1954 Norton Model 40 International Clubman
No Reserve - Raced by Geoff Tanner in the 1954 Junior Clubman's Trophy

Registration No: 842 YUG
Frame No: J1058609
MOT: Exempt

• One of only three 350cc Internationals built to Clubman's specification in 1954
• Raced by Geoff Tanner in the 1954 Manx Junior Clubman's Trophy, giving Norton its best result of the year
• Comprehensively restored by Norton specialist Bernie Allen in 2008 and 2009

• The Road and Race Collection

After Norton’s 1-2-3 and 1-2 victories in the Senior and Junior TTs of 1931, Norton adapted its TT racers into the International models for 1932. The timing was auspicious, for in that year Norton achieved 1-2-3 results in both TTs. The “Inters” were essentially built to order from the factory, and could be either out-and-out racing machines or very highly-tuned road bikes. Available as either the 500cc Model 30 or the 350cc Model 40, with small numbers of post-war machines being built to Clubman’s racing specification, they were never machines for the ordinary motorcyclist—the price of a new International was roughly equivalent to a medium-sized car.

Internationals were much improved in 1953 thanks to the Featherbed frame and that year some thirty Clubman’s Model 30s and twenty-eight Model 40s were built. It was a fine vintage, for Norton managed a 1-2-3 finish in the Senior Clubman’s TT. Just ten Model 30s and three Model 40s were produced in Clubman’s trim in 1954, but the rival BSA Gold Stars upped their game and the best result Norton achieved that year was fifth in the Junior Clubman’s Trophy. The rider was George Tanner, mounted on this very bike.

Born in 1928 in Walthamstow, Tanner started riding a 1930 Scott just after the war, then managed to purchase a 1938 Norton International. Making his race début in 1952, the elderly Norton proved somewhat uncontrollable, so he moved on to a Mk. VIII Velocette, and was talent-spotted by Chiswick dealer Hugh Rae (of G. K. Rae), who had just lost his star rider, and Hampshire dealer John Knight, who wanted to promote his Internationals through racing. Between them, they arranged for Tanner to be supplied with the latest Nortons for his Manx début in 1954.

This machine was built to Clubman’s specification and supplied through Craze Bros. of Bournemouth May 28th, 1954. Complete with racing seat and mudguards, fly screen and the deletion of the lights and silencer, it was on the Isle of Man a couple of weeks later, ready for the four-lap Junior Clubman’s. Although outclassed by the Goldies, Tanner drove a blistering race to finish fifth, less than a minute behind the winning BSA. Averaging 81.54mph across the race, his best lap at 83mph was a record for a 350 International which still stands. The next year, with some Manx Nortons, Tanner won both the Junior and Senior Manx Grands Prix, and declined the offer to become a Norton works rider, preferring his friendlier and less formal arrangements which allowed him to continue with his day job as a gardener for Walthamstow Council.

After the race, John Knight sold the International, and it is thought it ended up in the 1960s in Devizes with Bonny Good, the track rider turned collector and dealer of racing Nortons. He is understood to have sold it to Paul Hobbs of Trowbridge in 1965, after which a string of owners followed until it was acquired by Bob Chapman in 2008. He enlisted Manx Norton specialist Bernie Allen, whose clients included John Surtees, to perform a restoration, which was completed in time for Geoff Tanner to be reunited with the bike in 2009. In 2011, it was road-registered (although very much still in race tune, with Manx cams and pistons, a TT carburettor, a close-ratio gearbox and so on) and sold to our vendor, a collector of rare and important historic motorcycles. After several years on static display, it will now require recommissioning. It is to be sold with history including period photographs of Tanner on the bike, the June 10th and 17th, 1954, issues of Motor Cycling, and a copy of works records supplied by the Vintage Motor Cycle Club.

For more information, please contact:
Mike Davis
mike.davis@handh.co.uk
07718 584217