NORTON NOT MAMMUT

Reader Mick King, owner of Superformance Motorcycles in Vancouver (one of the first performance/custom bike shops in Western Canada) built an interesting special in the late 1960s, using a Norton Featherbed frame and a salvaged NSU car engine. This was around the same time Friedl Münch was building his first specials along the same lines; the Norton/NSU makes an interesting comparison to the Mammüt (see my road test here) and another contemporary special using an NSU engine; the Bison.  Mick's Norton/NSU special now lives in the Trev Deeley Museum in Vancouver, Canada.

'In the 1960s, there were no NSU dealers in Vancouver, and the car owners couldn't get them repaired... I had a motorcycle shop, and would fix a few NSU cars because I had managed an NSU dealership in the UK.  They were so simple to work on, it was a good revenue source and sideline to my motorcycle business, which was one of the first on BCs west coast.  I took in a trade an NSU 1200 TT car for two hundred bucks; due to rat infestation and rust the car was gutted and the wheels and sundry items sold off. I kept looking at the engine thinking it might look good in one of my Norton Featherbed frames, which owed me nothing... I had a couple gathering dust in the attic!

As winter started in, the bike work stopped; I had just brought over an apprentice from the UK, and a new 9-1/2" South Bend lathe for our custom bike division, and decided to see if we could fit the NSU motor into the Norton frame. This gave the new arrival some valuable turning experience.  We wanted the engine to fit the existing Norton engine mounts, as I did not want to mess up the frame for the sake of the NSU engine; I had no input or feedback as to how it may perform.  When the Münch showed up in Cycle Canada magazine I thought, "Great timing! Maybe I can find some encouragement from the article!"  But there was no data -no speed or bhp- as I recollect, the mag people were not allowed to ride it?  So we plodded on, and after a few weeks the engine was roughed-in, and we took it for a ride.  I could see why there was no data available - it was a gutless wonder, despite major engine work! I considered buying a twin-cam Japanese car engine but they were all snapped up for mini flat track race cars, as they are today!

Note: four Amal Concentric carbs, and reversed Norton gearbox.  Top photo shows four Norton Commando 'Peashooter' exhausts!

So I worked on the camshaft, flowed the cylinder head, calibrated the exhausts, put one large-bore carb onto each each inlet port, used premium fuel, etc, and finally managed to get 125mph out of it, which in the late sixties was not too shabby.  We painted it up black white + chrome, it looked kinda menacing! It was entered in bike shows from Vancouver to Seattle, and it won a lot of 1st place trophies. The whole project cost around fifteen hundred bucks.

Trying to draw a comparison with the Münch would be a waste of time in my opinion, considering the amount of money he invested, plus his engineering facilities and so on.  Nevertheless I think from the get-go the Münch Mammut was doomed, mainly because D.O.H.C. motorcycle engines [such as Kawasaki Z-1] were already making their debut, and strapping an antiquated and gutless S.O.H.C NSU car engine into such an enormous and costly project baffled me and my mechanics from the get go.  Then there was the price... ridiculous!'

Mick notes, "All of the information above is alleged! and relegated to my memory at the time."

NORTON NOT MAMMUT

Reader Mick King, owner of Superformance Motorcycles in Vancouver (one of the first performance/custom bike shops in Western Canada) built an interesting special in the late 1960s, using a Norton Featherbed frame and a salvaged NSU car engine. This was around the same time Friedl Münch was building his first specials along the same lines; the Norton/NSU makes an interesting comparison to the Mammüt (see my road test here) and another contemporary special using an NSU engine; the Bison.  Mick's Norton/NSU special now lives in the Trev Deeley Museum in Vancouver, Canada.

'In the 1960s, there were no NSU dealers in Vancouver, and the car owners couldn't get them repaired... I had a motorcycle shop, and would fix a few NSU cars because I had managed an NSU dealership in the UK.  They were so simple to work on, it was a good revenue source and sideline to my motorcycle business, which was one of the first on BCs west coast.  I took in a trade an NSU 1200 TT car for two hundred bucks; due to rat infestation and rust the car was gutted and the wheels and sundry items sold off. I kept looking at the engine thinking it might look good in one of my Norton Featherbed frames, which owed me nothing... I had a couple gathering dust in the attic!

As winter started in, the bike work stopped; I had just brought over an apprentice from the UK, and a new 9-1/2" South Bend lathe for our custom bike division, and decided to see if we could fit the NSU motor into the Norton frame. This gave the new arrival some valuable turning experience.  We wanted the engine to fit the existing Norton engine mounts, as I did not want to mess up the frame for the sake of the NSU engine; I had no input or feedback as to how it may perform.  When the Münch showed up in Cycle Canada magazine I thought, "Great timing! Maybe I can find some encouragement from the article!"  But there was no data -no speed or bhp- as I recollect, the mag people were not allowed to ride it?  So we plodded on, and after a few weeks the engine was roughed-in, and we took it for a ride.  I could see why there was no data available - it was a gutless wonder, despite major engine work! I considered buying a twin-cam Japanese car engine but they were all snapped up for mini flat track race cars, as they are today!

Note: four Amal Concentric carbs, and reversed Norton gearbox.  Top photo shows four Norton Commando 'Peashooter' exhausts!

So I worked on the camshaft, flowed the cylinder head, calibrated the exhausts, put one large-bore carb onto each each inlet port, used premium fuel, etc, and finally managed to get 125mph out of it, which in the late sixties was not too shabby.  We painted it up black white + chrome, it looked kinda menacing! It was entered in bike shows from Vancouver to Seattle, and it won a lot of 1st place trophies. The whole project cost around fifteen hundred bucks.

Trying to draw a comparison with the Münch would be a waste of time in my opinion, considering the amount of money he invested, plus his engineering facilities and so on.  Nevertheless I think from the get-go the Münch Mammut was doomed, mainly because D.O.H.C. motorcycle engines [such as Kawasaki Z-1] were already making their debut, and strapping an antiquated and gutless S.O.H.C NSU car engine into such an enormous and costly project baffled me and my mechanics from the get go.  Then there was the price... ridiculous!'

Mick notes, "All of the information above is alleged! and relegated to my memory at the time."

THE BLUE BOX

So this is the notorious 'Blue Box' which lurked in the basement of the NSU dep't at the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, containing one ultra-rare NSU Works Four-cylinder RS54 dohc 500cc engine.

The engine itself is awaiting some remedial work; while the critical components are in place and in good condition (even the 2 magnetos and 4 Amal-Fischer RN carbs, now priceless - I tried to find a pair for an R51SS, but no dice). The engine isn't in the chassis for this machine as it lacks a sump casting; I'm sure Wolfgang will correct me but I understand this particular engine was used for another purpose (or perhaps just testing), at the end of its racing life, and the sump was removed, and ultimately lost. It will be a relatively simple matter to cast a new one, as it doesn't support the bearings or oil pump, just a cover essentially, and at that point it will be reunited with the chassis. I can't wait to hear it running.

The photo below is from my own archives; it was taken by a US soldier who was an amateur photographer / motorcycle enthusiast, and shows the NSU RS54 in action at the Nurburgring ca 1951, and is probably Heiner Fleischmann aboard. Note the enthusiastic response of the children in the background! 'Go!'

In the two boxes marked 'Spare parts for T.T.' were other NSU gems, including one of the early R11 Rennfox 125cc engines from 1951, with shaft-and-bevel driven dohc, and the funny canted angle of the cylinder head, desaxe the crankcase; see the photos of the whole machine, taken at the Deutsches Zwierad Museum in Neckarsulm (just a few minutes away from the Audi plant, and with a wonderful collection of machines in a converted Schloss). There has been much speculation about why this cylinder head was designed off-angle in this way, but the simple truth is the pressed-steel frame wouldn't permit this large head to fit in the frame any other way. In later models, the cylinder head was redesigned, and sat straight relative to the crankcase.

The R11-51 model also used a petrol tank which was stretched and modified from the original steel roadster item, and lacked the graceful hammered alloy bodywork of the later models.

Still, it has a rustic charm, and was certainly effective on the track, producing 12.5hp @ 9500rpm. I'll make a more thorough investigation of the Works versions of the NSU Max/Fox models as time permits this year; their history is amazing, including the all-conquering 'if it started the race, it won the race' Rennmax model of 1954.

THE BLUE BOX

So this is the notorious 'Blue Box' which lurked in the basement of the NSU dep't at the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, containing one ultra-rare NSU Works Four-cylinder RS54 dohc 500cc engine.

The engine itself is awaiting some remedial work; while the critical components are in place and in good condition (even the 2 magnetos and 4 Amal-Fischer RN carbs, now priceless - I tried to find a pair for an R51SS, but no dice). The engine isn't in the chassis for this machine as it lacks a sump casting; I'm sure Wolfgang will correct me but I understand this particular engine was used for another purpose (or perhaps just testing), at the end of its racing life, and the sump was removed, and ultimately lost. It will be a relatively simple matter to cast a new one, as it doesn't support the bearings or oil pump, just a cover essentially, and at that point it will be reunited with the chassis. I can't wait to hear it running.

The photo below is from my own archives; it was taken by a US soldier who was an amateur photographer / motorcycle enthusiast, and shows the NSU RS54 in action at the Nurburgring ca 1951, and is probably Heiner Fleischmann aboard. Note the enthusiastic response of the children in the background! 'Go!'

In the two boxes marked 'Spare parts for T.T.' were other NSU gems, including one of the early R11 Rennfox 125cc engines from 1951, with shaft-and-bevel driven dohc, and the funny canted angle of the cylinder head, desaxe the crankcase; see the photos of the whole machine, taken at the Deutsches Zwierad Museum in Neckarsulm (just a few minutes away from the Audi plant, and with a wonderful collection of machines in a converted Schloss). There has been much speculation about why this cylinder head was designed off-angle in this way, but the simple truth is the pressed-steel frame wouldn't permit this large head to fit in the frame any other way. In later models, the cylinder head was redesigned, and sat straight relative to the crankcase.

The R11-51 model also used a petrol tank which was stretched and modified from the original steel roadster item, and lacked the graceful hammered alloy bodywork of the later models.

Still, it has a rustic charm, and was certainly effective on the track, producing 12.5hp @ 9500rpm. I'll make a more thorough investigation of the Works versions of the NSU Max/Fox models as time permits this year; their history is amazing, including the all-conquering 'if it started the race, it won the race' Rennmax model of 1954.

SUPER-SECRET NSU COLLECTION SPY PHOTOS

During my recent trip to Germany, I had the opportunity to see some amazing motorcycle collections - public, private, and hidden. These 'secret spy photos' of a not-open-to-the-public NSU collection were only possible via access granted by my gracious hosts.

My friend Wolfgang Schneider (on the left, behind a Walter Moore-designed 'Bullus' ohc NSU) kept me occupied for a few days at Hockenheim and surrounding areas, and had arranged for a visit with Ralph Plagmann (right in the photo), who heads the NSU department at the Audi factory in Neckarsulm (Audi, formerly Auto-Union, purchased NSU in 1969, but no 'fifth ring' was added to their logo...). The Audi factory, which consists of a lot of small and large buildings, is well integrated into the town somehow, and not shunted to the outskirts. My goal in this visit was to secure the loan of a few 'gems' from the Audi collection for next year's Legend of the Motorcycle Concours - NSU is one of the featured marques (the other is Indian), and as far as I know, there are no ex-Works racing NSUs in the States. Thus, if any of these amazing machines is to be on display at the Legends, a few European collections will have to stretch across the pond. The Legends has always had high-end auto sponsorship (those Bentleys looked pretty good on the grass), and the rationale for Audi to sponsor such a trip has to be 'it's good advertising, Audi sells a lot of cars in CA...'.
Ralph Plagmann didn't need much convincing, as he is fully committed to the NSU marque, but there are higher-ups at Audi who have yet to see the Legends as a perfect venue to display a few of their motorcycles, while garnering a little positive glow for their auto sales.

Ralph led Wolfgang and myself into a warehouse which isn't open to the public, housing the collection of NSU road and racing motorcycles, and a few other things like the Kettenkraftrad (that freakish mating of a motorcycle and a tank - see pic), and a 'drone' waterski boat - controlled by the skier like a motorcycle, from very long handlebars (no, it didn't sell - see photo, it looks like a prop from 'The Prisoner').

And I'm making this all sound very academic; actually I was in a state of high anxiety, as I was VERY excited to see this collection, and my camera was dead as a doornail! So, we walked into this big warehouse full of impossibly cool motorcycles, but I don't have a camera, as my battery charger didn't like the change from 110v to 220v in Europe... and there is no way I can see this collection and NOT take photos. I remembered my US cell phone sitting in the car, so I ran and grabbed it and took 100 photos with the worst camera in the world....BUT I got the shots!

Lined up are a bunch of road bikes, from the 'teens to the 60's, lightweights and big v-twins, plus spare car and motorcycle engines on shelves, an example of the first NSU knitting machine from the late 1800's, all sorts of stuff.... but the racing bikes caught my eye... the NSU Rennmax and Rennfox are, in my humble opinion, on a very short list of the most beautiful bikes ever ever. Hand hammered aluminum bodywork and fenders, sculpted to fit a crouching human body, plus those perfectly proportioned engines. Breathtaking.

Standing in one corner was the Baumm III streamlined 'flying hammock', so called as the rider lays down in it and steers feet-forward; apparently it was incredibly stable, but looks like a wingless 50's jet. This particular machine was used in a fuel-economy test (1 liter/100km) and was road legal! The lower photos shows a plexiglass cover on the 'tail', which houses a stop and taillamp. Flaps on the sides of the cockpit open to allow the rider's legs to prop the machine at a stop. This is a fully water-and-weatherproof vehicle, and was a prototype for possible commercial development. A forerunner of the Peraves 'Eco' and Monotracer enclosed motorcycles. Given the extremely small output and precarious finances of the Peraves project, NSU was correct to put this one aside.

I got to pull the tarps off many of these machines while Wolfie and Ralph talked incessantly about other things - Wolfgang was the restorer of many of the machines present, so the two of them had much catching up to do, and I was left alone to do as I wished.

Lined up with the Rennmaxes was the remains of the fearsome 4-cyl dohc NSU racer, only the engine was missing. 'Where is the engine?' I interrupted, and Ralph looked a bit puzzled - they searched the warehouse, but no engine. 'It's in a blue box, probably at our other location' in another town. Too bad, I would have really liked to have seen it. See the photos of the front wheel and forks - serious stuff.


On the way out, Wolfie insisted we open a roll-up garage door outside - and in a little garage with a custom-built trailer sat the 1956 'Delphin III', the world record breaking streamliner... amazing. To see this historic machine in person after writing about it just the week prior (on the blog) was a real treat. There are two of these machines - one sits in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, with the original aluminum fairing but a 'hollow' engine, while the Audi machine has a fiberglass fairing and working supercharged 500cc dohc engine. Heinz Hertz made a replica of this machine on his 50-year Anniversary trip to Bonneville (in 2006) to commemorate his father's World Record in the original Delphin III.

We went back to Ralph's office so I could buy some books ('some'; I now own every book in print about NSU, plus a groovy knit blue NSU sweater, very Old School). As I wanted Everything, we had to go into the basement with a secretary to dig up all these books from storage (the NSU office isn't really set up for retail), and while they were finding books and boxing them up, I was snooping around in this basement, and found a groovy old NSU telephone from the '30's on a shelf, and a lot of other unusual relics. Around a corner I spied a row of NSU bicycles beside a stack of boxes.... Wooden boxes, old ones, and one is blue with 'NSU' in white... with two smaller boxes with 'Spares for the TT', in English!

'Wolfgang I found the Four-Cylinder engine!' And sure enough, we opened it up, and there was the thing itself. Awesome... what a kick to dig around in somebody else's basement! Many pix taken, and Wolfie and I took our leave for another part of town, with him hoping we can bring the record-breaker streamliner to CA next May... which would be COOL.

SUPER-SECRET NSU COLLECTION SPY PHOTOS

During my recent trip to Germany, I had the opportunity to see some amazing motorcycle collections - public, private, and hidden. These 'secret spy photos' of a not-open-to-the-public NSU collection were only possible via access granted by my gracious hosts.

My friend Wolfgang Schneider (on the left, behind a Walter Moore-designed 'Bullus' ohc NSU) kept me occupied for a few days at Hockenheim and surrounding areas, and had arranged for a visit with Ralph Plagmann (right in the photo), who heads the NSU department at the Audi factory in Neckarsulm (Audi, formerly Auto-Union, purchased NSU in 1969, but no 'fifth ring' was added to their logo...). The Audi factory, which consists of a lot of small and large buildings, is well integrated into the town somehow, and not shunted to the outskirts. My goal in this visit was to secure the loan of a few 'gems' from the Audi collection for next year's Legend of the Motorcycle Concours - NSU is one of the featured marques (the other is Indian), and as far as I know, there are no ex-Works racing NSUs in the States. Thus, if any of these amazing machines is to be on display at the Legends, a few European collections will have to stretch across the pond. The Legends has always had high-end auto sponsorship (those Bentleys looked pretty good on the grass), and the rationale for Audi to sponsor such a trip has to be 'it's good advertising, Audi sells a lot of cars in CA...'.
Ralph Plagmann didn't need much convincing, as he is fully committed to the NSU marque, but there are higher-ups at Audi who have yet to see the Legends as a perfect venue to display a few of their motorcycles, while garnering a little positive glow for their auto sales.

Ralph led Wolfgang and myself into a warehouse which isn't open to the public, housing the collection of NSU road and racing motorcycles, and a few other things like the Kettenkraftrad (that freakish mating of a motorcycle and a tank - see pic), and a 'drone' waterski boat - controlled by the skier like a motorcycle, from very long handlebars (no, it didn't sell - see photo, it looks like a prop from 'The Prisoner').

And I'm making this all sound very academic; actually I was in a state of high anxiety, as I was VERY excited to see this collection, and my camera was dead as a doornail! So, we walked into this big warehouse full of impossibly cool motorcycles, but I don't have a camera, as my battery charger didn't like the change from 110v to 220v in Europe... and there is no way I can see this collection and NOT take photos. I remembered my US cell phone sitting in the car, so I ran and grabbed it and took 100 photos with the worst camera in the world....BUT I got the shots!

Lined up are a bunch of road bikes, from the 'teens to the 60's, lightweights and big v-twins, plus spare car and motorcycle engines on shelves, an example of the first NSU knitting machine from the late 1800's, all sorts of stuff.... but the racing bikes caught my eye... the NSU Rennmax and Rennfox are, in my humble opinion, on a very short list of the most beautiful bikes ever ever. Hand hammered aluminum bodywork and fenders, sculpted to fit a crouching human body, plus those perfectly proportioned engines. Breathtaking.

Standing in one corner was the Baumm III streamlined 'flying hammock', so called as the rider lays down in it and steers feet-forward; apparently it was incredibly stable, but looks like a wingless 50's jet. This particular machine was used in a fuel-economy test (1 liter/100km) and was road legal! The lower photos shows a plexiglass cover on the 'tail', which houses a stop and taillamp. Flaps on the sides of the cockpit open to allow the rider's legs to prop the machine at a stop. This is a fully water-and-weatherproof vehicle, and was a prototype for possible commercial development. A forerunner of the Peraves 'Eco' and Monotracer enclosed motorcycles. Given the extremely small output and precarious finances of the Peraves project, NSU was correct to put this one aside.

I got to pull the tarps off many of these machines while Wolfie and Ralph talked incessantly about other things - Wolfgang was the restorer of many of the machines present, so the two of them had much catching up to do, and I was left alone to do as I wished.

Lined up with the Rennmaxes was the remains of the fearsome 4-cyl dohc NSU racer, only the engine was missing. 'Where is the engine?' I interrupted, and Ralph looked a bit puzzled - they searched the warehouse, but no engine. 'It's in a blue box, probably at our other location' in another town. Too bad, I would have really liked to have seen it. See the photos of the front wheel and forks - serious stuff.


On the way out, Wolfie insisted we open a roll-up garage door outside - and in a little garage with a custom-built trailer sat the 1956 'Delphin III', the world record breaking streamliner... amazing. To see this historic machine in person after writing about it just the week prior (on the blog) was a real treat. There are two of these machines - one sits in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, with the original aluminum fairing but a 'hollow' engine, while the Audi machine has a fiberglass fairing and working supercharged 500cc dohc engine. Heinz Hertz made a replica of this machine on his 50-year Anniversary trip to Bonneville (in 2006) to commemorate his father's World Record in the original Delphin III.

We went back to Ralph's office so I could buy some books ('some'; I now own every book in print about NSU, plus a groovy knit blue NSU sweater, very Old School). As I wanted Everything, we had to go into the basement with a secretary to dig up all these books from storage (the NSU office isn't really set up for retail), and while they were finding books and boxing them up, I was snooping around in this basement, and found a groovy old NSU telephone from the '30's on a shelf, and a lot of other unusual relics. Around a corner I spied a row of NSU bicycles beside a stack of boxes.... Wooden boxes, old ones, and one is blue with 'NSU' in white... with two smaller boxes with 'Spares for the TT', in English!

'Wolfgang I found the Four-Cylinder engine!' And sure enough, we opened it up, and there was the thing itself. Awesome... what a kick to dig around in somebody else's basement! Many pix taken, and Wolfie and I took our leave for another part of town, with him hoping we can bring the record-breaker streamliner to CA next May... which would be COOL.