The Norton Rotary engined bikes did tremendously well in the 90s, in Britain. Winning British series and TT and Irish Road Races - Mainly with Steve Hislop riding them.
The new owner of Norton, took a Rotary to the Isle of Mann this year, but it was a rush job, them having got the rotary out of mothballs after he had acquired the company. Michael Dunlop (his dad, Robert, And his uncle,Joey, both raced the Nortons a couple of times, which few people know) was down to ride it, but after testing at the Jurby airfield, he / they felt it was too much of an ask to go out and risk things.
Hopefully, they come back with it next year. The new owner has stated the Rotaries will be further developed ( they were sold for a few years, as 588s, the never ending controversy of what the actual capacity of a rotary had them racing against 1000s etc, though I think the MOT classified it as 588cc).
I got to ride one of the very few 588s (perhaps the Only one) that came to OZ a few years ago. A beautiful handing bike ( alloy twin spar frame, I think made by Spondon) that went really well - especially if you regarded it as a 600 - that was the size / weight of it, and I personally believed it to be a sub 600 bike. It was a weapon. It's on my list of bikes I'd like to have in my workshop one day - hopefully they will go back into production. Though it will be hard to decide between a rotary and the new 965cc (?) parallel twin.
We've a young bloke along our street that drag races a Mazda Rotary ( Eastern Creek Raceway is only about 30 ks away, to get there it's 1 turn onto the expressway, then one turn into the road to the raceway, so even drag racers that can only go in straight lines have a chance of getting there....). Every now an then , he'll start it up, and do a bit of set up, drive down the road , wheelie bars and all, and do one loop around the block. The thing sounds outrageous, the young bloke doesn't keep on driving / revving it, so it doesn't drive the locals to their pitch forks. It's pretty cool, it puts a bloody great smile on my face when he fires it up. The best thing is if my brother is around - he bracket races a supercharged altered, with a Keith Black engine and Bruno trans ( and that's all I know about it - drags / car aren't much interest to me, but I do do a fair bit of fabrication for both my brothers drag cars and various street rods and classics), and he just about foams at the mouth when he hears a rotary.
It's a bit sad really, all my brothers care about are V8s , they have no interest in other stuff - limited imaginations, both of them, but I love 'em just the same.
