The Norton Commando John Player Special was a 1974 limited edition version of the
Norton Commando that was fitted with bodywork styled to reproduce the successful
Formula 750 works racers that were sponsored by cigarette manufacturers
John Player & Sons. The machine was based on the Mk2A 850 Commando. Around 200 of these machines were made, of which about 120 were exported to the US. The bike was expensive, selling for around $3,000 in the US, $500 more than a standard Commando.
Background
Dennis Poore, chairman of
Norton had instigated the formation of a works racing team to enter
Formula 750 events in late 1971 with sponsorship from John Player to promote their
John Player Special brand of cigarettes. Design and development engineer
Peter Williams, who was also their works rider, was the chief designer of the racers.
The team had some success in 1972 and in 1973, on a newly designed bike, the team won 14 international races. These included three races at the
Transatlantic Trophy and the Formula 750cc
Isle of Man TT
The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May and June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907 Isle of Man TT, 1907. The event begins on the UK Spring Bank Holiday at the e ...
.
In British domestic races,
Dave Croxford won the British 750 cc Championship and Williams came second in the MCN Superbike Championship.
To capitalise on the success of the race bikes, Norton decided to produce a variant of the Commando styled to resemble the racers.
Design

Norton's stylist/product designer, Mike Oldfield, was given the design responsibility for the bike. Initially it was to have been a cafe racer, but when the works team started entering endurance races with an abbreviated fairing fitted with twin headlights, the design direction changed.
A styling prototype was built from a Mk2A Commando with the bodywork hand-formed out of aluminium and moulds for the fibreglass bodywork made. Fibreglass petrol tanks were illegal at the time so an extended Roadster tank was used with the fibreglass covering it. The single seat had a large hump which had a storage compartment inside. The fairing was made by Avon, who made the fairings for the racers, and was fitted with twin headlights and swooped down to cover the sides of the engine. Rearsets and clip-on handlebars were fitted and the exhaust finished in
black chrome.
Production
Production started in late 1973 and the first bikes were in the dealer's showroom in April 1974. The machines were assembled on the Commando production lines in
Andover and
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...
.
Although most of the bikes were fitted with the 850 engine, the Norton catalogue did list the model being available with the short-stroke engine used on the 1974 racer, either in full race tune or detuned for road use. It is not known how many 750s were made.
Norton had planned to produce 1,000 machines but this was optimistic, and only around 200 machines were produced in total with about 120 going to the US.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton Commando John Player Special
Commando John Player Special
Motorcycles introduced in 1974
Motorcycles powered by straight-twin engines