines. Specially-designed 'works'
machines were barred.
Norton realised that this restriction
ruled out their TT-winning racers but as
they were based on standard design, they
'disguised' their Daytona racers as
'International' models.
The AMA's reply was 'if you can't
beat 'em, ban 'em', and they introduced
a rule that eliminated the Manx Norton
opposition - they banned ail overhead
camshaft engines.
Overhead valve (pushrod) engines
remained eligible, limited to 500cc and a
top compression ratio of 8.5:1.
Factory-prepared bikes as running
private entries was discouraged by the
introduction of a selling clause which
permitted any winning machine to be
sold to the highest bidder.
HESE restrictions probably did
more to boost American sales
of British machines than to
actually win races. But British bikes did
win although there was more success for
Triumph and BSA than for Norton, who
T
CLASS/C RACER
Left: Happy and glorious! Francis Beart
(dark glasses) in 1950 with Billy Mathews
98 winner of the 200 - Dick Klamforth 2
second and Bill Tuman 51 fourth.
AUTUMN 1988
Above: Daytona Beach - start of the 200
in the fast year before ohc engines were
banned.
Below: Factory picture of the original
Domiracer as prepared for the 1961 TT.
53
considered the 500cc ohv Dominator
twin unsuitable for racing.
It seemed this was true. After
reluctantly submitting to demands from
their American dealers, Norton did send
a couple of race-prepared Dominators to
the Daytona race in the mid-fifties but
they were only mildly tweaked standard
machines which failed hopelessly.
This understandably annoyed the
American dealers who continued to
press for a mode! suitable for Americanstyle racing.
Nothing serious was done until Doug
Hele joined Norton in 1956. By thèn
Norton Motors Ltd., of Bracebridge
Street, Birmingham had been absorbed
(in 1952) by Associated Motor Cycles the
South London manufacturers of AJS and
Matchless. Instead of combining their
race departments , AMC chose to end
development of grand prix machines but
briefed Doug Hele to find a replacement
for the ageing, 500cc production Manx
mode!.
This was not intended for European
activity - the new Norton was to be an
AMA specification bike to win at
Daytona!
There were no announcements and the
'Domi-racer' project went on in secrecy
for four years . Its existence was first
revealed when practice began for the Isle
of Man TT in 1961 but the prospect of a
tuned roadster replacing the race-bred
Manx was not well received by the TT
fraternity.
Indeed, many private owners had
expensive memories of so-called racing
machines based on production designs.
The Grand Prix Triumph and the G45
Matchless were both fast, but notoriously
unreliable and the appearance of the new
Norton Domiracer at the 1961 TT did
not attract a queue of eager riders.
First to turn it down was Mike
Hailwood , who preferred to ride his own
Manx Norton , specially prepared by Bill
Lacey. Not revealed was that Hailwood
had tested a Domiracer prototype at
Daytona a few months before the TT
offer.
First to ride the Domiracer on the
Island was 1960 Manx Grand Prix winner
Phil Read but he dropped it at Creg-neBaa on his first and only practice Iap.
Unhurt and undamaged, Read rode the
machine back to the pits where he
admitted that the lively reaction of the
twin cylinder engine had caught him off
guard and he slid off.
Read also stated that the Domiracer
was "better than a Manx on the fast
bits." Even so he chose not to ride it
again in favour of his own Manx mode!.
The Domiracer was then offered and
eagerly accepted by Australian Tom
Phillis who rode just two practice laps
before taking it into the race. From a
spluttery start, Phillis turned the opening
lapin fifth place at 98.93~ph and went
on to achieve one of the most remarkable
performances in Norton's illustrious TT
racing history.
As expected, Gary Hocking (MV-4)
led the race and set the fastest lap at
54
Tom Phillis at speed on the Domiracer on his way to third place in the 1961 Senior TT.
102.62mph before retiring. This put
Hailwood (Manx Norton) into the lead
and he stayed there to win at 100.60mph.
Then came Scotland's Bob Mclntyre
on his self-prepared Manx Norton,
followed by Phillis in third place at
98.78mph - with a fastest Iap of
100.36mph!
The significance of this was that 1961
was only four years after the TT had
been Iapped at lOOmph for the first time
- by Bob Mclntyre on a fully streamlined
four cylinder Gilera in 1957. So much for
the modified roadster. ..
The greatest astonishment of Phillis'
ride was that it could have been much
faster, for early on the engine lost
1,000rpm from its 8,000 peak when the
non-standard durai pushrods hammered
their ends to create excessive tappet
clearance.
1 talked to Phillis after the race and
reported in MCN, that he was pleased to
have finished third but was disappointed
not to have done better - had -the engine
kept on full power.
Indeed, atone stage Phillis moved into
second place and said the Domiracer was
capable of averaging over lOOmph for
the entire TT distance.
Although the five-speed machine
strongly resembled the 'featherbed'
layout , the Domiracer 'lowboy' was
much lower, leaner and Iighter than a
Manx mode! by about 35 pounds - which
helped both top speed and acceleration.
But curiously, after its debut success the
Domiracer never featured so well again.
Indeed, its only victory came through
cheating! A Domiracer engine,
developing 47bhp with silencers, was
fitted into the standard Domiracer
machine that won the 500cc class of the
Thruxton '500' long-distance race in
1962.
Any possibility of the Domiracer going
into production apparently ended when
the parent Birmingham factory was shut
down in 1962. The fact that production
of 650 and 750cc twins continued in
London and that the racing version of
the original 500 could have helped
further sales was seemingly disregarded.
Ail racing development stopped and
the 'works' Domiracers - two machines
and enough parts to build three more were bought by Paul Dunstall, the
Norton twin specialist-dealer who had
raced them from the Iate 50s.
Sorne years ago, 1 recall Paul telling
me that although he bought the bikes,
they were not really suitable for Brands
Hatch style racing for which he favoured
650 and 750cc twins.
CLASS/C RACER
The Dunstall Domiracer no pure copy,
but using many of
the ultra special
factory parts.
Left: this
picture clearly
shows how
much Lower the
Domiracer was
compared to a
standard Manx
Norton.
Below: Francis
Beart was
quick to build
a Domiracer
of his own.
Ridden in 1961
by Ernie
Washer it was
actually
finished before
the factory's
own bike!
"They were quite superb ," he sa id ,
"and Doug Hele did a magnificent job in
designing and building them. They wc r ·
real racers and any similarity with a
standard Domiracer was purely
coincidental," said Paul. They only look
alike. The internais were totally different
from standard and nothing interchanged.
They even had different gaskets! They
were built for racing with every vital part
made stronger or modified in some way.
We had an engine on the test bench that
gave 57bhp.
"That's nothing now, but there is no
question that had the Domiracer gone
into production in 1963, it would hav<'.!
been a worthy successor to the Manx ,"
said Paul.
So much then for a memory of what
might have been with a British machine
first described by its makers as totally
unsuitable for racing.
AUTUMN 1988