JOHN PLAYER NORTON MONOCOQUE Thinking outside the box
Five decades ago Nortons JPN tiny Thruxton- based race shop not only established the prototype of the modern fully-sponsored road racing team, it also created a race-winning bike that was the most sophisticated and avantgarde motorcycle in its chassis design that the world had yet seen. Even by today’s standard’s the JPN Monocoque would be a true leading edge design, yet in echoing Britain’s newly-established early-1970s Formula 1 supremacy via firms like Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, BRM and Lola, the Norton was a two-wheeled anachronism thanks to its semi-archaic air-cooled pushrod-twin motor, housed in this mould-breaking frame. Although just three such motorcycles were ever built (plus a fourth prototype chassis), all of which competed for just a single race season in 1973, its unlikely success against much more powerful Japanese two-stroke opposition, has granted the JPN Monocoque legendary status as one of the benchmark racers of the modem era.
One which also represents the creative masterpiece of the rider/engineer who conceived, developed and rode it to racetrack success, culminating in victory in the 1973 F750 Isle of Man TT – the late Peter Williams, aka PJW. The JPN story had begun in 1971 when Williams, a Norton factory R&D engineer who combined his day job with Grand Prix racing at the top level on the Arter Matchless G50, was given a budget by Norton Villiers chairman Dennis Poore to build a one-off open-class racer using the firm’s 750cc Commando motor. That bike’s promising results convinced Poore that, despite the Iong-stroke OHV engine, it’d be worthwhile going racing in the new Formula 750 class, where Norton’s BSA/Triumph rivals were already tasting victory.
So the small Norton Villiers raceshop at Thruxton circuit was given over entirely to the creation of the new bikes, with reigning 250GP world champion Phil Read recruited to ride alongside Williams, and ex-Suzuki factory GP rider Frank Perris signed up as team manager. As the final ingredient in this cocktail of talents, former car racer Poore managed to exploit some of his contacts in the motor racing world to attract Imperial Tobacco, the company which had brought cigarette sponsorship to Formula 1 with Gold Leaf Team Lotus four years earlier, to sponsor the Norton race effort via their John Player brand, as the first example anywhere in the world of a bike team fully supported by an
