after fifteen years of us ownership the norton brand was secured by stuart garner, uk businessman and owner of norton racing ltd. garner established a new norton factory at donington park to develop the dreer-based machine. the new norton is a 961 cc (), air- and oil-cooled pushrod parallel twin with a gear-driven counterbalancer and a 270° crank (a concept pioneered on the yamaha trx850). the machine, a single-seat roadster styled after the earlier commando models, has a claimed rear-wheel power output of , giving a top speed of over .