Britain's most historic sporting brand, Norton Motorcycles, is in the process of being reinvented by the management team recruited by its owners TVS, the Indian manufacturer which acquired the bankrupt company in April 2020 from the ashes of former CEO Stuart Garner's 12-year ownership of Norton. The £16m price which TVS paid the liquidator included the manufacturing package - such as it was - for the marque's iconic Commando model. In its 961cc guise this formed the basis of Norton production throughout the Garner years, from its March 2010 debut onwards. Production was however sporadic over the next decade owing to a lack of capital, and it's believed that only around 2500 Commandos, including the short-run Domiracer, Dominator and California versions, were built during Garner's tenure of the company.
Having invested a further £100m in establishing and equipping a new state-ofthe-art factory on the outskirts of Birmingham, where the marque was originally born 125 years ago next year, the TVS-appointed management team led by CEO Dr. Robert Hentschel have now re-engineered the Commando 961 to enhance its appeal and make it series production-friendly.
This involved what's described as 'an extensive quality improvement programme' to redress the many faults identified in the Garnerera platform. Norton is now producing a version 36% of which is completely new by content, with circa 350 components either changed or redesigned. And even though it was under no legal obligation to do so,TVS has authorised Norton to build a batch of Commando 961 Classic models for delivery at no additional cost to the 29 customers who had paid Garner's now defunct company for their bikes, before launching the updated model to the general
