Four play

BY THE TIME this prototype four-cylinder Trident- based machine superbike sneaked out of the experimental department at Kitts Green the British motorcycle industry had had it.

Yes, in 1974 the all-encompassing motorcycle industry in the UK was down to a handful of people grouped together by Manganese Bronze top lad Dennis Poore.

Running under the mantle Norton Villiers Triumph, or NVT, Poore was attempting to salvage something out of the chaos and produce a viable company with its eye on the future.

That this was to be Norton based – and what happened when Triumph found this out – has been the subject of much writing over the past 40-odd years and is not within the remit of this piece.

Read more in April’s issue of CBG