This is a 1927 490cc Norton racing outfit – “LPD 1” on display at the Brooklands Museum.
LPD 1 was a Norton Works engine that was developed by L. P. (Pat) Driscoll for the Norton Works team in 1927. Driscoll was a Brooklands racer and began his great career on Norton’s, racing and record-breaking, and becoming especially proficient on sidecar outfits. As well as being a fine rider, Driscoll was quick to learn the secrets of tuning the overhead-valve engines… he was a wizard when it came to balancing, and managed to make Norton motorcycles turn over at high speed for long periods, with considerable reliability.
LPD 1 was a 490cc overhead-valve motor fitted with a special con rod, cam and fly wheel, amongst other modifications. It turned out to be one hell of a machine, and it was used as part of the Brooklands works team under Nigel Spring, where it was raced at Brooklands by ace rider Bert Denly. Denly used LPD 1 on the banked circuit of Montlhéry in June 1927, where he achieved more than 100 miles per hour (in solo form). This was an impressive feat and a testament to the development that was going on behind the scenes in the Norton factory.
LPD 1 achieved multiple successes and world long distance records at the hands of both Denly and Driscoll, with local rider Jack King as the sidecar operator. In 1929, Driscoll acquired the machine when both Denly and Spring moved to AJS. In its final form LPD 1 is reputed to have lapped Brooklands at 111mph!
Driscoll and LPD 1 won a total of 200 events in the next three years, before Driscoll moved on to race four wheels for the Austin works team. The motorcycle was put to bed in his shed at Brooklands until the outbreak of World War II, until it was resurrected by an apprentice who constructed a road going version using parts from the shed.
LPD 1 is on display in the Brooklands Museum collection, fitted with its original sprint tank and Druid forks. It has had a sympathetic restoration (completed by Ken Boulter in 1994) to keep the appearance of a used machine and is still ridden at select events at Brooklands. In 2007, the Brooklands motorcycle team took the bike to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where the grandson of Bert Denly, Paul, was able to experience the machine as a passenger in the sidecar as it flew up the hill. What an awesome machine!
LPD 1 can be seen on display at The Brooklands Museum alongside a collection of wonderful old motorcycles, vehicle and aeroplanes. Visit the museum website at: http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com
an article by The Girder Club
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