The Norton company began in 1902 when James Lansdowne Norton put a French Clement engine into a frame of his own design. In 1907 Norton designed his own engine and competed on it in the TT races of 1909-1911.
Although Norton himself died in 1925, 350cc and 500cc single-cylinder motorcycles designed by his company went on to win several TT races in the 20's and 30's, with successes in the late 40's due to the development of the 500cc Dominator Twin engine. The Dominator would slowly increase in capacity throughout the 50's and 60's from 500cc to 600, 650, and finally 750cc. At this point the Norton company had changed hands from the Vandervell family (who acquired it from Norton) to AMC, who also owned Matchless and AJS, to the Manganese Bronze Holding Company, who focussed on the 750cc version of the Dominator and renamed it the Atlas.
The Norton Commando, with a new frame that promised to cut down on vibration, was released in 1967 and was to become the flagship model of the Norton Motorcycle Company for ten years in 750cc and 850cc models.
In the mid-70's the Norton company ran into financial trouble, and was merged with the Triumph/BSA company to form NVT (Norton-Villiers- Triumph). Since then, the company has struggled along under several different owners, and other than an interesting foray into motorcycles powered by Wankel rotary engines, few motorcycles have been produced.
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