BRIAN CRIGHTON

A life of innovation

EARLY DAYS

On the left is the 50cc Honda CR110 that Brian tuned using information gleaned from blasting water through the inlets. He won the British Championship three times on it. The other is his 500-4 that started life as a CB400F.

JOINING NORTON

When Brian got a job maintaining the police Commanders in the mid’80s they were still air-cooled. But when they got liquid cooling (like the bike above), Brian suspected he could get a lot more power out of the 588cc twin-rotor Wankel engine.

FIRST ROTARY RACER

This is Mick Grant giving Brian’s first attempt at a rotary race bike a shakedown in 1987. The tube connected to the exhaust sucks air through the engine, cooling the rotors. This allowed Brian to raise the power from 80 to 120bhp.

WINNING TEAM

In 1989 Brian’s Norton team won the British F1 Championship. Suddenly they were being taken seriously, even attracting interest from current GP stars such as Niall Mackenzie (above). That’s Brian in the JPS paddock jacket.

NORTON F1

This was the road bike based on Brian’s RCW588 race bike. It arrived in 1989, but by the following year Brian had left Norton after a ruck with the new race team manager. Brian went on to win the BSB Championship in 1994.

NEW ROTRON

Having developed a 700cc twin rotor engine capable of making 200bhp, Brian built this, the Rotron CR700P. Note the single shock, in a twin-shock position. Brian has always believed it’s the best location for keeping the shock cool.

SPACESHIP DRIVE

As always, Brian has other projects on the go. He started developing a microwave drive system for satellites (and spaceships) at Rotron, and now continues the work at home. He also builds clocks and steam engines. As you do.