250cc champ Lee Dickinson will debut the new Norton NRV588 at the Mallory Park Summer Festival of Motorcycles Races in a fortnight's time.
Norton has always been a big part of British Motorcycling history and the rotary Norton’s were at their racing peak in 1994 when Ian Simpson picked up the British Superbike Championship. Unfortunately financial difficulties hit the company and it was unable to produce enough machines to meet new homologation rules.

Brian Crighton had already designed the 1995 NRV588 machine but sadly it was never built, until quite recently. In 2004 Crighton started work as a restorer at the National Motorcycle Museum and he explained to Museum owner Roy Richards about his project and the un-built Norton. Richards offered to fund its completion and in two weeks time the NRV 588 will return to the track at Mallory Park.

“The bike that will be on track in two weeks time is the bike that I designed for the 1995 season, but was never built due to the rule changes,” explained Crighton. “It was finally built two years ago and the plan is to race it and finish off the Norton story. This was our first chance to get back on track; Norton’s heritage is racing so it is all very exciting.”

Lee Dickinson is the man who has been tasked with racing the Norton for its first outing; he met Crighton during a test at Mallory Park. “Lee Dickinson came over and said ‘If you ever need a test rider let me know,’” said Crighton. “Then Steve Spray was away on holiday and we needed to test so we rang Lee. It went well he was good on feed back so that was that.”

2007 250cc Champion, Dickinson is over the moon at the opportunity to ride such an exclusive machine. “I’m really excited and it is a brilliant project to be involved with, I just hope we can put on a good show straight out the box,” he said. “It’s weird to actually be racing the Norton because when I started racing I used to go into the Norton awning and day dream about the bikes, and now I’m riding one.

“The engine characteristic is different to anything else I’ve ever ridden,” he continued. “The twin-rotor Wankel type engine pulls from nothing at all and is very torquey. It is easy to ride but hard to ride fast. It handles well and feels like a fast 250 but stands a bit taller. It is a really nice bike to ride.”

The NRV588 is a high tech machine and sports fuel injection with ‘fly by wire’ throttle operation, the on-board computer that controls various functions is inside the fairing nose, front suspension is by an upside down telescopic fork which has radially-mounted calipers for the disc brakes. The fairing was designed by Crighton with a little help from Formula One car experts, and it was made in carbon fibre by Harris Performance.