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Stuart Garner

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It has been a long sad road for Norton Motorcycles lately, and we apologize for not covering the complete debacle that has unfolded from this historic British marque.

That being said, it is hard to condense what has happened to Norton in the past few months, as well as the accusations that have been levied at the company’s CEO Stuart Garner; but cutting to the point, the company has gone bankrupt, which has lead to allegations of the mishandling of funds and even of fraud.

Now after a week of rumors regarding a pending sale, on Friday we got confirmation that Norton Motorcycles has been sold to TVS Motors, the third-largest two-wheeled manufacturer in India, with a price tag of $20 million.

If you have had your eye on a Norton V4 superbike recently, you might not have to wait as long for it to arrive, as the British marque has secured £3 million from the Santander Corporate & Commercial bank.

The debt investment will allow Norton to triple its production rate on the V4 SS and V4 RR models, and also allow for the company to hire 40 new employees for the job. Additionally, according to Norton this will allow the company to increase its production volume to 1,500 motorcycles per year.

More news from Norton, as the British firm has begun track-testing its V4 road race bike, in preparation of the 2012 Isle of Man TT. Focusing on the bike’s handling, Norton has been working hand-in-hand with Öhlins and Dunlop developing the bike’s chassis. The trio has devised the highly sophisticated “165 mph no hands” test, which supposedly checks the stability of the bike, though we imagine Health & Safety would frown upon it.

With the bike’s Aprilia RSV4 motor putting out 195hp at the crank, and with the total race package weighing 419 lbs (195 kg) when it is sopping wet, the Spondon-framed Norton may not be exactly what fans of the famous marques were hoping for after seeing the very appealing Norton NRV 588, though it does seem to be a potent package.