Norton Dominator - Racing

Racing

The Norton factory racing team briefly used race-tuned Dominators from circa 1960, but they were still outclassed by the Norton Manx. Doug Hele wanted to see the Dominator developed and produced a 55 bhp (41 kW) "Domiracer" that revved to 8,000 rpm. The Domiracer weighed 35 lb (16 kg) less than the Manx. Dennis Greenfield and Fred Swift won the 500 cc class in the Thruxton 500 event in 1960. In the 1961 Isle of Man TT Tom Phillis took the bike to third place and lapped at over 100 mph (161 km/h), a first for a pushrod engine and a first for any twin. Norton abandoned the Domiracer project a year later when the Bracebridge Street race shop closed and the Domiracer and factory spares were sold to Paul Dunstall, who continued with development and began producing Norton performance parts, eventually selling complete Norton Dunstall bikes to customers including Steve McQueen.

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